Great Basin
in North American geography, a large area of interior drainage lying between the Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. It has no outlet to the sea. It lies in Utah, Nevada, California, Idaho, and Oregon. Its general shape is triangular, with its base at the north. Its area is about 212,000 square miles. There are a number of salt lakes, each receiving streams. The largest is the Great Salt Lake . The largest river in this region is the Humboldt. There is little rainfall. Three regions of the basin are known respectively as Great Salt Lake Desert, The Mohave Desert, and the Black Rock or Carson Desert. A large part of the soil is of volcanic origin, for want of rain almost destitute of vegetation. The chief source of wealth is mineral. Iron, copper, silver, and gold exist in quantities. If water could be had for purposes of irrigation, this great region would become a garden spot of the world. See Great Salt Lake ; Alkali ; Irrigation
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Great Britain
the largest of the British Isles--the largest and the most important island of Europe. It is divided into England, Wales, and Scotland. The term is used, though incorrectly, as synonymous with England, just as America is used as synonymous with the United States . The term grew in favor after James I became king of England as well as Scotland. From 1707 until 1801 Great Britian was the official designation of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In order to include Ireland, the official name was changed to the United Kingdom . Great Britain is a historical and geographical term; but, like America, it does not designate a political country. It is said that the fleet of the Roman Agricola was the first to sail around Great Britain, thus proving that it is an island. See England ; Wales ; Scotland ; Ireland ; United Kingdom ; Chalk ; North Sea 2026 Editor's Note: Britain at imperial noon — a quarter of the globe when this was written. The readers' lifetimes would see two world wars spend that empire, and its dissolution into the Commonwealth. See British Empire . (Ed: BR 2026-06-02)
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Great Kanawha
an affluent of the Ohio river called New river in the upper part of its course, and rising in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina; it has a course of 450 miles, and is navigable to a fall 30 miles above Charleston, and about 100 miles from its mouth.
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Great Lakes
the chain of lakes along the border between the eastern United States and Canada. They contain over 5,000 cubic miles of water; they have a combined surface area of 86,000 square miles; and constitute the greatest body of fresh water in the world. At one time, during the existence of a huge ice sheet, a glacier filled the present gorge of the St. Lawrence and dammed back the water. The Great Lakes then formed one sheet of water, a vast inland lake, the borders of which may be traced in the United States and Canada. The waters were discharged by way of the Mohawk Valley and the Hudson. The old outlet started near Rome, New York , on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. The present shore line is about 4,000 miles in length. The total water-shed comprises about 260,000 square miles. The depressions in which the lakes lie were caused by a settling of the earth's crust it is thought, due to the weight of glacial ice. By treaty agreement neither the Dominion of Canada nor the United States may maintain war vessels on the Great Lakes, nor erect fortifications on the shores. By permission of Canada the United States now maintains fifteen vessels as training ships on the Lakes. These ships carry six hundred men and seventy guns. See Superior ; Ontario ; Michigan ; Huron ; Erie ; Sault Ste. Marie; Niagara , etc.
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Great Lakes
the name given to that chain of lakes lying on the N. borders of the United States; they include Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
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Great Salt Lake
an inland lake in the northwestern part of Utah. It is about eighty miles long and from twenty to thirty miles wide. The surface is about 4,200 feet above sea level; yet the lake has no apparent outlet. Judging from beaches that rise, terrace after terrace, the lake was formerly much larger than it is now and discharged its water into the Columbia. At that time its greatest depth must have been about 1,100 feet. It is now not over 850 feet in depth. Large portions of the old shore have been irrigated and are now productive gardens, orchards, meadows, and fields. The water is salty,--so heavy with brine, in fact, that a person bathing is lighter than the water and cannot sink. The lake rises and falls with changes in the seasons. The salt in solution varies accordingly, being by weight from a seventh to a fifth of the whole. The waters are too salty for fish and are nearly without life. West of Ogden the Southern Pacific has expended $4,000,000 in constructing a long trestle bridge across the north arm of the lake. The bridge stands on 38,000 piles eight feet above water. The bridge shortens the line forty-four miles. See Utah
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Great Seal
the official signature royal seal for the United Kingdom, held way northward, invaded Turkey in charge by the Lord Chancellor for Crown Documents. GREAT SLAVE LAKE a body y of water in the Canadian Northwest Territory (62° N. lat.); greatest length about 300 miles, greatest breadth 50 miles. By the Slave river it receives the surplus waters of Lake Athabasca; and it discharges by the Mackenzie river into the Arctic Ocean. See ATHABASCA.
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Great Slave Lake
. See Mackenzie
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Great Slave River
a river in Canada flowing from Alberta into the Northwest Territories, carrying the surplus waters of Athabaska Lake into Great Slave Lake. After leaving the former, it is joined by the Peace river, total length is about three hundred total Its miles, practically all of which is navigable for river steamers during the open The valley through which it season. flows is remarkable for its fertility, but still largely unsettled.
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