WATER SUPPLY. 69 
exact, but, as it now stands, all the general features of the fluctuations are 
clearly indicated. In the accompanying diagram the horizontal spaces rep- 
resent years, and the vertical, feet. The irregular curve shows the height 
of the lake in different years. Where it is drawn as a full line the data are 
definite; the dotted portions are interpolated. 
Upon the same diagram are indicated the levels of two storm lines. 
The upper is the limit of wave action at the present time, and is 3 feet 
above the winter stage (October, 1877). It is everywhere marked by drift 
wood, and in many places by a ridge of sand. Above it there is a growth, 
on all steep shores, of sage and other bushes, but those in immediate prox- 
imity are dead, having evidently been killed by the salt spray. Below the 
line are still standing the stumps of similar bushes, and the same can be 
found 2 or 3 feet below the surface of the water. 
The lower storm line was observed by Captain Stansbury in 1850, 
and has been described to me by a number of citizens of Utah to whom it 
was familiar at that time and subsequently. Like the line now visible, it 
was marked by drift wood, and a growth of bushes, including the sage, 
extended down to it; but below it there were seen no stumps. Its position 
is now several feet under water, and it is probable that the advancing 
waves destroyed most of its features, but the vestiges of the bushy growth 
above it remain. 
The peculiarities of the two storm lines have an important bearing on 
the history of the lake. The fact that the belt of land between them sup- 
ported sage bushes shows that previous to its present submergence the lake 
had not covered it for many years. Lands washed by the brine of the 
lake become saturated with salt to such extent that even salt-loving 
plants cannot live upon them, and it is a familiar fact that the sage 
(Artemisia sempervirens) never grows in Utah upon soil so saline as to be 
unfavorable for grain. The rains of many years, and perhaps even of 
centuries, would be needed to clense land abandoned by the lake so that 
it could sustain the salt-hating bushes, and we cannot avoid the conclusion 
that the ancient storm line had been for a long period the superior limit of 
the fluctuations of the lake surface. 
To avoid misapprehension, it should be stated that the storm lines 
DAR 
