A Shrinking Lake

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12480, 17 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Shrinking Lake

The Great Salt Lake, in the State of Utah, like other inland waters of great extent, is shrinking. An interesting article on the subject appears in " Chambers's Journal" for July. Salt Lnke is, in its extreme limits, 75 miles long by 50 miles wide, and has an area of 2,000 square miles. Its principal source of supply is the Jordan. During the season when rainfall is prevalent several creeks ranging from 30ft to 75ft in width and from lft to sft in depth also empty into the lake. It has 110 visible outlet. Tables of its rise and fall which have been prepared since 1863 show that the last thirty-five years the lake lias fallen at an average rate of one foot in every three years. The change has brought about some curious conditions. JCear the shores the water is so shallow that there are places where a man may wade out from the beach for over a mile, "yet will not be immersed up to his shoulders. The Great Rait Lake is a very popular resort with bathers, for the reason that it is impossible for any person to drown unless he should deliberately place his head under the surface or tie a weight

to his feet. The bather can float upon tllu water, iving n:i his back or chest, anil keep his head* entirely above llio sin face- with 110. effort of the arms 01 legs. He can also lie upon his back, keeping hit legs down to the knees out of the water, and bnth of the forearms.

As the lake leiedes, its bottom is shown I to be composed of a heavy crust of salt, which is almost puie, lying upon qyitratum which consists principally W*buii<T llio most striking indication of-the rapidity with which the lake is receding is the jUescnt location of the principal bathing pavilion. This, constructed in 1893, forms one of the most elaborate pleasure resorts of the United States, for it comprises not only bathing houses, but a music-hall and an hotel. When it was built the 'edifice rested upon thousands of wooden posts driven into the lake no less than four miles from the shore. To-dav the pavilion is half a mile from the water's edge, and bathers must go a mile from the houses before they can reach a depth of water sufficient to conipletedy immerse themselves.

The increase in the quantity of water which enters the lake at a rainy season at times does not increase its depth, and the records show that actually it has sometimes fallen immediately after the Jordan and the other streams have contributed a larger* volume than usual. The curious nature of the bottom is indicated by the attempt to build a railroad across the lake, which has been in progress for the last two yeais. In places near the centre the engineers have discovered what appear to be enormous beds of quicksand or of mite, into which the longest posts cannot bo driven to a firm foundation. There are spots where material has been thrown almost daily for over a year without finding solid bottom. The railroad engineers have a theory that the depressions which it seems impossible to fill are at the entrance of an underground river, so that as fast i\n the rock is thrown in the current carries it away, and that this outflow is steadily increasing each year, causing the decrease in depth. Near what is called Antelope Island is another indication that a subterranean opening exists. Frequently the waters near the Island are so violently disturbed that people in the vicinity call this place the " maelstrom," and carefully avoid it when on the lake in boats.

Tlic quantity of salt held in solution is bo great tn.it it if) dangerouH for anyone to swallow even a mouthful of the water, an it is liable to cause strangulation. Several deaths from this cause have ensued among persons who have ventured into the late.