SALTCOATS, a seaport and watering-place of Ayrshire, Scotland, contiguous to Ardrossan, and 19 miles north of Ayr. It possesses a good sea-beach, and of late years has become a favourite watering-place. The town received a charter as a burgh of barony in 1528, but afterwards lost its privileges and fell into decay. At a very early period marine salt was manufactured, and salt-pans were erected by Sir Robert Cunningham in 1656, but that industry has now ceased. A harbour was also constructed and for a considerable time there was a large shipment of coal, but the trade has now passed to Ardrossan. The population, 4624 in 1871, in 1881 was 5096.
SALTILLO, the capital of the state of Coahuila in Mexico, 65 miles south-west of Monterey by the Mexican National Railway, on the slope of a hill overlooking a fertile valley. It has well-paved streets, several good public buildings, and cotton factories and other industrial establishments. The population is about 17,000.
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Environs of Salt Lake City. |
SALT LAKE CITY (originally Great Salt Lake City), a city of the United States, the capital of Utah Territory and the metropolis of Mormonism, stands nearly in 41° N. lat. and 112° W. long., at a height of 4250 feet above the sea, on the brow of a slight decline at the western base of the Wahsatch range, and on the right bank of the Jordan, a stream which flows from Utah Lake into Great Salt Lake.[1] By the Utah Central Railroad the city is 36 miles south of Ogden Junction on the Union and Central Pacific Railroad, and it is the terminus of the Southern and Western Utah Railroads. The city is laid out chessboard fashion, with all the streets 137 feet wide and all the blocks 40 rods square. Shade and fruit trees have been freely planted, and on each side of every north and south street flows a stream of pure water in an open channel. With the exception of some modern erections, the houses are nearly all of sun-dried bricks. The largest and ugliest public building is the tabernacle, with its huge oval wooden dome. It is said to accommodate 8000 to 10,000 persons, and has the second largest organ in America. Within the same enclosure as the tabernacle are the endowment house, where the initiation ceremonies of Mormonism are performed, and the new Mormon temple (1874–5) erected at a cost of $10,000,000. Other conspicuous buildings are the city-hall, used as the Territorial capitol, the theatre, Walker’s opera house, the Salt Lake pavilion, the museum, the Deseret university, several hospitals, and the city prison. The population was 5000 in 1850, 8230 in 1860, 12,813 in 1870, and 20,768 in 1880 (86 coloured).
When Great Salt Lake City was founded in July 1847 (cf. Mormons, vol. xvi. p. 827) the whole region lay far beyond the advancing wave of western civilization. But the city did not long remain the isolated oasis in the desert which its first settlers made it; and it now has a considerable non-Mormon population, a United States garrison at Camp Douglas (between 2 and 3 miles distant), and United States judges.
SALTPETRE, or Nitrate of Potash (KNO₃), is a salt obtained as a commercial product in three different ways. (1) It occurs as an efflorescence on the surface or in the superficial stratum of the soil in many parts of the world, but specially to a great extent in the Ganges valley and other parts of India. (2) It is obtained in a semi-artificial manner in nitraries or saltpetre plantations. These consist of heaps of decomposing animal matter mixed with lime ashes, road scrapings, and other rubbish covered over from rain, and from time to time damped with the runnings from stables and other urine. Such heaps develop within them small proportions of the salt and other nitrates, and are, in effect, artificial imitations of the saltpetre-bearing soil of India. They were formerly very common in Switzerland, France, Germany, and Sweden. (3) A large quantity of saltpetre is now prepared from Chili saltpetre, the nitrate of soda, by double decomposition of the soda salt with another salt of potash. See Nitrogen, vol. xvii. p. 518, and Gunpowder, vol. xi. pp. 319, 323. Saltpetre is of importance in numerous industries, among the most prominent of which are gunpowder manufacture and pyrotechny. It is also used as an oxidizing agent in glass-making and in metallurgical operations. In the curing of meat it is extensively employed with common salt and sugar, and it also occupies an important place in pharmacy.
In the year 1884 337,708 cwt. of saltpetre was imported into the United Kingdom, the estimated value being £306,113. Of this amount 200,065 cwt. came from Bengal and British Burmah alone, and 78,545 cwt. of converted saltpetre came from Germany. During each of the two years 1883 and 1884 the imports of Chili saltpetre, under the name of cubic nitre, exceeded 2,000,000 cwt., nearly the whole supply coming from Bolivia and Peru.
SALUS (Safety), a goddess worshipped in various parts of ancient Italy. At Rome a temple adorned with paintings by Fabius surnamed the Painter (Pictor) was dedicated to her in 302 b.c.; and public prayers were offered to her on behalf of the Roman people and the emperor. In 180 b.c., on the occasion of a plague, vows were made to Apollo, Æsculapius, and Salus. Here the special attribute of the goddess appears to be “health”; and in later times she was identified with the Greek goddess of health, Hygeia. On coins of Tiberius, Nero, &c., she is represented as a young maiden with the symbol of Hygeia, a serpent drinking out of a goblet.
SALUTATIONS, or greetings, are customary forms of kindly or respectful address, especially on meeting or parting or on occasions of ceremonious approach. Etymologically the word salutation (Lat. salutatio, “wishing health”) refers to words spoken, but the conventional gestures are even more purposeful, and both should be considered together. The principal modes of saluting, when classified, fall into a few groups, with well-defined meanings, the examination of which explains the practice of any particular tribe or nation.
- ↑ This lake, about 10 miles from the city, the principal body of water in the Great Fremont basin, is 70 miles long by 45 miles broad, has an area of 1900 square miles, and lies 4200 feet above the sea. The water of the lake contains about 6 times more than the average solid constituents of sea water, being almost as heavily impregnated (22·4 per cent.) as that of the Dead Sea (24·5 per cent.). The salt is used in the city without artificial refining.
- ↑ W. P. Snow, in Trans. Ethnol Soc., n. s., vol. i. p. 263.
