SOL 
336 
the same species, males and females, which are easily distin¬ 
guishable from one another; and that the females are larger, 
have no variegations on the shells, and are much better 
tasted than the males. Rumphius has described a very re¬ 
markable species of solen, which always remains buried 
in sand, and which is not properly a bivalve, consisting 
only of one piece, though of the shape of the solen; 
he calls this solen arenarius. Lister has called the 
crooked species solenus curvi, and some call them the 
scymitar solens. 
We have several species of the straight solens, though but 
few of the crooked ones. 
Of the crooked solens, two are the only known species. 
1. The scymitar solen. 2. The solen arenarius, always 
found in sand. 
The shell of this fish is composed of two pieces, which are 
the two halves of a hollowed cylinder, with an elliptic base, 
divided in a longitudinal direction. These two pieces are 
fastened together near one end by a ligament, like that which 
joins the shells of the muscle or the oyster. From the place 
where this ligament is fixed, quite to the other end of the 
shell, there is a membrane fastened to each edge of the shell, 
from the place of its origin; so that, viewed externally, 
it forms a sort of isosceles triangle, the base of which 
was about two lines in breadth. The colour and con¬ 
sistence of this membrane give it very much the appearance 
of a piece of parchment; it has a considerable spring 
in it, and serves on occasion to open, or draw together, the 
two-sides of the shell. 
There is another membrane, of the same kind with this, 
fastened to the other side of the fish, there adhering to each 
shell, but this is of an equal breadth all the way down : this 
serves also to shut or open the edges of the shell. When the 
solen shuts its shell, it folds itself into several longitu¬ 
dinal wrinkles, which open again when the sides of the shells 
separate. 
Hence it is to be oberved, that though this shell has a 
power of opening and shutting, yet the body of the fish is 
always secured, and is no more exposed to sight at one time 
than at another, and there is no part where the fish can be 
seen but at the ends. 
This fish lives in the sand on the sea-shore, where it buries 
itself often a foot and a half, or two feet deep; the length of 
the shell is, at this time, nearly in a vertical position, and 
the fish has a power of raising itself at pleasure up to the sur¬ 
face, and sinking down again, while the shell remains all the 
time buried in its place. Almost all other animals have a 
horizontal motion, and the shell-fish of the sea crawl along 
upon its bottom under water, as the common land animals 
do on dry ground; but this creature’s progressive motion is 
only vertical, and that confined to a very small compass; all 
that it is able to do for itself being only to raise itself higher 
or lower, and sink deeper or rise higher in the sand, within 
the narrow compass of about two feet at the utmost, as the 
going beyond that must occasion its destruction. Where 
these shell-fish are buried in the sand, there is a hole reach¬ 
ing from every one of them to the surface, by means of 
which they have a free communication with the water: these 
holes generally are placed in great numbers near one another, 
and are easily distinguished at a time when the tide has left 
the shore uncovered. They are not round, but oblong, and 
somewhat resemble the key-hole of a lock, but that they have 
a roundness at each end, whereas that usually is rounded 
only at one. 
When it has occasion to ascend out of its hole, nothing 
more is required than the putting out the end of the leg, swell¬ 
ing it, and thus thrusting itself up to the length of that leg; 
then retracting it into the shell again, and thrusting out and 
inflating its end for second movement of the same kind. 
These motions may be all perceived in the creature 
when out of the sand, particularly that by which it 
buries itself; for if held up in the fingers, it thrusts out 
the leg, and performs all the motions as if in the sand, 
making a fruitless attempt to save itself in its old way. 
Mem. Acad. Par. 1712. 
SOL 
Klein, and some others, have given the name Solen to the 
several species of tubuli marini. 
SOLEN A, in Botany, so called by Willdenow, from 
o-aXvji/, a tube, or pipe, in allusion to the long tube of the 
flower. For the same reason, Schreber had named this same 
genius Cyrtanthus, but the latter appellation is now be¬ 
stowed on a very different one. See Cyrtanthus. 
SO'LENESS, or So'lship, s. State of being not con¬ 
nected or implicated with others; single state.—France has 
an advantage, over and above its abilities in the cabinet and 
the skill of its negotiators; which is (if [ may use the ex¬ 
pression) its soleness, contiguity of riches and power within 
itself, and the nature of its government. Lcl. Chesterfield. 
SOLERO, a town of the Sardinian states, in the province 
of Alessandria, with 2900 inhabitants. 
SOLESMES, a town of France, department of the North, 
with 3200 inhabitants; 9 miles east-north-east of Cambray. 
SOLEURE, a canton in the north-west of Switzerland, 
lying chiefly between the river Aar and the Jura mountains. 
Its shape is very irregular; its extent about 275 square miles; 
its population nearly 50,000. The Jura mountains, occupy¬ 
ing a part of this canton, rise to the height of 3000 or 4000 
feet above the level of the sea, but of not more than 2000 
above the adjacent plains. The rest of the canton is level 
and fertile. The ground is thus partly arable, partly adapted 
to pastures. The inhabitants understand the art of irrigating 
and of laying out their fields in meadows : their cattle are 
reckoned the best in Switzerland. Their manufactures 
though on a small scale, embrace the spinning and weaving 
of woollen, linen, and cotton ; but the only places deserving 
the name "of towns are Soleure and Olten. In religion this 
canton is Catholic, the Protestants being comparatively few.. 
The constitution is aristocratic; the criminal code is nearly 
the same as in France, but great part of the judicial decisions 
are regulated by unwritten laws founded on local usages. 
SOLEURE, or Solothurn, a town in the north of 
Switzerland, and the capital of the above canton. It stands 
at the foot of Mount Jura, on the Aar, which divides it into 
two parts. It is fortified with walls and bastions, and 
though irregular, and generally built in a bad taste, has 
several good edifices, such as the hotel de vil/e, the mint, 
the public library, the Jesuits' church, and that of St. Urse, 
a modern building, considered one of the best churches in 
Switzerland. Several Roman antiquities have been found 
at Soleure. There are here three churches and five convents, 
the Catholic being the established religion. The population 
being only 4200, the trade of the place is very limited: it 
consists partly in the manufacture of cotton and stuffs, partly 
in the transit business between Bale and Italy. The environs 
are pleasant and picturesque; 18 miles north-by-east of 
Bern, and 26 south of Bale. 
SOLEUS, in Anatomy, a muscle of the calf of the leg. 
See Anatomy. 
SOLEUTINAN, a small island in the lake of Nicaragua, 
near the south coast, with a town. Lat. 11. 25. N. long. 
85. 36. W. 
SOL-FA-ING, in Music, the naming and pronouncing 
of the several notes of a song, by the syllables sol, fa, la, 
&c., in learning to sing it. 
SOLFARINO, a town of Austrian Italy; 17 miles north¬ 
west of Mantua. Population 1500. 
SOLFATARA, or Lago di Bagni, a lake of Italy, in 
the Campagne di Roma, near Tivoli, formerly called Lacus 
Albulus. It is small, but remarkable for containing several 
floating islets, formed of matted sedge and herbage, with a 
soil of dust and sand blown from the adjacent country, and 
cemented by the bitumen and sulphur with which the water 
of the lake is impregnated. Some of these islets are 15 yards 
long, and will bear five or six people, who, by means of a 
pole, may move to different parts of the lake. From the 
lake issues a whitish stream, which emits a sulphureous 
vapour, until reaching the small river Teverone. The water 
of this rivulet has a petrifying quality, which increases in. 
strength the farther it has flowed from the lake. Fish are 
found in the Teverone, till it receives the waters of this lake; 
after 
