80 LAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



and looks not unlike branching coral. It is of many shades of red, pink, 

 and yellow, thus still further increasing its resemblance to groves of living 

 coral. The white, alkaline desert is frequently tinted by this strange 

 plant until it glows like a field of Alpine flowers. There are many other 

 interesting features to be noted by the visitor to the great desert-lake of 

 Utah, but its physical and chemical history claims our attention at this 

 time rather than its artistic setting. 



The streams flowing to the lake rise in the high mountains to the east 

 and are clear and limpid, and of such purity that only chemical ■ tests 

 reveal the presence of the mineral matter they have dissolved from the 

 rocks and soils. Several of these streams are truly rivers in volume, as 

 well as in name, and send a never-ceasing flood to the lake. Their com- 

 bined volumes average throughout the year about 10,000 cubic feet per 

 second.! 



There are a number of fissure springs about the lake, or rising beneath 

 its surface. In some instances these are hot and contain more saline 

 matter in solution than is usually found in surface streams. These con- 

 tribute a considerable quantity of the saline matter found in the waters of 

 the lake, but it is believed that the amount thus derived is less than that 

 furnished by streams from the mountains. This conclusion rests on 

 incomplete data, however, as neither the volume nor the composition of all 

 the springs is known. None of the springs sup})lying the lake, with a 

 single known exception, of small volumes, are markedly saline. The salts 

 they contain are acquired largely during the upward passage of the water 

 through the sediment of former lakes and their influence on the chemistry 

 of the present lake is more important than in the case of any other lake in 

 the same region. It is safe to conclude, however, that the comliined 

 volumes of the streams and springs now tributary to the lake, if not con- 

 centrated by evaporation, would form a water body in which no trace of 

 saline matter would be apparent to the taste. 



Analyses of the waters of Bear river, of Utah lake, from which the 

 Jordan flows, and of City creek, one of the numerous streams from 

 the west slope of the Wasatcli mountains, give an average of about 

 0.2446 part per thousand of mineral matter in solution. This may be 

 taken as the average composition of the surface stream flowing to the 

 lake. As will be noticed on referring to the average composition of 

 normal rivers previously given, the mineral matter in these streams is 

 nearly double the amount carried in the same volume of water by streams 



1 G. K. Gilbert. "Lands of the Arid Eegion," Washington, 1879, p. 72. 



