THE SCOTTISH

GEOGRAPHICAL

MAGAZINE.

THE GREAT SALT LAKE

By Professor JAMES E. TALMAGE, PH.D., F.R.S.E., etc.

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

THE Great Salt Lake is a body of natural brine occupying the main depression within the Salt Lake valley in the north-central part of the State of Utah.

From the earliest announcements of its existence the lake has been an object of attraction to scientist and layman alike; and its claims to popular notice have increased with the passing years. At the present time the interest with which it is regarded is greater than usual owing to a surprisingly rapid shrinkage during the past two years, and to the many unfounded prognostications that have appeared in print telling of the certain disappearance of the lake within a few decades.

The earliest accounts accepted as having reference to the Great Salt Lake and to the peculiar properties of its waters date from 1689, when Baron La Hontan, a distinguished French traveller and explorer, learned from the Indian tribes of the Mississippi valley the story of a great salt sea lying high amid the solitudes of the western mountains. La Hontan published an account of these traditions, and the first English version of his narrative appeared in 1735. The water-body described to him by the copper-coloured aborigines may or may not have been the Great Salt Lake; but as such it is usually regarded.

From 1776, however, dates more reliable information. In that year Padre Escalante, a Spanish official and explorer, followed the Provo river from its upper parts to its termination in Utah lake, situated in the valley immediately south of that of the Great Salt Lake. From the Indian tribes who claimed as their particular domain the basin of the

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Provo (by Escalante named Purisima river), and who were specifically known as the Timpanogotzis, the explorer learned of a lake covering many leagues with water extremely noxious and salty, lying in the valley northward. Escalante appears to have placed little credence in the Indians' stories, or else he considered the lake as of small importance; for, though but a day's travel would have brought him within sight of the salty sea, he contented himself with the red men's account, and made no attempt to confirm or disprove the same.1

As to the first white man who visited and really discovered the Great Salt Lake, perhaps the truth may never be known. Prior to 1833 numerous traders and trappers are said to have reached the shores; among them are Miller of the Astor Company; Provost (after whom Provo city, the capital of Utah county, has been named); Colonel James Bridger, for whom strong claims of the honours of discovery are made; and Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville.

That the last-named reached the lake and prosecuted extended explorations is beyond doubt. He wrote much by way of description, and his record has proved of value. Washington Irving's account, published under the title, Adventures of Captain Bonneville, has found a place in the treasury of American literature. Many attempts have been made to name the lake after Captain Bonneville; Washington Irving strove to accomplish this, and the Captain himself threw aside his native modesty and aggressively laid claim to the honour; but the appropriateness of the name, Great Salt Lake, was too plainly apparent to be disregarded. In 1876, however, Grove Karl Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey, gave the name Lake Bonneville to the ancient sea of which the Great Salt Lake is the lineal descendant.

Bridger claimed to have followed the Bear river to its mouth, and to have navigated the briny waters of the lake, in settlement of a wager as to the course and termination of the river named. Then in 1843, a decade or more after the time of Bonneville's expedition, John C. Fremont, brevet-captain U.S. Army, sighted the lake from an elevation in Weber county on the north, and regarded himself as the first white man to gaze upon this mountain-girt sea. In his description he likened himself to Bilboa discovering the Pacific. Fremont reached the lake and explored some portions by the aid of row-boats; but he was by no means the first to navigate its waters. Fremont's visit was made in connection with a government expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and his report,2 published by the United States Government, is perhaps the earliest reliable record of the physical conditions of the region.

In 1850 Captain Howard Stansbury, U.S. Army, at the head of a government expedition, completed a course of valuable work, comprising

1 A translation of parts of the original manuscript journal of Padre Escalante, describing his visit to the Provo river and Utah lake in 1776, appears in Captain J. H. Simpson's report of Explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah, etc., issued from the Government Printing Office, Washington, 1876. The translation is that by Philip Harry.

2 Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the years 1843-44, by Brevet-Captain J. C. Fremont. Washington, 1845,

a partial survey of the lake and contiguous region, determination of depth, density, and composition of the water, and a careful mapping of the shore line.1

Prominent among the investigators who have contributed to our knowledge of the modern lake is Grove Karl Gilbert, who, in connection with the work of the United States Geological Survey, has made a masterly study of the water-body itself, more particularly, however, in relation to its past history.2

During the period of human occupancy the lake region has been the subject of much individual study, and reliable information has been placed on record; though the contributions of this class are desultory and scattered, and most of them are practically inaccessible. Unfortunately there is no reliable work within general reach treating this remarkable water-body with the fulness its importance deserves; and, in consequence, many errors have found their way into the unauthentic and popular literature of the subject. Cyclopedia articles and even text-book paragraphs show persistent citations of the lake water composition based on analyses made half a century ago; and the fiction that no living thing can exist in the lake brine is reiterated in the face of sure knowledge to the contrary.

