| Show f A Geography That Entertains As Does a Descriptive Novel When the tho most ot of us were younger than we vc are now no and ad when the most of at ofus atus ofus us were vere at classroom tasks we wu were told that the tho study of ot geography geo ra hYt of a necessity must be dry exact and pre precise cise ciso because the teacher told us there Utere were so o many subdivisions of ot so o many of ot that and there thero was was w as so so much water vatz r arid ad ci so s much m li land fand n i things were or at least they were al nl alleged alleged to be so we took It for tor grunted granted that the half halt hours grind that we put in ip poring over a geography was a duty which we owed to our parents our ourselves ourselves selves the school trustees trustee I nd tho tax taxpayers taxpayers payers j a ers We drew w weird and startling s maps of or continents with mountains m m that looked looke like hike the 0 a horses hair har hairbrush brush after it had been n use for r two years ears and lakes and fivers liver bre I about as much one on to tie I as a skyrocket does t to the tun tuii tunnel nd nel We Ve drew those maps and because I thero there were maps before us u to t draw I Ithem them from in the tho reproduction we re recited recited i cited our daily dally drone ron because the teacher asked us the questions that were printed in the book with the answers an answers answers following We did and we learned to abhor geography with its hideous names and mid Its lines and configurations because we had to and Md not by any means menns because that which we did conveyed to o a our under understanding understanding standing anything of the wonders which we were drawing reading re reciting reciting reciting citing or writing about There was lit little tlc tic to hold the attention there was nothing absolutely tp to entertain the he mind or enchant the tho soul It But Rut that hat was wa as long ong ago They do things differently now No Nn longer is the text book of at geography a hated thing and the hour for recitation in the branch looked upon with dread This Is said on ont testimony that lies open on this desk In the shape of ot the New Natural School Geography which will be used in the Salt Lake L ke schools and in other schools of ot Utah This geography contains all that our old geographies used to contain In the way wa of ot the things that are arp r in the world but bin binfor butor for tor Utah school pupils It contains much more moreIn moreIn moreIn In a section of or the book there are arc a score of or pages devoted entirely to Utah This section Is a remarkable r work In more than one respect As Asu a literary effort f It Is second only to such men a as Prescott whose Conquest of ot Mexico and Conquest of Peru are arc the source of o so 80 much knowledge of or those lands lans lansIn S In prehistoric times Like Prescott the thc theauthor theauthor author of ot this delightfully entertaining work on Utah and its people ancient and modern Its phases of ot life physical and social has hits been at the greatest pains to verify verity his statements and his hl conclusions He has exhausted every ever resource at the command of or a n profound student and an Indefatigable laborer In research to bring to bear benr proof In sub substantiation of ot the things which he sets forth The writer of or the subdivision The Geography of or Utah Is J 3 H Paul Ph PhD PhD PhD D professor protessor of or nature study In the University of or Utah Many things there are arc In this won wonderland wonderland wonderland derland of or ours that baffle the under understanding understanding understanding standing of oC man Nature has worked In wondrous ways here and the reading of or what nature has done for tor or Utah Is 11 told in this score of oC pages by Professor ProCessor I In the beginning he gives a succinct description of at the surface the general aspect and the climatological condi cond conditions conditions The mountains one ne of ot boasts and prides receive attention Inan in inan an instructive paragraph In this con connection It may be well to quote a word The transparency of ot the he air causes even en distant nt objects to stand out clear to the sight and no sooner have we gained the tops of or the Wasatch moun mountains mountains mountains than a panorama of or endless va variety variety variety expands before our eyes for miles or more on every side a succession succession succession sion of or peaks ridges plateaus lulls hills hollows cliffs clites canyons and slopes of ot all angles a series of o pictures that must be seen In order to be bo appreciated The Wasatch range on which we stand curving west as It stretches from north to t south through the state has lifted urt d dIt Itself It elt to nearly feet teet above aboe the sea Some of or the elevations are massive and picturesque other rolling railing 1 lulls hills that sink into valleys valles and canyons threaded at the bottom by shining sil silver silver ver lines rivers The streams cut east or west across this vast ast succession of or highlands Most of ot the canyons arc are deeply scored by ancient glaciers Those with streams are being slowly cut still deeper Let us go on still HUH higher to the tops of at the mighty UIn tas Here we behold a grander picture a surface still