Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake, in Utah, stretches along the western base of the Wahsatch Mountains, about 4200 feet above the sea, forming a principal drainage centre of the Great Basin (q.v.). Well-marked shore-lines on the mountains around, reaching 1000 feet higher than the present level, show that the lake had formerly a vastly greater extent; this prehistoric sea has been named Lake Bonneville. Great Salt Lake is over 80 miles long and from 20 to 32 broad, but for the most part exceedingly shallow. It contains several islands, the largest, Antelope Island, about 18 miles long. Its tributaries are the Bear, Ogden, Jordan, and Weber, the Jordan bringing the fresh waters of Lake Utah; but Great Salt Lake has no outlet save evaporation, and its clear water consequently holds at all times a considerable quantity of saline matter in solution; in 1850 the proportion was 22·4 per cent., in 1869 it was only 14·8. Between these dates the annual tribute exceeded the evaporation, and the area of the lake increased from 1700 to 2360 sq. m.; more recently, it has again been slowly receding. Several species of insects and a brine-shrimp have been found in its waters, but no fishes; large flocks of water-fowls frequent the shores. The first mention of Great Salt Lake was by the Franciscan friar Escalante in 1776, but it was first explored and described in 1843 by Fremont; for the value of Baron La Hontan's fables, see H. H. Bancroft's Utah (San Francisco, 1889). A thorough survey was made in 1849-50 by Captain Howard Stansbury, U.S.A. See SALT LAKE CITY, and UTAH.