Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-06-18
UTAH
By J. II. Paul.
Great Salt lake is America S !

| Y-y ftf brCdl odlI lake is AnleilCd >
| dead sea. Its strange story is
| partly shrouded in mystery. II
is seven times larger and con-
| tains more salt than Palestlnes Dead
sea. whose waters roll over the sites OF
ancient sodom andGomorrah Like that
famous sea, this lake receives the
waters OF a sea of Galilee"-Utah
lake--through the River Jordan; and
the two areas are strikingly similar,
Salt lake lies in a mere corner of the
basin. yet 1t covers 200 square miles:
in u depression. yet 1900 feet abovs
the ocean. While the Atlantic, with 5
per cent of solid matter, is said to be
salty, the lake water averages nearly 20
per cent Of solid matter in solution.
over 5000, 900 900 tons of salt and 49,
100000 tons OF the sulphides Of soda aie
dissolved in its clear sparkling brine.
The ocean waters TEEN with large and
| varied as we'll as with minute forms of
| life; but the lake contains no fish or
larger species. and only three minute
forms OF living things. Tiny brine
shrimps. needle-like. and about one
quarter of an inch long, are nus
merous when we look for them in sum-
mer; also a small fly that lives upon
the surface and feeds upon minute, yell
lowish globules (sea weeds), in the
shrimps. Sea gulls, abundant on its
waters, hatch their young in shallow
| nests in the sands. and with pelicans
| and cranes make of some of the islands
| perfect rookeries, where the birds con-
| gregate in thousands. 1t is AN odd ex-
| perionce TO go among their nests in
| summer. The young gulls, resembling
fluffy balls of white and yellow down.
| run about so thick that 1t Is difficult to
avoid stepping on them, while the par
| ent birds circle above your head In
great numbers, filling the air with
their warning cries.
VARIATIONS IN LEVEL.
The lake is shallow with an average
depth of IL feet. The thirsty atmos-
phere takes from it's surface half It's
depth, from 90 to so inches annually,
as compared with % inches from the
surface of Lake michigan. The water
was very low in 1850, but rose to its
highest level in 1873, Then 1t sank
till about 1906 II reached its lowest
point Since that time 1t has been
rising again. These changes show what
would happen II the climate became
much more moist than II Is now. The
water would become fresher, for IN 1850
d. contained % per cent OF solid mhtter
In 1919, 10 per cent. and in 1901, % per
cent II the climate continued moist
for ages the lake would I'll the eastern
valley, as II once did. Indeed the
whole of the great basin was once oc-
cuped by an inland sea more or less
separated into two parts by mountains
near It's center. Into this inland sea.
the rivers. floods and glaciers carried
vast quantities of earth. forming deltas
now left high and dry as benches near
Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake city. Ameri-
can Fork, Provo and Spanish Fork.
still more anciently the climate
GOLD thai 1aI an
In the mountains tin 1t filled the can
yons and slowly flowed into the water
as rivers OF ice. or glaciers. Each Ice
stream acted Ike q great plow, which
cut out It's channel by wearing into the
rock of the canyon bed. carrying the
ground up rock soil into the valleys The
marks OF ancient Ice -plows are still q
be seen IN many OF the canyons. How
long the ice age continued we do not
know The lake must have been fresh
, water after II had made an outlet, but
when the climate grew warm and dry
II chronk again to small salty lake
LAKE BONNEVILLE.
Have YOU ever seen, on the western
slopes OF the Wasatch mountains any
of tho long parallel lines rising like
steps from the bench land upon tho
mountain side? They were made by
wster--by the waves OF n lake that
|
where each terrace now Is. Then thf
water must have risen or fallen In leve
go rapidly for a timo that no nov
terrace was formed. Then, standing
al another level for many years, IL
suridce waves would again cut into
the mountain. making another terrace
How, then, can we say just how larg,
this lake vase Since these terraces arr
found ON the Basin ranges how far must
the original lake have extended? IN
" fact, II filled the great basin. COVERING
IS 1900 square miles and must have been
about Loo feet deep. So cool ana
moist was the climate I'm the ice age
that The water spread over nearly all Of
I Nevada, Finally Il ron over at tho
70 north The present PoTneuf Snak'
aud Columbia rivers carried its Water'
20 the Pacific tin Il was partly drained
r partly filled with soi from the noun.
y tains. An that was LETT ~ II was III,
q salt lake and smaller bodies of watcr
Those that had no outlet became salt
because the minerals did not eyaporat,
u with the water. but Kept increasing
70 boil away bucketful OF ordinary
n water, TIL only a pint remains, and II
win he salty. This explains the orlgr
OF sail In lakes that have no outlet
a Before the great lake dried up, II sep
4 arated into two bodies of water, th'