Lieutenant Gunnison, who has surveyed the great basin of the Salt
Lake, states the water to be about one-third salt, which it yields
on boiling. Its density is considerably greater than that of the Red
Sea. One can hardly get the whole body below the surface: in a sitting
position the head and shoulders will remain above the water, such is
the strength of the brine; and on coming to the shore the body is
covered with an incrustation of salt in fine crystals. During summer
the lake throws on shore abundance of salt, while in winter it throws
up Glauber salt plentifully. “The reason of this,” says Lieutenant
Gunnison, “is left for the scientific to judge, and also what becomes
of the enormous amount of fresh water poured into it by three or four
large rivers,--Jordan, Bear, and Weber,--as there is no visible effect.”