Year: 1863

GREAT SALT LAKE.


o


Among the great natural curiosities Of
North America, the great saline body Of
water in Utah Territory, known as Great
Salt Lake, stands in the first order. The
lake itself is not individually so great a
curiosity as when viewed in connection
with surrounding correlative indications,
which give US combination OF natural
wonders truly astounding. The water
marks show that the lake is now a mere
remnant Of what was once of the mighty
water collections Of the earth-perhaps Of
a body Of water that spreads itself thro'-
out the whole Utah basin. Provo Lake,
body OF water, distant perhaps seventy-Gve
miles from the great lake, is surrounded
by indications ofa like character, that di-
rectIy point to an early period when its
individuality was lost within the limits of
a nighty sea that absorbed both itselfand
Great Salt Lake. Along the base Of the
mountain walls of the valley, if we may
so term the limits orthe basin, are distinct
water marks of various elevations. They
are clearly discernaJle at distance of
twenty-five miles the more elevated order
being from seventy-fye to one hundred
feet above the level of the valley. They
are almost conclusive evidence that q
great sea once existed in Utah Valley,
whose breakers have left the marks of
their power indented upon the rocky
front oftheir mountain confines, as mon
ument OF their power. The different ele-
Yations of the water marks show the grad
ual deCination Of this sea from a body Of
water, covering, may be, tens of thousands
of square miles, to the present salinous
body OF about sixty miles in length and
forty or fifty in breadth. This presump-
ton is strengthened by the existence,
throughout the entire valley, of acquatile
deposits, such as shells, petriiied fishes
water-worn rocks, etc. Upon this theory,
the inference may be drawn that Great
Salt Lake is gradually diminishing but
this is not the case it is now reduced to
a basis of fixed causes which will give it
perpetuIy in its present extent The
moisture Of the atmosphere Of these lati-
tudes is sufficient to always keep it sup
piled with uniform quantity Of water
The melting snow of the mountains sWellS
the river in the spring and summer that
empty into it, and when this melting is
prevented by the GOODNESS of the fall and
winter, those :ivers fall, and by evapora.
ton the lake rapidly declines the evapo-
ration carrying of more water t!ran the
streams deposit. 1t is in this declining
condition that coarse salt is obtained from
the beach Of the lake in quantities al in tn
it1sm. Now, so long as the meteorological
system prevails, the lake must continue
the same as now.


No theory is settled upon by scientific
men as to the cause of the salty nature of
the lake, We have an opinion of our own
which we believe to be rational. The riv-
ers emptying into it--Canaan, Jordan,
Webber, Malade, and humorous smaller
streams-head in the mountains, where
they are supplied by myriads of mountain
brooks, some of which undoubtedly have
their source in salt springs. Those brooks
impregnate the great water-carriers of the
lake With salt--to so small an extent,
though it be, that it is not perceptible to
the taste and they carry it into the lake
where it must forever remain aud aCcumu-
late, as evaporation increases the proper
ton ct salt to the water. The salt may
have been carried to the lake over hun
dred miles, and it has perhaps been accu-
mulating there for thousands of years -
and thus it must continue to accumulate
through all time, if the supply should be
inexhauslible.


The volcanic indications surrounding
the lake are peculiarly IMPRESSIVE, and
could well he made the subject of the ma
tural philosophers study. The whole
face Of the country appears TO have passed
through caloric influences of the intensest
character. Enormous rocks fringe its
margin, which are charred as black as eb-
ony from the operation Of heat, and their
fragmentary condition bespeak the mighty
conyulsions which they passed through
Near the lakes centre there is quite q
large island, upon which these volcanic
indications arc equally emphntic. This
island is very fertile, and is owned by the
Church, which institution holds it for the
exclusive purpose of grazing. All the
stock which comes into the Iithing Office
all MormOns are compelled TO pay one
tenth ofeverything OF that they make OF raise
to the Church-are taken to this island,
and there must be thousands Of head up
on it, 1t is reached by small sailing YES
sells. So extremely salt is the water of
Salt Lake that piscatory life is impossible.
Its average depth is Fifty feet. Portland
(OrGgon) NetOs.


B65"A Democratic contemporary
complains that whenever an Abolition
traitor comes to his place to mako a
speech he invariably begins by inform
ing the audience that he has been a
Democrat We suppose the scoun-
drel does that to make it appear that
some time in his life he has been in
good company. Though he dies, he
| is not destitute of an ambition 10 ap-