GREAT SALT LAKE, a remarkable and extensive sheet of water in the n. of Utah territory, North America, has given name to the Salt Lake city (q.v.), the Mormon metropolis, which is situated at its south-eastern extremity. It lies in one of the great valleys or basins of the Rocky mountains, and is about 70 m. long and 30 in. broad, yet its average depth is only 7 or 8 ft., and it nowhere exceeds a depth of 33 feet. Its surface is 4,200 ft. above the level of the sea. In the middle of the lake several islands rise as high as 3,250 ft. above the level of the water; the principal island is in lat. 41° 10' n., and long. 112° 21' west. The islands are 9 in number, one of them is 12 m., and another 16 m. in length. The water of the lake is so salt as to form one of the purest and most concentrated brines known in the world. It contains 22 per cent of chloride of sodium, slightly mixed with other salts. This lake, in whose waters no living creature
is found, receives from the s., by the Jordan, the waters of the Utah lake, which are fresh, and those of the Wear river from the n.; but it has no outlet. It has been. called the "still innacent dead sea;" and certainly in the quality of the water, and the wild, weird aspect of the surrounding scenery, the lakes greatly resemble each other. The first mention of the Great Salt Lake was by baron La Homan, in 1689, who did not himself visit it, but who gathered some notions of it from the Indians w. of the Missis sippi. It was first explored and described in 1843, by col. Fremont. A thorough survey was made in 1849-50, by capt. Howard Stansbury, of the U. S. army, whose report was printed in 1852. See SALT LAKE CITY, and UTAH.