During all the remainder of the day and until nearly morning, the fire raged with greatest fury; but, fortunately, the flames did not come down into the valley. When we set off next day, the cattle, much refreshed, went on at a swift pace; but the air was yet so full of smoke that my eyes ached, while the tears ran down my cheeks in tiny streams.
Our way now lay along the foot of the range of mountains which sloped down to the marshy plains bordering that vast inland sea, which has always seemed so mysterious to me because of being salt.
THE GREAT SALT LAKE
It was about noon when we had our first view of the Great Salt Lake, and although I had never then seen an ocean, I could not believe the existence of anything more wondrous than that huge body of salt water among the mountains.
Father says the lake is probably a full hundred miles long, and at its widest part no less than sixty miles; but this he knows only from that which he heard from the hunters or trappers, therefore I am not setting it down as positive information. It seems to me I remember having read in one of my schoolbooks that it is no more than seventy-five miles long and thirty miles wide.
However, this much which father says is true: that the lake has no outlet, and four barrels of its water being evaporated, will produce nearly a barrel of salt; therefore you can understand how much more salty it is than a real ocean.
No fish can live in it, and Eben Jordan declared that one of the trappers at Fort Bridger told him a man could not sink beneath the surface, so buoyant is the water.
The shore of this great inland sea was white with a crust of soda or salt, and the odor which came from the stagnant water in the marshes was so unpleasant as to cause me to feel really ill.