THE IRRIGATION AGE. 113 



instead of nourishing it. Should the fresh waters of Utah Lake, how- 

 ever, be evaporated or disappear into the earth, thousands of square 

 miles would cease to be habitable. 



A decade ago a sequence of dry winters so decreased the volume 

 of the snow-fed mountain streams which are tributary to Utah Lake 

 that State and national authorities were seriously alarmed. The out- 

 come was that the Utah Lake region was made a government reserva- 

 tion, an act which has kept irrigation companies from drawing water 

 either directly from it or from its feeders. In itself it has become a 

 mighty reservoir, the Jordan performing the functions of a canal in 

 carrying its Eden-making flow through the valley. The tapping of 

 the Jordan all along its course, while fatal to the Great Salt Lake, 

 does no harm to Utah Lake. As long as the streams flowing into the 

 latter are not attacked, the influence which is lowering the former will 

 not directly affect the fresh water body. 



Nevertheless, the cause which makes a scarcity of water through- 

 out northwestern Utah, forcing the dwellers to infringe upon the 

 Great Salt Lake supply, is one which has an effect upon every lake 

 and river. From the proximity of snow-capped mountains it would 

 seem that mountain streams would furnish all the water necessary for 

 irrigation. The snow, however, does not melt until the season of crop- 

 planting is past, and when the freshets come down they frequently do 

 more damage than good. The average of snowfall, too, is less upon 

 the Wahsatch Mountains than upon either the Colorado or Wyoming 

 ranges. 



Once the rivers have fonnd their way into either Utah or Great 

 Salt Lake, or on the way thither have spread out into basins, the 

 assailing influence is that of evaporation. The Great Salt Lake is 

 4,200 feet above sea level, and its southern feeder lake is 100 feet 

 higher. At this altitude the evaporation is something enormous even 

 with fresh water, while the action of the salt increases the dissolution 

 a hundred fold. If water could be preserved, once it has been directed 

 to a reservoir, Great Salt Lake might hold its expanse of 1870 then 

 2,360 square miles- for unnumbered years to come. 



Yet its eventual fate would be unchanged, for it is decreed that 

 the Great Salt Lake is not to endure upon the face of the earth. On 

 the mountains which rise from its shores it has written the story of its 

 fall of 1,000 feet. Although it is given to no one to know the number 

 of centuries which have witnessed the dwarfing process, the f.ict itself 

 has been made so plain that he who gazes may be enlightened. 



The successive steps of the descent from mightiness to compara- 

 tive lowliness are graven on the ranges of mountains, which are within 

 sight of the lake on three sides. The fronts of some of the mountains 

 have the appearance of having been formed by piling truncated pyra- 

 mids, one on top of the other. The different shore lines of the pa^t 



