The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1907-03-02
WHY SALT
LAKE is SALT
Never Had Outlet
to the Ocean.

translation made Tor The Literary Digcst.l
All rivers take up salts from the soil,
and so all lakes are salt; but in So
called fresh-water lakes the water is
changing all the time, and so the salt,
which Is In very minute amounts, does
not accumulate When there Is no
outlet, the water leaves the lake only
by evaporation, and the salt remains,
slowly concentrating through the
years. In an article on the Great Salt
Lake of Utah, IN Cosmos PARIS, Paul
Combes brings out this fact clearly
aud shows the fals,ty Of some former
ideas regarding the origin of salt in.
land seas. After describing the great
western basin, In which Salt Lake lies,
and its numerous similar, but smaller,
bodies Of water, he goes on to sal
ITO explain the existence OF these
numerous salt lakes, some naturalists
have asserted that the great western
basin was formerly occupied by the
sea and that it was elevated gradually
TO its prcsen, altitude
"This hypothesis isabsolu,ely gratu-
jtous and useless. Geog.
raphers confound, under the general
name OF lakes the results OF two
essentially distinct photographic phe-
nomena, which give rise ON the one
lnl
other to salt lakes.
"Fresh.water lakes are always only
expansions Of rivers, due to the par.
ticular typographical con6guration of
a valley. They are all characterized
by the fact that the water that they
receive runs out, either continuously
or internationally, and that the chem
Ical constitution Of their water re-
mains constantly the same as that Of
the streams and rivers Of the same
region.
"Salt lakes, on the other hand, are
always closed basins, without outlet,
and their water is removed only by
surface evaporation. These facts be-
Ing well understood, We see at once
why the former lakes contain fresh
water and the others salt water.
Water is natures great solvent.
Hardly a single substance, simple or
compound, escapes Its dissolving ac''
tion. Consequently, the water that
flows over the earths surface or in It's
depths contains constantly in solution
substances that finally accumulate In
the great common reservoir, the ocean,
whose mass, removed only by evapora-
tion, becomes more and more charged
with saline matter"
Applying these principles TO the
great western basin, Tie writer notes
that vast fresh.water lake once occu-
pied this whole region has been sub.
jected TO alternate depression and ele.
walton, and there came time when
both outlets were closed, after which
the water became first brackish, little
by little, aud then salt, The author
goes on:
"Of all the lacustrine basins, with.
out outlet, that occupy this region,
the most remarkable is the Great Sall
Lake. While sea- water has
ordinarily only to per cent OF salt,
the water OF Great Salt Lake has 20
per cent. But besides this,
there IL popularity which, all con.
sideratlons OF physical geography
aside, would suffice to negative the
hypothesis Of an ancient communioa.
tion between this lake and the sea
"In fact, although the water Is salt,
IL Is far from having the same compo.
sition as that of the ocean, In the
latter, sodium Chord common SALT
prevails; In the former, sodium sulfate
lGlauber's salts,)
sire salt crystals that are deposit
ed spontaneously on The shores Of.