Show OUR SALT LAKE I It is probable saya a writer in the Popular Science Monthly that when the continents were raised from the sea the lake bapins had been already formed and came up therefore brimful of water In the northern and eastern part of the continent conti-nent where the supply of rain and snowfall snow-fall exceeds the loss by evaporation the salt being continuously carried away through their outlets has become so diluted as to be an imperceptible quantity quan-tity In arid regions as the Pacific Slope and tho country about the Caspian where the evaporation was in excess of the supply the waterlevel of the lakes continuously sank until on account of the diminished extent of surface the equilibrium of loss and gain was attained at-tained Hence the exceeding saltness of the Great Salt Lake the Dead Sea etc For a like reason the water of the Mediterranean contains more salt relatively rela-tively than that of tho ocean Evaporation Evapora-tion exceeding the supplies from the rivers and rainfall it requires a constant current through the Strait of Gibaraltar The same is true of the Red Sea causing a like current through the Strait of Babel mandebit Other salt or brackish lakes probably owe their saltness to tho sup plies from the land Water being the most general of all solvents the rains gather up the chloride of sodium from the soils and the disintegregrating rocks and where the streams fall into lakes whose only outlet is evaporation the land itself must be a constant source of wdrg supply and their wa rllnf Q Tune and more salt uvarjl cccome more solvent he of rIifiTu i their capacity as a roe repias been reached The Utah < oasin must once have been filled to its brim with oceanwater The outlet has been evaporation The lake receding to its present level has left many evidences of its former oxtent |