180 Salt Lake of Utah. 



to observe over what a great extent a small quantity of oil would 

 produce the effect spoken of. 



3. The Salt Lake of Utah. — Lieutenant Gunnison, of the Topo- 

 graphical Engineers, who has been employed for some time past in 

 the survey of the great basin in which the Salt Lake is situated, 

 speaks of the lake as an object of the greatest curiosity. The water 

 is about one-third salt, yielding that amount on boiling. Its den- 

 sity is considerably greater than that of the Dead Sea. One can 

 hardly get his whole body below the surface. In a sitting position, 

 the head and shoulders will remain above water, such is the strength 

 of the brine ; and, on coming to the shore, the body is covered over 

 with an incrustation of salt in fine crystals. The most surprising 

 thing about it is the fact, that, during the summer season, the lake 

 throws on shore abundance of salt ; while, in the winter season, it 

 throws up Glauber salt in large quantities. The reason of this is 

 left to the scientific to judge, and also what becomes of the enormous 

 amount of fresh water poured into it by three or four large rivers — 

 Jordan, Bear, and Weber — as there is no visible outlet. 



4. Mud Volcano near the Salt Lake Utah. — A correspondent 

 of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser gives the following description 

 of a mud volcano in the vicinity of the great Salt Lake. 



This volcano is in a plain of mud, and on the borders of the lake. 

 It is composed of mud, and covers several acres. Steam and water 

 are escaping from some half dozen apertures. The mud is raised 

 up into cones, the highest not five feet from the general surface. 

 They are terminated by tubes, some hardened and lined with crys- 

 tals of sulphur and other substances. One of the cones throws 

 steam and water ten or fifteen feet into the air. It escapes rapidly, 

 and with a sound resembling the escape of steam from the pipe of a 

 small steam-engine ; and it ejects hot and cold water at short inter- 

 vals. One caldron, some four feet across, boils up until it overflows ; 

 then sinks several feet, and again overflows. Nothing is seen but 

 a mass of foam ; the water is strongly impregnated with sal-ammo- 

 niac. There are other caldrons, from ten to twenty feet in diameter, 

 filled to within three or four feet with boiling mud, which is occa- 

 sionally thrown out in every direction. About a mile further off is 

 another collection of mud cones ; and on the opposite side, an island 

 of volcanic rocks rises to the height of fifty feet ; at the foot of it is 

 salt in sheets, strongly impregnated with sal-ammoniac ; that from 

 the lake is pure, and is used by the Californians. In the vicinity of 

 the volcano, we saw several ledges covered with pumice ; and we 

 met with it in various other places on the plains. — (This, and the 

 preceding, from the American Annual of Scientific Discovery for 

 1852.) 



5. Mount Ararat. — On Mount Ararat; by M. Abich. — The 

 Great Ararat stands to the south-east of Little Ararat ; and the two 



