Sea, from which Defoe is thought to have obtained most of the information he possessed respecting Selkirk. Selkirk is also the subject of Cowper's Lines on Solitude. Consult Howell's Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk (Edinburgh, 1829). See Juan Fernandez.
SELKIRK, Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of (1771-1820). A colonizer and man of letters, born in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. His life was devoted mainly to directing emigration from the Scottish Highlands to British North America. In 1803 he made a settlement at Prince Edward's Island, which from the first was prosperous; and after heroic efforts and a bloody conflict with the Northwest Fur Company, he finally established, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, a colony in the Red River Valley, now the flourishing Province of Manitoba (1817). In 1818 he left America, and, completely broken in health, went to Pau, in Southern France, where he died. An account of his troubles in settling the Red River territory is given in his Sketch of the British Fur Trade in North America (1816). Consult Bryce, Manitoba (London, 1882); and see Canadian Literature.
SELKIRK MOUNTAINS. A mountain range in the southeastern part of British Columbia, lying west of and nearly parallel to the Rocky Mountains, from which it differs in geological formation, and from which it is separated by the long, narrow, and straight valley of the Upper Columbia River (Map: British Columbia, F 4). The latter, with its tributary, the Kootenay, and Kootenay Lake, almost completely encircles the range, which is about 200 miles long and 80 miles wide. Although lower than the neighboring Rockies, the Selkirk Range is much more Alpine in character, and consists of rugged peaks, snow fields, glaciers, and precipices, below which the slopes are densely timbered to a height of 6000 feet. The highest peak is Mount Sir Donald, with an altitude of 10,645 feet. The Canadian Pacific Railroad crosses the range at an altitude of 4300 feet through Roger's Pass, which, with the surrounding magnificent region, is a national park reserve. Consult Green, Among the Selkirk Glaciers (London, 1890).
SEL′KIRKSHIRE (anciently called Ettrick Forest). A southeastern county of Scotland, bounded by the counties of Midlothian, Roxburgh, Dumfries, and Peebles, on the north, east, south, and west respectively (Map: Scotland, E 4). Area, 267 square miles; pojoilation, in 1801, 5390; in 1851, 9800; in 1901, 23,340. It consists mainly of the two parallel valleys through which flow the rivers Ettrick and Yarrow. It is largely a pastoral county. The mountains, the highest of which is Dun Rig (2433 feet), are rounded at the top instead of peaked, and are covered generally with grass, affording excellent pasturage. The former extensive woods have disappeared. Capital, Selkirk. Consult: Craig-Brown, History of Selkirkshire (Edinburgh, 1886); Douglas, “A History of the Border Counties,” in County Histories of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1899).
SEL′LA, Quintino (1826-84). An Italian scientist and statesman, born at Mosso, near Biella. He was educated at the University of Turin, and at the School of Mines, Paris, and was for a time professor in the Turin Mining Academy, attaining a wide reputation as engineer and mineralogist. In 1860 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1861 he became general secretary in the Department of Public Instruction. He held the position of Minister of Finance three times; in 1862, under Rattazzi; in 1864-65, under La Marmora; and from 1869 to 1873, under Lanza. He showed himself a good financier and an excellent parliamentarian. He was president of the Accademia dei Lincei (q.v.).
SEL′LAR, William Young (1825-90). A Latinist, born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, and educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1851 he was appointed assistant to the professor of Latin in Glasgow, and in 1853 he went to Saint Andrews as assistant to the professor of Greek, whom he succeeded six years later. In 1863 he was made professor of Latin in the University of Edinburgh, a position which he held till his death. Professor Sellar wrote Roman Poets of the Republic (1863; 2d ed. 1881), Roman Poets of the Augustan Age (1877), and Horace and the Elegiac Poets, ed. by W. P. Ker (1892). The three books are learned and brilliant.
SEL′LERS, Coleman (1827— ). An American engineer and inventor, born in Philadelphia, Pa. He was associated with the Globe Rolling Mills, at Cincinnati, Ohio; the Niles Company locomotive works; and afterwards became a partner in the firm of William Sellers & Co., manufacturers of tools. His inventions include a coupling device for connecting shafting, an arrangement for feed disks for lathes, and a kinematoscope. In 1881 he became professor of mechanics in Franklin Institute, and in 1886 nonresident professor of engineering practice in the Stevens Institute of Technology. It was through his advice as consulting engineer that the work of developing the water power of Niagara was undertaken, and he became head engineer in that enterprise.
SELLERS, Colonel Mulberry. A Western speculator, in whose eyes every scheme had "millions in it," in The Gilded Age, a novel by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner.
SELLERS, William (1824— ). An American manufacturer and mechanical engineer, born in Delaware County, Pa., and educated at private schools. In 1868 Sellers became president of the Edge Moore Iron Company, and from 1873 to 1887 was head of the Midvale Steel Company, of Nicetown, Pa. The Edge Moore Iron Company made the ironwork for the buildings of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and for the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Bridge. In 1864 he published the first formula for screw threads and nuts, now standard in the United States and regularly used in Europe.
SEL′MA. The county-seat of Dallas County, Ala., 50 miles west of Montgomery; on the Alabama River, which is navigable to this point all the year, and on the Southern, the Western of Alabama, the Louisville and Nashville, and the Birmingham, Selma and New Orleans railroads (Map: Alabama, B 3). It has Dallas Academy, a public library, and the Alabama Baptist Colored University, opened in 1878. Noteworthy are the court house, Young Men's Christian Association building, and the Alabama River bridge. Selma is the centre of a section engaged in cotton-growing, farming, and cattle-raising,
