Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1905 — GREAT SALT LAKE. [ARTICLE]

GREAT SALT LAKE.

Interest in the Gradual Subsidence. The gradual subsidence for maj.y years of the water in the Great Se It lake has been noted with interest by scientists and with apprehension by the people of the surrounding country. Islands in, the lake and the sides of mountains around* it indicate that t ie water was once some 800 feet deepjr than at present, when the maximum depth is only some forty feet. That what was once an inland sea and even now is a large lake will disappear in the not distant future is the general belief of scientists. While they are practically one in this conclusion they differ as to the causes. An article in the Scientific American gives the result of recent investigations. Tor thiry years the lake level has been failing, with only one period of rising. The rate of fall is progressive and calculations based in measurements for sixteen years indicate that the lake will be dry in about forty years at most. According to a calculation based on the present cubic contents as compared with the confer to eighteen years ago the ’Water will disappear in twenty-five years. To account for this tendency three theories are presented evaporation, irrigation and the existence of a subterranean outlet. Of course the last is pure conjecture. Evaporation would account for much of the depletion, though how much is cot known, iml'it docs not explain satisia uorily the yearly fluctuations nor the rapid rate at v. h/Ay.the water has to.nn c<l in rr.ent years. As to irrigation, the Mori’Y.ttv began tout s>ty yo.i « ago, hut i f is cnly within the las;-twenty odd yo<)i-.s that it has’he n rcso •.; t to o.i such a large scale Thera would seem to he some convection be wi *.n this fact in' .lit attendant fact that it is wulnn tins *'■ me period that the depletion of the wirer supply has been most rapid. Ti.e r< V Jon of cause and effect is not, Lcnever, iso obvr.'u< as to be ccmclasive. Whatever the cause, one elTect will be, it appears, that pec.pie Mill ah e wo! v,itr.ess the end of a great physical change that has been in progress no cue can guess how long. One of nature's marvelous mysteries will sesu disappear.—Cleveland Plain Dealer.