

GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES 



NEW NAMES FOR THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 



IN a communication on " Linguistic Ethnology," by Prof. Halde- 

 man, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy, the fol- 

 lowing new names are proposed, as designations for scientific pur- 

 poses of various parts of the American continent. For America north 

 of 50, Hudsonia ; from this line to the tropics, Hesperia (or Vesperia) ; 

 the tropical portion, Favonia ; from the southern tropics to 50 south, 

 Zephyria; and south of this, Magellania. 



THE GREAT SALT LAKE. 



IN 1849, Capt. Stansbury, of the Topographical Engineers, was ap- 

 pointed to make an examination of the valley of the Great Salt Lake, 

 and a hydrographic survey of that singular sheet of water. He has 

 transmitted some interesting despatches, from which extracts are made 

 by the National Intelligencer. His chief object was to make an explo- 

 ration of the west side of the lake, which has never before been done. 

 Col. Fremont, and all other explorers, have traversed the eastern 

 shore. The west was literally a terra incognita, and, so far as dis- 

 coveries had extended, was known to be the most uninviting desert in 

 America. Capt. Stansbury writes : 



" We found that the whole western shore of the lake consists of im- 

 mense level plains of soft mud, inaccessible within many miles of the 

 water's edge to the feet of mules or horses, being traversed frequently 

 by meandering rills of salt and sulphur water, which apparently sink 

 and seem to imbue and saturate the whole soil, rendering it miry and 

 treacherous. These plains are but little elevated above the present 

 level of the lake, and have, without doubt, at one time, not very long 

 since, formed a part of it ; for it is evident that a rise of but a few in- 

 ches will at once cover the greater portion of these extensive areas of 

 land with water again. I do not think I hazard much by saying, that a 

 rise of one foot in the lake would nearly, if not quite, double its present 

 area. The plains are, for the most part, entirely denuded of vegeta- 



