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The Dead Sea of Nevada—Description of Mono Labe.[From the Anstir, Nevada, EeYeille.]There are many things 'in the Great Basin, or along its rim, which excite the interest of travelers- A correspondent asks ns to tell him “whether Mono Lake is actually the 'dead sea' it is represented-to be. I am told that its bitter waters are fatal to all living things. If you can, will you please say something about that singular body of water T1 We gather from the “Report on the . Mineral Resources of the States and Territorieswest of the Rocky Mountains,” that Mono Lake lies ten miles southwest- of the dividing line between California and Nevada,' and is about fourteen miles long and nine wide. If has never been sounded, but a trial said to have been made with a line of three hundred feet failed to reach bottom. By chemical analysis a gallon ol the water weighing eight pounds was found to contain 1,200 grains of solid matter, consisting principally of chloride of sodium, carbonate of soda, sulphate of soda, borax and silic'o, These substances fender the water so acrid and nauseating that it is unfit for drinking or even bathing. Leather immersed m it is soon destroyed ' by its corrosive properties, and no animal, not even a fieh or a frog, can exist in the water for more than a short tiire.The only thing able to live within or upon the waters of this lake is a species of fly, which, springing from larrm bred in its bosom, niter jn ephemeral lile, dies, and, collecting on'the surface, ia drifled^ to the shore, where the remains collect in vast quaiititiefl, and arc fed upon by the ducks or gathered by the Indians, with whom they are a staple article of food. Ncstli ng under the eastern water-shed of the Sierra, Mono Lake receives several considerable tributaries; and, although destitute of any cutlet, such is the aridity of the atmosphere that it is always kept at nearly a uniform level by the process. of evaporation. So dense and sluggish is tho water rendered through supersaturation with various Balts ana other foreign matters, that only the itrongest winds raise a ripple on its surface.As the Sierra in this neighborhood reaches its greatest altitude, .the eeenery about Mono Lake is varied and majestic, Bome parts of it beiug at tho same time marked by a most cheerless and desolate aspect. tho bitter and fatal waters of fhis lake render it virtually a dead sea, and all it? surroundings—wild, gloomy and foreboding— are suggeitive of sterility and death. . The' decomposing action of the the water is shown by its effect upon the bodies of a company of Indians, twenty or thirty in number, who, while seeking to escape from their wliito pursuers, took refuge in the lake, where they were shot by their enemies, who lett them in the water. Xu the course of a few weeks not a vestige of their bodies was to be seen, even the bones having been decomposed by this powerful solvent Mineral curiosities abound in .the vicinity of Mono lake, among which arc numerous deposits in the shape of tiny pine trees.]J r XI I\
Newspaper Details
Semi Weekly Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Dec 26, 1868
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Dean T.
USA 28 Nov 2022
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