^12 POOLE ON THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT. 



has been shown by comparing the records of a series of years that 

 the level of the great lake varies. 



From the accounts of the early settlers, it appears that the 

 amount of rain-fall largely increased from the time of their first 

 arrival until a year or two ago, when a retrograde decade commen- 

 ced. They affirm, that during that period the level of the Great 

 Salt Lake rose as much as nine feet, above the height it occupied 

 at the time of their first advent into the valley ; and also that in 

 consequence of tlje increased precipitation the waters of the lake 

 became less saline, in the proportion of 3 to 7 — a proportion deter- 

 mined by the quantity of water required to yield the same amount 

 of salt in the pans. As a further confirmation of their statement, 

 they say that the islands in the southern end of the lake could, in 

 early days, be reached on horseback, while now they can only be 

 gained by boats. 



A very interesting *' tide guage " is to be seen, in a mound on 

 the edge of the lake opposite the village of Bountiful. At the 

 present day only the top of the mound is above water, but ten years 

 ago the edge of the lake was so far from it that a settler thought 

 the surrounding land could be suflliciently drained, and otherwise 

 prepared for crops. He consequently began to cut drains and 

 break up the soil by ploughing and deep trenching, hoping in three 

 years or so, to find the surface sufficiently washed from salts to 

 allow of his planting wheat and corn. His hopes were disappoint- 

 ed, but in ploughing over the top of the mound, he turned up 

 fragments of rude pottery, and a stone similar in shape to the 

 hollowed stones now used by the Arapahoes and other maize- 

 growing Indians of the present day to bruise their corn. Similar 

 mounds were cut open in building the Utah Central Railroad 

 through the valley. It would therefore seem that when the seden- 

 tary tribes of Indians, who inhabited the valley previous to the 

 incursion of the Piutes and other predatory tribes, who occupied 

 it on the arrival of the whites, the level of the lake was even 

 lower than at the time when the Mormons first settled the country. 

 That the Salt Lake is not altogether lifeless has been recently 

 proved by the discovery of a crustacean — Artemia salina — in its 



