GREAT SALT LAKE AND THE DEAD SEA.--Great Salt Lake is a shallow body
of water, its average depth being but a little more than three feet,
while in many parts it is much less. The water is transparent, but
excessively salt; it contains about 22 per cent of common salt,
slightly mixed with other salts, and forming one of the purest and
most concentrated brines in the world. Its specific gravity is 1.17.
The water is so buoyant that a man may float in it at full length upon
his back, having his head and neck, his legs to the knee, and both
arms to the elbow, entirely out of water. If he assumes a sitting
posture, with his arms extended, his shoulders will rise above the
water. Swimming, however, is difficult as the lower limbs tend to rise
above the surface, and the brine is so strong that to swallow even
a very little of it will cause strangulation. The waters of the Dead
Sea, on the other hand, are nearly black, and contain much sulphur and
bitumen, as well as salt. It is also very deep, varying from thirteen
feet near the south end of the lake to more than 1,300 feet in the
northern part. Its buoyancy is quite equal to that of Great Salt Lake,
for travelers say that a man can float prone upon the surface for
hours without danger of sinking, and in a sitting position is held
breast-high above the water.


SOME FAMOUS WAR SONGS.--The slavery war developed several Union
song-writers whose stirring verses have kept on singing themselves
since the close of that great struggle. Two among them are best
remembered nowadays, both men who wrote the words and composed the
music to their own verses. Chicago lays claim to one, Dr. George
F. Root, and Boston to the other, Henry C. Work. The song "Marching
Through Georgia," as every one knows, was written in memory of