ful and
scenic State of Utah. Although one of the transcontinental highways of
ocean-to-ocean travel has extended its bands of steel directly across
its wide bosom for many miles, it is still a spot where mystery
lingers.

Private as well as public legends are handed down from lip to ear
rather than from page to eye. For that reason there are tales of this
wonderful salt sea to be learned only by residing in the vicinity. Its
natural moods are unlike the ocean, and its individual characteristics
would make a book.

The briny pond is but a wee thing as compared with its gigantic
dimensions in the days when its waters were sweet and had an outlet to
the north. Then its arms spread far south into Arizona, over into
Nevada and into Idaho. It was 350 miles from the northern end to the
southern, and 145 miles across from east to west. The area was 20,000
square miles. This greater lake stood 1,000 feet higher than does the
present one, although this one is 4,280 feet above the level of the
sea. Geologists have named the earlier one Bonneville, in honor of the
intrepid soldier-explorer whom Washington Irving has so well fixed in
American literature.

By some as yet unknown cataclysm a great break was made at the north
end of this inland ocean and its pent volume was poured into the canyon
of the Port Neuf toward the ravenous Snake. This reduced the level
four hundred feet, but the old beach line may still be easily noted.
Gradually this diminished body became smaller and smaller until it
reached the present stage of desiccation.

So impure is this heavy liquid that after evaporation there is a
residuum of twenty-eight pounds of solid matter in every hundred. This
is composed of salt, magnesium, and other elements carrying three
dollars of gold to the ton; the gold is not made a matter of trade or
of industry because facilities are lacking for its handling. Very
little animal life is found in this brine, and none of vegetable; in
fact, at every point where the water touches the shore vegetation
vanishes utterly. The animal life is that of a very small gnat which,
mosquito-like, lays its eggs on the surface of the water. The larvae,
when driven shoreward, collect in such quantities as to cause a
strong, unpleasant odor observable for miles to the leeward. Myriads
of seagulls here find a dainty feast.

Salt Lake affords the finest and really the only beach-bathing resort
in the whole interocean country. The bathing is atte