| OCR Text |
Show 274 THE CITY OF THE SAINTS. CHAP. VI. above the sea. The southern is the prolongation of the Wasach, whose southwestern extremity abuts upon the Pacific coast range; it attains a maximum elevation of nearly 12,000 feet. Without these mountains, whose gorges are fed during the spring, and even, in the summer, by melted snow, there would be no water. The levels of the valleys are still unknown; it is yet a question how far they are irregular in elevation, whether they have formed detached lakes, or whether they slope uniformly and by steps toward the Great Salt Lake and the other reservoirs scattered at intervals over the country. The water-shed of the Basin is toward the north, south, east, and west: the affluents of the Columbia and the Colorado rivers carry off the greatest amount of drainage. One of the geographical peculiarities of the Territory is the " sinking," as it is technically called, of the rivers. The phenomenon is occasioned by the porous nature of the soil. The larger streams, like the Humboldt and the Carson rivers, form terminating lakes. The smaller are either absorbed by sand, or sink, like the South African fountains, in ponds and puddles of black mire, beneath which is peaty earth that burns as if by spontaneous combustion, and smoulders for a long time in dry weather: the waters either reappear, or, escaping under the surface-a notable instance of the^ "subterranean river"-feed the greater drains and the lakes. The potamology is more curious than useful; the streams, being unnavigable, play no important part in the scheme of economy. Utah Territory is well provided with lakes; of these are two nearly parallel chains extending across the country. The easternmost begins at the north, with the Great Salt Lake, the small tarns of the Wasach, the Utah, or Sweetwater Beservoir, the Nicollet, and the Little Salt Lake, complete the line which is fed by the streams that flow from the western counterslope of the Wasach. The other chain is the drainage collected from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada; it consists of Mud, Pyramid, Carson, Mono, and Walker's lakes. Of these, Pyramid Lake, so called by Colonel Fremont, its explorer, from a singular rock in the centre, is the most beautiful-7-a transparent water, 700 feet above the level of the Great Salt Lake, and walled in by precipices nearly 3000 feet high. The principal thermal features of Utah Territory are the Bear Springs, near the Fort Hall Road. The Harrowgate Springs, near Great Salt Lake City, have already been alluded to. Between the city and Bear Biver there is a fountain of strong brine, described as discharging a large volume of water. There are sulphurous pools at the southern extremity of the Great Salt Lake Valley. Others are chalybeate, coating the earth and the rocks with oxide of iron. Almost every valley has some thermal spring, in which various confervas flourish; the difficulty is to find good cold water. |
