SAL 
I 
salmon, but more slender. It abounds in 
the rivers of Siberia, and the lakes of Ger- 
many, and in this country, in the .lakes of 
Cumberland and Vyestmoreland. It is con- 
sidered as one of the highest delicacies, 
and has the most brilliant colours, and 
finest flavour, when inhabiting the coldest 
waters. 
Tile S. eperlanus, or smelt, is about se- 
ven inches long, highly elegant, of a taper- 
ing form, and semi transparent appearance. 
It has an odour not unlike that proceeding 
from vegetables, and which has by some 
been resembled to that of a violet, and by 
others to that of a cucumber. In the win- 
ter months it is caught in extreme abun- 
dance in the rivers Thames and Dee. 
The S. Greenlandicns, or Greenland sal- 
mon. These abound otF the coast of Green- 
land, where they are taken in vast quanti- 
ties and dried, not only for the use of man, 
but of cattle, for which they constitute a 
valuable food in winter. It is about the 
size of a smelt. 
S. thyniallus, or the grayling, is about a 
foot and a half long, and abounds in the ri- 
vers of iBountainous countries in Europe 
and Asia. It resembles the trout in form. 
In some of the rivers of England, it is found 
in great perfection. It feeds on insects 
and fishes, and is highly voracious, catches 
with extreme avidity at the bait, and swims 
with extraordinary rapidity, passing through 
the water like a dart, or a meteor through 
fhe air. 
SALON, or Saloon, in architecture, a 
very lofty spacious hall, vaulted at top, and 
sometimes comprehending two stories or 
ranges of windows. The salon is a grand 
room in the middle of a building, or at the 
head of a gallery, &c. Its faces or sides 
ought all to have a symmetry with each 
other ; and as it usually takes up the height 
of two stories, its ceiling, should be with a 
moderate sweep. Salons are frequently 
built square, and sometimes octagonal. 
SALPA, in natural history, a genus of 
the Vermes Mollusea class and order : body 
loose, nayant, gelatinous, tubular, and open 
at each extremity: intestine placed ob- 
liquely : eleven species have been enume- 
rated, in tw'O divisions ; Afurnished with an 
appendage: B. without the terminal ap- 
pendage. The animals of this genus are of 
a gregarious nature and often adhere to- 
gether: they swim with great facility, and 
have the power of contracting or opening at 
pleasure the cavities at the extremities. 
SALSOLA, in botany, salt-wort, a genus 
SAL 
of the Pentandria Digynia class and order. 
Natural order of Iloloraceae. Atriplices, 
Jussieu. Essential character: calyx, five- 
leaved ; corolla none ; capsule one-seeded ; 
seed screw-shaped. There are thirty-one 
species. These plants are well known for 
producing alkaline salt, commonly called 
barilla, soda, or kelp ; many of them are 
herbaceous and annual, some have shrubby 
stems. The leaves are generally alternate, 
in some opposite, others round or flat; 
flowers terminating or axillary. S. kali 
grows naturally in the salt marshes in 
divers parts of England. It is an annual 
plant, which rises above five or six inches 
high, sending out many side branches, 
which spread on every side, with short awl- 
shaped leaves, which are fleshy, and ter- 
minate in acute spines. S. soda rises with 
herbaceous stalks near three feet high, 
spreading wide. The leaves on the prin- 
cipal stalk, and those on the lower part 
of the branches, are long, slender, and have 
no spines ; those on the upper part of tlie 
stalk and branches are slender, short, and 
crooked. All the sorts of glass-wort aresonie- 
times promiscuously used for making soda 
or mineral alkali, but this species is esteem- 
ed best. The manner of making it is as 
follows: having dug a trench near the sea, 
they place laths across it, on which they lay 
the herbs in heaps, and having made a fire 
below, the liciuor which runs out of the 
iierbs drops to the bottom, which at length 
thickening, becomes soda, which is partly 
of a black, and partly of an ash -colour, very- 
sharp and corrosive, and of a saltish taste. 
This, wlien thoroughly hardened, becomes 
like a stone, and in that state is transjmrt- 
ed to diiferent countries for the making of 
glass, soap, &c. 
SALT, culinary, or Muriate of Soda. 
This salt is one of the most abundant pro- 
d\iction$ of nature, and exists native ip 
much greater quantity than any other neu- 
tral salt. The waters of the ocean owe 
their saltness to it, it is found in a number 
of mineral springs, and it forms immense 
strata in the bowels of the earth, or rising 
on the surface, even to the height of moun- 
tains. According as it is produced from 
these sources, it is named sea-salt, or rock- 
salt. Rock-salt is solid, hard, and more or 
less transparent, of a white, grey, or red- 
dish colour, sometimes of a bright or deep 
red, or yellow, and more rarely with spots 
of blue. Its fracture is foliated or fibrous ; 
generally itis massive, but sometimes crys- 
tallized in cubes, and its fragments are al- 
