lice in
Wonderland, till there was absolutely nothing left of it; Lake
Bonneville shrank till it attained the diminished size of the existing
Great Salt Lake. Terrace after terrace, running in long parallel lines
on the sides of the Wahsatch Mountains around, mark the various levels
at which it rested for awhile on its gradual downward course. It is
still falling indeed; and the plain around is being gradually uncovered,
forming the white salt-encrusted shore with which all visitors to the
Mormon city are so familiar.

But why should the water have become briny? Why should the evaporation
of an old Superior produce at last a Great Salt Lake? Well, there is a
small quantity of salt in solution even in the freshest of lakes and
ponds, brought down to them by the streams or rivers; and, as the water
of the hypothetical Lake Bonneville slowly evaporated, the salt and
other mineral constituents remained behind. Thus the solution grew
constantly more and more concentrated, till at the present day it is
extremely saline. Professor Geikie (to whose works the present paper is
much indebted) found that he floated on the water in spite of himself;
and the under sides of the steps at the bathing-places are all encrusted
with short stalactites of salt, produced from the drip of the bathers as
they leave the water. The mineral constituents, however, differ
considerably in their proportions from those found in true salt lakes of
marine origin; and the point at which the salt is thrown down is still
far from having been reached. Great Salt Lake must simmer in the sun for
many centuries yet before the point arrives at which (as cooks say) it
begins to settle.

That is the way in which deposits of salt are being now produced on the
world's surface, in preparation for that man of the future who, as we
learn from a duly constituted authority, is to be hairless, toothless,
web-footed, and far too respectable ever to be funny. Man of the present
derives his existing salt-supply chiefly from beds of rock-salt
similarly laid down against his expected appearance some hundred
thousand aeons or so ago. (An aeon is a very convenient geological unit
indeed to reckon by; as nobody has any idea how long it is, they can't
carp at you for a matter of an aeon or two one way or the other.)
Rock-salt is found in most parts of the world, in beds of very various
ages. The great Salt Range of the Punjaub is probably the earliest in
date of all salt deposit