2^)6 Dr George Buist on the 



of the Rocky Mountains, which, as will by-and-by be seen, in many 

 points closely resembles the Dead Sea. The Great Salt Lake, until then 

 chiefly familiar to us by name from the Mormon settlement on its borders, 

 was first explored by the American Government in 1847, by an expedi- 

 tion under Fremont, which seems to have been mainly one of general 

 inspection. A second expedition, under Captain Stansbury, U. S. En- 

 gineers,* laid down a base of six miles near the lake, and made an ela- 

 borate and careful trigonometrical survey of the whole district. It is 

 situated betwixt the 42d and 43d parallels, — about the 115th western 

 meridian, — in the bosom of the Rocky Mountains, betwixt the Missouri 

 and the Pacific. Vast inhospitable tracts of country prevail to the north 

 and south of it ; on the east, for the space of nearly 1000 miles, are the 

 trackless and barren steppes of the Rocky Mountains — a similar extent 

 of salt desert bordering it to the west. The place where the Mormons 

 have taken up their abode is one of the most isolated and extraordinary 

 the world contains, remarkable for its beauty and fertility on the very 

 borders of the most unspeakable desolation. The Valley of the Salt Lake 

 is about 4000 feet above the level of the sea, and is about 500 miles either 

 way in extent. This space, which is enclosed by a circle of rugged pre- 

 cipices and majestic mountains, consists of great stretches of salt desert, 

 perfectly smooth and level, bearing all the marks of marine origin. Some 

 of these are from 60 to 70 miles across ; and they are separated from each 

 other by precipitous rocky eminences of great elevation. On the slopes 

 which bound the plain are a series of thirteen distinct terraces or beaches , 

 the highest of them being about 200 feet above the valley, and to all ap- 

 pearance the margins of a former sea which had subsided by intervals, 

 and left behind it the marks where it had for a time remained at rest. 

 There are many valleys and recesses amongst the Rocky Mountains with 

 terraced slopes similar to those just described, having all the appearance 

 of the basins of former seas. Within the basin, but at a much higher 

 level, besides the Great Salt Lake itself, is the fresh-water lake Utah, 

 from which flows a stream of considerable magnitude, on which the name 

 of the Jordan has been bestowed, and which, after passing the Mormon 

 settlement, discharges itself into the Salt Lake. The Salt Lake itself is 

 nearly 300 miles in circuit, including all its indentations, and is about 70 

 miles in length and 20 in breadth. It is studded with mountain islands, 

 springing up abruptly from the surface of the water to altitudes of from 

 500 to 1000 feet, Antelope Island rising to the height of 3000 feet ; emi- 

 nences of similar form and size, which had been islands before the waters 

 shrunk within their present dimensions, being scattered about over the ad- 

 joining plains. The waters of the lake contain 22 per cent, of saline matter, 

 or about the same quantity as the Dead Sea. Of this, 20 per cent, is pure 

 chloride of sodium or sea salt. It is said to throw down in summer muri- 

 ate of soda, and in winter sulphate of soda or glauber salts — a circumstance 

 that seems so strange that better evidence than we possess is requisite 

 before the fact can be accepted as established. They are so acrid as to be 

 dangerous to animal life, and even so affect and corrugate the throat when 

 swallowed that a mouthful would be fatal. They are so heavy that the 

 body floats on them without effort, about a sixth of its mass remaining 

 above the surface. The lake itself is singularly shallow ; its greatest 

 depth is 33 feet, and in some places a stiff breeze blows the water alto- 



* I have not b :en able to refer to the American works themselves (they are 

 in none of our libraries), but take my information at second hand from the 

 Athenccum, Oct. 1852 ; Jameson s Journal, 1852; and Chambers's Journal, 1853. 

 A good outline o c the Salt Lake is reserved for future works on physical geo- 

 graphy. 



