SARGASSO SEA 



5209 



SARTO 



SARGASSO, sahrgas'o, SEA, a tract of 

 floating seaweed in the North Atlantic Ocean, 

 covering an area greater than that of France. 

 Its general boundaries are the 25th and 30th 

 parallels (north latitude) and the 38th and 60th 

 meridians (west longitude), but the position of 

 the seaweed mass varies as it is moved by 

 winds and currents. Columbus discovered the 

 Sargasso Sea on his first voyage to the New 

 World, and his ships were entangled in it for 

 two weeks. Though the weeds are thickly mat- 

 ted together in some sections, a vessel could 

 not become hopelessly involved in the tract 

 because the patches are not continuous. It is 

 believed by many authorities that the seaweed 

 (see ALGAE) was originally carried by winds and 

 currents from the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf 

 of Mexico. 



SAR'GENT, JOHN SINGER (1856- ), a 

 foremost American portraitist and eminent 

 painter of landscape and figure pieces. He was 

 born at Florence, Italy, of American parents, 

 and in that city commenced his art studies. At 

 the age of eighteen Sargent began studying 

 with the French artist Carolus-Duran, of Paris, 

 whose influence was permanent and beneficial. 

 He exhibited in the Paris Salon regularly from 

 1878 to 1884, receiving in 1881 a second-class 

 medal for his Portrait of a Young Lady. This 

 painting was the subject of an appreciation by 

 the novelist Henry James. In 1884 Sargent set- 

 tled permanently in London, where his reputa- 

 tion as a portrait painter steadily advanced. 

 Among the honors that came to him were the 

 Grand Prize of the Paris expositions of 1889 

 and 1900, and the gold medal of the National 

 Institute of Arts and Letters (American) in 

 1914. 



Sargent has painted portraits of some of the 

 meet prominent men and women of his time, 

 including Carolus Duran, Claude Monet, I.<i- 

 win Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, 

 Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (exhibited in 

 Chicago in 1893 at the World's Columbian Ex- 

 position), Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay and 

 Dr. 8. Weir Mitrln-11. Among figure pieces are 

 his exquisite Carnation Lily, Lily Rose, repre- 

 senting two girls lighting Japanese lanterns in 

 a flower garden; and Carnnncita, a dancer in 

 costume. Among the glories of the Boston 

 Public Library are his splendid mural decora- 

 tions, including the celebrated frieze of the //< - 

 brew Prophet*. Landscapes and figure pieces 

 have constituted the bulk of his work since 1909, 

 and his latest canvases include The Weavers, 

 The Courtyard, The Fountain (Art Institute, 



Chicago) and Trout Stream in the Tyrol. In 

 1917 he was commissioned by the governors 

 of the National Gallery of Ireland to paint for 

 the institution a portrait of President Wilson. 



SARNIA, sahr'nia, a city in Ontario, the 

 county town of Lambton County. It is at the 

 mouth of the Saint Clair River, directly oppo- 

 site Port Huron, Mich., with which it has con- 

 nection by a car ferry and by a railway tunnel 

 under the river. The Grand Trunk and the 

 Pere Marquette enter Sarnia. By rail it is 

 sixty miles northeast of Detroit, 169 miles 

 southwest of Toronto and fifty-nine miles west 

 of London. Population in 1911, 9,947; in 1916, 

 estimated, 10,500. 



Sarnia has a large tonnage in lake traffic, be- 

 ing on the water highway between lakes Huron, 

 Superior and Michigan on the west and lakes 

 Erie and Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River 

 on the east. It is also a large shipper of its 

 own products, which include oil, lumber, salt, 

 woodenware, stoves, thrashers and plumbers' 

 supplies. The oil refinery, one of the largest in 

 the Dominion, has about 1,400 regular em- 

 ployees. Of the city's buildings the courthouse 

 and county buildings deserve special mention. 

 Sarnia was incorporated as a city in 1904. Its 

 name is the classical Latin for the island of 

 Guernsey. T.D. 



SARSAPARILLA, sahr sa pa ril' a, a drug 

 somewhat widely used in "spring tonic" prepa- 

 rations. It is obtained from the dried roots 

 of different species of smilax, found in Central 

 and South America and Mexico. The roots 

 are several feet long and about as large around 

 as a goose quill. Modern physicians and chem- 

 ists hold that the drug is inert, that is, has no 

 curative properties, but its reputation gives it 

 considerable commercial value. Lowell, Mass., 

 is an important center for the manufacture of 

 medical preparations of the drug. Sarsapanlla 

 is used to some extent as a flavoring for ice 

 cream soda. 



SARTO, sahr'toh, ANDREA DEL (1487-1531), 

 a great Italian master who holds a foremost 

 place among the painters of Florence of the 

 High Renaissance. He was one of the great- 

 est colorists of his day; his style was dignified 

 and his drawing masterly, and such was his 

 knowledge of technique that he was known as 

 I aultless Painter." 



His real name was Andrea Vannucchi, but be 

 was nicknamed Del Sarto, meaning "the tai- 

 lor's son," because of his father's trade. He 

 studied under several Florentine masters, and 

 before he was thirty painted a series of seven 



