OCR Text |
Show j U. OK U. NEWS BUREAU j "Utah's Grea tSalt Lake is not entirely en-tirely wanting in plant and aninituj life," declared S. K. Alxlous, acting! head of the department of zoology at the University of Utah. "Many peo pie think that absolutely no form of life can live in the. salty water of tnu lake, but a study of the water shows interesting although very small forms of both animal and plant lite.' Artemia, or the email water animal ani-mal more commonly know;n as the "fairy shrimp" is present in large numbers in the salt sea. Some are decorated with elaborate colors being be-ing green, red, yellow and orange. Most of them are about a third of an inch in length. They move through the water with a periodic gliding movement by means of sets of legs on either side of the body, giving the appearance of what might put one in mind! of a fairy flying through the air. Some yeans ago many of these small shrimps were collected and cooked and were described as beSng "actually delicious." They are, however, too small for commercial use. The lake also contains some forms of protozoans or one-celled animals and a green one-celledi plant as well as the larval form' or "worm stage" of the gnats which in July and August Aug-ust literally cover the lake in places, giving the surface of the water tn appearance of metal. Considerable study of life in the Great" Salt Lake has been done by the university and more will be carried car-ried on in the future. A. |