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Show 158 ANTBLOPB I8LAND- FORMATION OF SALT. early ^ part of summer, they are supplied by the percolations of the melting snows from the neighbouring hills, which at this season gre generally copious, and render thfe water sweet and palatable. As soon as their supplies from a higher level begin to fail, the soil through which they run, or from the depths of which they rise, being strongly impregnated with minerals, imparts to the water saline or mineral qualities, which in the autumn and winter render them totally unfit for use. Such we found to be the case in the latter part of the succeeding summer. The rocks among which we had now encamped consisted of granite, or perhaps an altered sedimentary quartz or siliceous sandstone. Drift- wood is scattered along the shores at an elevation of four or five feet above the present level of the lake, which must have maintained that height for a considerable period, since in numerous sJ) ots along the drift line unmistakable evidences of A well- defined beach are still to be traced with perfect precision. The wood is small and generally sound, but very dry, and must, from its appearance, have befen deposited there for many years. It came, doubtless, from Bear River> the Weber, and the Jordan. * Antelope Island is the largest of the islands in the lake. It is about sixteen miles in length and five miles broad in its widest part. Like all the other islands in the lake, and, indeed, all the prominences observed west of the Wahsatch range and within its - valley, k consists of a long rocky eminence, ranging from north to south, rising abruptly from the water, and attaining an elevation of about three thousand feet above the level of the lake. A party was sent up the mountain to erect a triangulation station upon its highest peak. The officer charged with that duty . described the view from this elevation as grand and magnificent, embracing the whole lake, the islands, and the encircling mountains covered with snow- a superb picture Bet ia a framework of silver. The southern part of the. island is connected with the main shore by an extensive sand- flat, which, in the summer, is. foi* the most part dry, but is frequently flooded to the depth of eighteen inches, the water of the lake being driven over. it by every gale from the north* Upon the cessation of the wind the water recedes, and then the depressions of the beach are filled with pools of shal* low water, which, evaporating under the influence of the sun, leave extensive depositee of salt upon the sand. The beach is at all times sufficiently hard to allow the passage of wagons from the |