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Show o THE LAKE DRYING UP. . That tho Great Salt Lake is certain t ' In tho near future to disappear from p the map has long been tho belief of 1 sclentlsis, says tho Chicago Itecord- , ' ' Jt- Herald. That Its disappearance will como much sooner than has been expected ex-pected and possibly within a quarter of a century, Is tho conclusion that, has been reached by certain investigators investi-gators who have recently made careful care-ful studies of its fluctuations. In an article in a recent number of tho Scientific American an account is given of some of these investigations. investiga-tions. One calculation has been made from an examination of tho surfaco level of tho lake, which for thirty year3 has been steadily lowering with only a single period of rising tenden- cy. In tho last 1C years tho net fall ,jf has been 11 feet, and In tho last t ft three years it has been three feet. r J Inasmuch as tho rate of fall is increasing, in-creasing, nnd as tho deepest part of tho lake has only 40 feet of water, this form of calculation indicates that tho lake will bo dry within 40 years at tho outside. Another calculation is based on tho cubic contents of the lake at tho 1 resent time as compared with tho contents in 188G, when adequate measurements mea-surements on which to base an estimate esti-mate were made. By this method the dlsapearance of the lake is scheduled sched-uled to occur within twenty-live years. Three theories have been suggested to account for this tendency. One Is evaporation, another irrigation, and Ihe third that there exists a subterranean subter-ranean outlet. Tho last mentioned theory is little bettor than a guess, but the first theory Is unquestionably true to a certain extent, though whether it will account for tho rapidity rapid-ity with which the level has been lowered in recent years is doubtful. As for irrigation more evidence can bo produced to show its effects in decreasing tho lako's water supply. Irrigation was commenced by Brig-ham Brig-ham Young In tho forties, but It was not until 1880 that it was adopted on a large scale and It is within tho period since then that the lowering of tho level has been most swift. There are Indications on tho mountain moun-tain sides and also on tho .nlno mountainous moun-tainous islands In the lake, that tho depth of tho water was onco COO feet greater than at present. We aro therefore witnessing now tho speedy completion of a physical chango that has been in progress for many centuries. cen-turies. Most great physical trans-j formations of tho surfaco of tho globo movo so slowly that they will give evidence of themselves on tho map only after many generations. This one bids fair to mnko a material difference dif-ference l- the geographies which our children's children will study. o |
