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Show 178 WESTERN WILDS. much lower than the others that they are invisible. As the day ad-vances the fine haze rising from the lake blots out all the lower por-tions of the ranges, and the glittering summits stand outlined against the sky like points of burnished silver suspended in mid- air. From three corners of the lake great tongues of open country project back into the mountains, constituting the three great valleys of this basin. To the north- east Bear River Valley lies in the shape of a half open fan, the lower end twenty- five miles wide, the valley running thence to near the Idaho line, where it narrows to a mere canon. South- east, Salt Lake Valley proper runs southward between the Wasatch and Qquirrh, in shape very like a horse- shoe. Early in the day we can see from the deck of the steamer many buildings in the city, the oval dome of the Tabernacle shining conspicuously; but as the haze deepens the " rising mirage" appears, and the whole city seems to rise slowly and melt , away into nothingness. This haze is not visible to the eye. The day is apparently as clear as ever; the sky is blue, the sun shines with his full power, and the sharpest eye can not discern any mist. But distant objects fade out of sight, and fine outlines become blurred and indistinct. The finest time for a view is, of course, in the early morning. Then the mountains fifty miles away seem as dis-tinct as if within a mile, and all the peaks shine through the clear air with great beauty. It is often said that there is no living thing in Great Salt Lake. There is a minute animalculse on the bottom, resembling a fine shaving of the skin from one's finger, more than any thing else I can compare it to. As it grows in size it beats in towards the land by the action of the waves, and finally swells up into the likeness of a worm, and floats upon the water. The boatmen think that the flies, which are so numerous around the edge of the lake, breed from this worm, and this idea is strengthened by the fact that the empty hulls of the worm, like abandoned shells of chrysalis, float on the water in large sections extending in long dark lines for hundreds of feet. At first I % supposed these collections were merely the bodies of drowned flies, but on ex-amination they proved to be the husks, so to speak, of what had been worms. All sorts of attempts have been made to propagate life in the lake, or mouths of the affluent streams, but one and all have failed. Oysters have been planted at the mouths of the rivers, but when the wind was up stream, the dense brine setting in from the lake killed them. Jordan was stocked with eels a few years ago, but they floated down into the lake and died. One was picked up long afterwards on the eastern shore, completely pickled. The finder cooked and ate it, |