more rugged the peaks p aks even higher over oer feet teet the river riverbeds riverbeds beds still deeper Evidently the mouT mou Lains themselves could not at first be bp settled The mysteries of or the deserts and the salt lakes are touched upon with gra graphic graphic ra pen The cliff dwellings the na natural natural natural tural bridges and the great wastes in southeastern Utah once Inhabited by a u multitude of or thriving and prosperous people are described and tills thil claims many Illustrations In writing of ot the cliff dwellers the author has h s this word to say sa hieroglyphics hieroglyphic cover the walls of ot White and other canyons while structures built by the cliff dwellers nestle among the ledges Their houses were made In ma a remote antiquity ty said to date back to the glacial pe period period I nod They were wre a hut but somewhat Intelligent people and were preceded by the cave dwellers a more primitive race rare with narro skulls The latter race lived ages before metals were used before even bows and ar arrows arrows arrows rows were known Their axes s were wert of stone to which wood handles Vue w re rebound bound with yucca fibers Spearheads used by them sandals linen cloths cloth feathered funeral robes bone implements ments meats and needles have been found but no article of or copper or bronze The cliff houses are fragile fra lIe shells shell always aha s near arable amble ground round Corncobs and pumpkin seeds have been found in them Probably some of ot these th houses hou s were used only as storehouse others as burial places others as temples or forts The people seem to have hae lived hived on the fertile plains Southeastern Utah much drier holer now no nothan than in the days of or the cliff dwellers was likewise hopeless for tor human habl habitation tation until the railroad had essel this section the coal had discovered dl lO ered and fertile oases had been b en found fond out Now No its day Is also dawning and arid sounds of human industry have once more broken the silence of this remark remarkable remarkable able desert Whether or not the i things in southeastern Utah or orthe orthe orthe the system of lakes characteristic of this state fresh and salt are entitled to first place as natural phenomena wonders is for those to decide who ho read No stage stae In the Union has so strange strang a combination of or reservoirs streams I and sinks as has Utah The lakes that were and are no longer lay first claim to the mind as it wanders back into Int the realms of at the n First of ot all in this category comes Lake Bonneville the marks of ot whose wave erosions are distinctly discernible on the mountain sides Of Ot this body of wa water water water ter Professor Paul says Have you ever seen on the tue western slopes ot of the Wasatch mountains any of the long parallel lines rising like steps from Crom the bench land upon the mountain side They were made by bywater water by the waves of ot a lake that must have washed a shore line just where each terrace now Is Then the water must have risen n or fallen rallen In level 1 so BO rapidly for a time that no new ter race was vas formed Then standing at an un another other level for many man years Its surface waves would again cut Into the moan mo n tain tam making another terrace How then can we say Just how large this lake was Sine Since e these terraces are are found on the Basin ranges also how far must the original lake have extended In tact fact it filled much mu h of or western Utah covering square miles and must have been about 1200 1 00 feet teet deep So cool and moist was the climate in the ice age that another lake spread over overmuch overmuch overmuch much ot of a Nevada Finally the e Utah lake ran over the Great Basins edge atthe at atthe atthe the north The present Portneuf Snake and Columbia rivers carried the waters to the Pacific till the basin was drained dral ed to the Provo beach level and was part partly partly ly filled with soil soli from the mountains All that was left of at the vast lake was the Salt lake and smaller bodies of wa water water Water ter Those that had no outlet became beame salt because the minerals did not evaporate evaporate evaporate orate with the water but kept k pt Increasing IncreasIng Increasing ing Boll away a bucketful of or ordinary water till only a pint remains and it will be salty This explains the origin of or salt in lakes that have no outlet The more easterly of f these great an ancient ancient dent lakes has been named Lake Bon Bonneville neville the one that covered Dart of or Nevada Neada is called Lake Lahontan So one after atter another the water bodies they are wastes Lake Provo Lake Lahontan are presented But of ot all the lakes there is the one great lake In whose presence all must acknowledge that they do not un an understand understand nor never can understand the Great Stilt Salt lake our own Great Salt lake Its three forms of animal life Its rookeries its vagaries are set sot forth In this work Here is a n part of oC which wh ch chevery every school child and every other per person person person son ought to read and to know The Great Salt lake Is Americas dead sea Its strange story is partly shroud shrouded ed cd in mystery It is seven times larger large and contains more common salt satt though