The Great Salt Lake of the present day appears as an irregular water-body, lying with its greatest length approximately north-west and south-east. It fills the lowest parts of the Salt Lake valley, washes the margin of the Great American Desert on the west, and is confined by the parallels 111.8° and 113-2° longitude west from Greenwich, and by the lines 40.7° and 41.8° north latitude. It is the largest inland waterbody within the confines of the United States west of the Mississippi valley. Subject as it is to great fluctuations in volume owing to the varying relation of supply by precipitation to loss by evaporation, and possessing but small depth with its marginal portions strikingly shallow, its surface area is of necessity inconstant. In consequence, the recorded dimensions vary greatly. The figures now generally accepted are as follow:-length, 75 miles; maximum width, 50 miles; area, 2125 square miles. It is practically certain that these data are excessive, but as no complete survey of the lake has been reported since 1869, the present dimensions cannot be given with assured accuracy. The existing shore line is near that of 1850, when, according to Stansbury's map, the lake covered but 1750 square miles.

The valley floor, on the lowest part of which the lake rests, is conspicuously flat, so that a slight fall of the water level gives rise to what appears to be a disproportionately great recession, and a rise of a few feet would result in flooding the valley nearly to the Wasatch bench

1 Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, etc., by Howard Stansbury, Capt. Corps Topographical Engineers, U.S.A. Philadelphia, 1852. 2 Monographs of the U.S. Geological Survey, vol. 1.-Lake Bonneville, by Grove Karl Gilbert. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1890.

3 For a brief and generally popular treatment see The Great Salt Lake, Present and Past, by James E. Talmage. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1900.

lands, and in the resubmergence of a considerable part of the Great American Desert.

A bold peninsula, known as the Promontory, projects into the lake about midway along its north-eastern shore. This is of true mountain. structure, and, geologically considered, is part of a range the continuation of which appears in Fremont and Antelope islands, and, beyond the southern extremity of the lake in the Oquirrh mountains. Antelope island is the largest of the land masses rising from the lake; next in order of size is Stansbury island, and among the smaller masses are Fremont, Carrington, Gunnison, Dolphin, Mud, and Hat islands, and Strong's Knob.

In the early days of the settlement of Utah, Antelope and Stansbury islands were readily accessible by fording, and were utilised as herd grounds; later the lake rose, and the crossing had to be effected by boats. For two years past boats have been again unnecessary; and during the last few months the writer has repeatedly crossed from the mainland to the islands, sometimes on horseback, at other times in a light carriage, nowhere encountering water more than eight inches in depth. The route of such crossings lay over the bars or spits; but on either side of the shallows fording was practicable with a depth not exceeding three feet.

The river supply of the lake is all derived from the eastern side, and consists of a partial drainage from the Wasatch and Uinta mountains. From the western shore stretches the American desert with a few low ranges of hills, from which no permanent streams lead lakeward. Of the rivers that feed the lake, the first in importance is the Jordan, which brings down the overflow from Utah lake; next to this are the Weber and Bear rivers. Numerous smaller streams, locally known as creeks, render some contributions during the flood season of spring; but as the irrigation period progresses all the creek water is taken from its natural courses to be spread over the arable area.

Under conditions prevalent in more humid regions, such a diverting of the water from the stream courses would cause but a temporary cessation of the lake supply, for in time the land would become saturated, and the water would find a way to its natural reservoir through surface or subterranean springs. In the particularly arid region covered by the Great Basin, however, such a saturation appears eminently improbable, for the loss by surface evaporation has ever kept pace with the supply. A few small springs have been discovered emerging on the lake bed, or sending insignificant driblets from their in-shore mouths. It is interesting to note that the water of such springs is as a rule not strongly saline, though one of the springs supplies a positive brine, the salt content being probably derived from saliferous beds laid down in earlier stages of lake history.

The "Mormon" pioneers, who in 1847 were the first to push their way into these then desert wastes in search of a permanent home, have described the scene presented by this lake in the wilderness as forbidding in the extreme. They saw a seemingly sterile valley, walled in by mountains on all sides but one, the lowest portion occupied by a lake of