'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎10] (29/258)

x proceedings oe the society.
Classed under two divisions-those above, and those beneath the level of
the ocean, and the first we must note of the first class are those of America,
t he most notable being that of the Great Salt Lake of the Eocky Mountains,
which, as will by and bye 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 Govern
ment in 1847, by an expedition under Fremont, which seems to have been mainly
one of general inspection : a second expedition under Captain Stansbury, U. S
Engineers,* laid down a base of six miles near the lake, and made an elaborate and
careful trigonometrical survey of the whole district. It is situated betwixt the
42nd and 43rd parallels,-about the 115th western meridian,—in the bosom of the
Rocky Mountains, betwixt the Missouri and the Pacific. Vast inhospitable
tracks of country prevail to the North and South of it : on the east, for the
space of nearly 1,000 miles, are the trackless and barren steppes of the Rocky
Mountains—a similar extent of salt desert bordering it to tlio 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 Yalley of the Salt Lake
is about 4,000 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 precipices 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 appearance the margins of a former sea, which had
subsided by intervals, and left behind it the marks where it had for a time remain
ed 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 basin, 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 Jor
dan 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 600 to 1,000
feet, Antelope Island rising to the height of 3,000 feet ; eminences of similar form
and size, which had been islands before the waters shrunk within their present
dimensions, being scattered about over the adjoining plains. The waters of tlm
lake contain 22 per cent, of saline matter, or about the same quantity as the
* I have not been abl« to refer to the American works themselves (they are in none of our
libraries); but take my information at second hand from the Athenceum, Oct. 1852 ; Jameson’s
Journal, iSnZ ; a.n<\ Chambers’Journal, 1S55. A good outline of the Salt Lake is reserved
for future works on physical geography.