somewhat less solid matter dissolved In Its waters than Dead sea ses se whose waters roll over the sites of an ancient ancient dent Sodom and Gomorrah Like that famous sea sear this lake receives the wa waters watErs of a Sea of Galilee Utah Jake lake through the river Jordan The two I land areas containing these bodies of salt water vater are strikingly similar Salt lake lies in a mere corner of ot the bain yet et It covers 2700 square miles It is In a depression yet Is feet above the ocean While the Atlantic with 3 per cent of ot solid matter is said to be he salty salt the lake water averages nearly 20 per cent of or solid matter In solution Over tons of at salt and t tons of sulphides of or soda are dis dissolved dissolved dissolved solved In its clear sparkling brine Ocean waters teem with large and varied as well as with minute forms of or life lite but the lake contains n fish Ish or larger species of or animal life lire and only three minute forms of ot living things Tiny brine shrimps needlelike arid about of an inch long are numerous In summer and a small fly that lives upon ulon its surface and feeds fecs upon minute yellowish globules sea seaweeds seaweeds weeds in the water 5 common Its larva preys upon the brine shrimps Sea gulls abundant on Its waters hatch their heir young in I shallow nests in the sands and with pelicans and cranes make some of o the islands perfect rook rookeries cries eries where the birds congregate In thousands It Is an odd experience to togo togo togo go among their nests in summer The young gulls resembling fluffy halls balls of white and yellow down run about so 50 thick that it is difficult to avoid step stepping stepping Stepping ping on them while the parent birds circle above your head in great num nuin numbers numbers bers filling the air with their warning I cries The lake Is shallow with an f n average aw rage I depth of ot thirteen feet reet The thirsty at atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere I evaporates from its surface I I a depth of ot water of from five to seven feet annually as compared with loss less than two feet evaporated from the sur surface surface face of or Lake Michigan The water was very low in 1850 but rose to its highest t level in 1873 Then it sank till about bout a 1905 It reached Its lowest point Since that time it has been rising again These changes show what would hap happen happen ap appen pen If It the climate became much more moist than it is now The water would become fresher for tor in 1850 it contained 22 2 per cent of or solid matter In 13 per percent cent and in 1901 25 per cent If Ji the climate continued moist for ages the lake would nearly fill the eastern part if It the tho basin Indeed nearly the whole of oC the Great Basin was once oc occupied o by two inland seas separated by the mountains near itS Us center Into these inland seas the rivers and floods s carried vast quantities of earth form forming formIng forming ing deltas now left high and dry in the I form of ot benches near Lo Logan LOJan an Ogden Salt Lake City American Fork Provo and Spanish Fork Pork Once the climate was cold and snow piled un in ii the mountains till it filled the canyons and slowly flowed Into the water as rivers of or Ice or glaciers Each Ice lee stream acted like hike a great plow which cut out its channel by wearing into the rock loek of ot I Ithe the canyon bed b d carrying the roundup I into the valley The I marks of or ancient ice plows are still to tobe tobe tobe be seen In many of or the canyons How Howlong Howlong i long the Ice age continued we do not know One of or the lakes must have been fresh water after aHer it had found an I outlet but when the climate grew rew I warm wann and dry this freshwater sea shrank to a smaller salty lake x 1 c glorious climate Is described In word and numeral There are maps and data telling of or the unsurpassed cli climatological climatological conditions that exist in the great area that Is favored and the Intolerable in intolerable Intolerable tolerable void and emptiness that exists In the corners where mans foot has scarce trod Mammals and birds reptiles and In Insects Ini Insects i sects and aid native vegetation are taken up and treated In concise form torm a form torm that is easy cas to comprehend There Is a bit hit of If history just enough I of ot it to teach us that we ought to know more about this amazing place In which we live The pioneer days the coming of ot the railroads the conquering of the desert and the building of ot great cities and thriving towns each of ot these has been given a touch And then we come to the resources of or Utah Its vast ast mineral wealth the de development development 1 of ot its mines from the earll arli the present time from the aras tra tm to the great smelting ng plants and reduction works In statistical table and in narrative Professor Paul Eaul tells 1 of the minerals agricultural agri riches he has even a better grasp Wheat barley the sugar beet and then fruits such fruits as challenge com corn comparison comparison parison with all tl the rd Of or government state and municipal there is a clear exposition of the system system tem tern in vogue And to close clos he puts in a word for forthe f fOrthe r the science to which he himself Is de devoted voted education |
