314 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



would be left. Where a region of the size of the Great Basin is concerned we must 

 look for agencies of a more general character. Others explain the disappearance of 

 the water by subterranean outlets. Such outlets may exist in some instances, but it 

 is impossible to assume a subterranean outlet for every sinking creek or river, espe- 

 cially for those nearer to the center of the district. The sinks of all the rivers have 

 bad water in consequence of an accumulation of salts; and the water of Salt Lake is 

 even a concentrated brine, notwithstanding the continual affluence of large volumes ol 

 fresh water by the Jordan, Bear River, Weber River, and others. If there was an out- 

 let, the salt water would be carried off, and the lake would become a fresh-water lake. 

 No such suppositions are required to explain the subsidence of the waters since 

 the beginning of the present era. We only need to examine into the natural course 

 of events. By applying the physical laws, we find that it is all the consequence of the 

 geographical situation, and the topographical features of the country. Evaporation is 

 the great agency which produces so startling effects. 



from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the level of the ocean, and surrounded by mountain-ranges 



climate of the 

 allowance for ; 

 an adequate re 



effects of it will gradually begin to show themselves. The depth of the waters will 

 diminish inch bv inch and foot by foot; the shallowest spots will become dry, but 

 still the country 'around will be sufficiently supplied with moisture, and capable of sus- 

 taining, vigorously, vegetable and animal life. Such seems to have been the condition 

 while human beings lived on this continent. Traditions point to the country around 

 these seas as the home of powerful tribes, which afterward, as the country became more 

 and more inhospitable, emigrated to the south. The remains of ancient towns in New 

 Mexico and Southeastern Utah, of the origin of which, and of the time when they were 

 inhabited, the present generation has no knowledge, seem to indicate a more prosper- 

 ous condition of the country in former times. It seems also to be an established fact, 

 that then a much more vigorous vegetation existed in some of the central portions of 

 the continent, the remains of which are still found where now onlv a stunted growth 



