Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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its present site, and began to be called Salta in tbe 17th
century. A large trade is carried on with Bolivia.
SALTCOATS, a seaport and watering-place of Ayr¬
shire, 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.
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
milessouthof Ogden
Junction on the
Union and Central
Pacific Railroad, and
it is the terminus of
the Southern and
Western Utah Rail¬
roads. 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 (c/.
Mormonism, 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
1 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 6J 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.
-SAL 235
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 (KNOs), 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, Aesculapius, 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 ns 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. Ety¬
mologically 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.
Forms of salutation frequent among savages and bar¬
barians may last on almost unchanged in civilized custom,
or may be found in modified shapes, while in other cases
they may have disappeared altogether and been replaced
by new greetings. The habit of affectionate clasping or
embracing is seen at the meetings of the rude Andamaners
and Australians, or where the Fuegians in friendly salute
hug “like the grip of a bear.”1 This natural gesture
appears in old Semitic and Aryan custom “Esau ran to
meet him (Jacob) and embraced him, and fell on his neck,
and kissed him, and they wept ” (Gen. xxxiii. 4); so, when
Ulysses makes himself known, Philoetius and Eumams
Environs of Salt Lake City.
1 W. P. Snow, in Trans. Ethnol. Soc., n. s., vol. i. p. 263-