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Show Salt Lake Once Fresh Water Body i Although its placid waters belie the fact that It was over anylliinL' Imt an island salt-water sea, Great i Salt Lake was anciently a fresh water hotly with an outlet to the Pacific Ocean. This was told to savants from all over America by Professor Hyruni Schneider of department de-partment of geology. University of Utah, who delivered a lecture on the ancestry ot (Ircat Salt Lake as a feature of the recent convention sessions of the American Association Associat-ion for the advancement of Science, Pacific divisions, Three hundred :oriy-six miles long, and MH miles wide, with a deplh of 1,01)0 leet, Lake Bonneville Bonne-ville had an area of about 20,000 square niiles-about the size of Lake Huron, and ten times as large as the area of Great Salt Lake. The lake was named after Benjamin Benja-min Bonneville by Grove K. Gilbert, first Geologist completely to chart the outline of the ancient inland sea. The lake stood at this level, Dr. Schneider said, long enough to cut a shore terrace 210 feet wide in quartzile, a very hard nietamor-phic nietamor-phic rock. Then will increased moisture in the area the lake rose from I his level, known as the "Bonneville" "Bon-neville" level, and developed an outlet at Keil Rock pass at the north end of Cache valley. For a comparatively long time the lake discharged a large volume of water to the Pacific ocean by way of the Snake and Columbia rivers. This copious discharge of water continued contin-ued until the channel and lake had been lowered 375 feet. Then the actual phenomenon of salification occurred. The rainfall and other moisture conditions, because be-cause of changes for a drier climate, cli-mate, were no longer able to maintain main-tain the lake at this discharge level, and it dwindled to its present size 'by dessication. Although the climate was colder than now, with attendant glaciers in the Wasatch and Uintah mountains, moun-tains, such animals as the musk ox. mountain sheep, horse, camel, and mammoth lived along its shores according to Dr. Schneider. |