GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 233 



not a mere sink or marsh, being surrounded by a low growth of bushes. 

 This would indicate that its waters are salt. The little streams that 

 flow down the western slope of the range, (improperly represented iu 

 most maps as flowing east through the monutains,) and sink in the 

 plains during the summer and autumn, probably reach the lake, by one 

 or two channels, in the early part of the season, when fullest, as their 

 general course, after reaching the x)lain, is known to be to the northwest. 

 From Weber River to the creek that flows into Salt Lake City, about 

 thirty miles iu a direct line, only two or three small rills are to be seen ; 

 but from the latter to the south end of Utah Lake some ten or twelve 

 moderately sized creeks flow down from the Wahsatch Eange, a list and 

 description of which can be seen in my former report. The range on 

 the west side of Jordan and Utah Valleys gives rise to none worthy of 

 note, two little rills from the Oquirrh Mountains being all I saw. 



GREAT SALT LAKE. 



Although its waters are strongly saline and brackish, unfit for use to 

 man or beast, and its depths, so far as known, undisturbed by finny 

 tribes, yet the Great Salt Lake is the chief object of interest in the 

 physical geography of the basin. Its dark-looking, (though really trans- 

 l>arent,) heavy waters when not broken into rugged waves by storms, 

 resting quietly, its surface reflects the shadows of the ranges that rise up 

 on either hand, giving the scene a look of quiet solitude that all the hum 

 of business along its shore is unable to dispel. The dark-brown wall of 

 the Wahsatch, until the rising sun has reached its zenith, sends down 

 a heavy shadow which adds intensity to this feeling. This perpetual 

 somberness, it would seem, must, to a greater or less degree, impress 

 itself upon the mind of the resident who makes the rural districts 

 long his home. One thing which adds to this somewhat peculiar som- 

 berness is the clear, transparent atmosphere, which renders Aasion tele- 

 scoi)ic, bringing the mountain-walls close around us. 



Although the shores of the lake have been inhabited for twenty years, 

 and numerous scientific travelers and parties have traversed this region, 

 and the great railway, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, passes along its 

 margin, yet little is known in regard to it more than its mere outline as 

 originally mapped by Captain Stansbury. Its western coast is known 

 to the public only through the interesting narrative of Captain Stans- 

 bury ; and although some analyses of its waters have been made, yet 

 comparisons from different parts and different depths have so far been 

 entirely neglected, and up to this hour little or almost nothing can be 

 stated positively in regard to animal life in its waters. Numerous 

 species of small fishes of Articulata and Mollusca are to be found in the 

 streams that flow into it, and traced to its very margin ; but how far 

 into the lake these extend is not known. That ducks and other water- 

 flowls gather food along its shore I know from personal observation. I 

 have also seen Bear Eiver Bay almost covered with gulls; and Stans- 

 bury brings this fact prominently forward in one of his figures of Gun- 

 nison Island, which lies on the western side at a distance from the influx 

 of fresh water. Although Captain Stansbury thinks these birds obtain 

 their food entirely from the fresh- water streams, yet he speaks of finding 

 a blind pelican in a "sleek and comfortable condition." Although 

 these birds may congregate here for the purpose of rearing their young, 

 yet this seems scarcely adequate to account for the presence of such 

 numbers. The only analysis of the waters. of the lake that I am 

 acquainted with is that made by Dr. Gale and recorded in Captain 



