Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/259

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SALT LICK 215 SALT RIVER include the University of Utah, Latter curred, and this was closed in a manner Day Saints University, and many private similar to the first. The successive flood- and theological institutions. The city was ing and evaporation from this area af- 5 TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE, SALT LAKE CITY founded by Brigham Young in 1847. Pop. (1900) 53,531; (1910) 92,777; (1920) 118,110. SALT LICK, a knob lick; a place where salt is found on the surface of the earth, tc which wild animals resort to lick it up; sometimes near salt springs. SALT MARSH, land under pasture grasses or herbage plants, near the sea, and liable to be overflowed by it, or by the waters of estuaries, and in conse- quence more or less impregnated with salt. SALTON SEA, a remarkable tempo- rary lake formed in southern California, in 1905 and 1906, by the overflow of water from the Colorado river. The water ran through the water channel of an irriga- tion canal which conducted water from the Colorado river near Yuma, Ariz., to the Imperial Valley region. The land here forming the Salton basin is below sea-level and when the water was de- flected from the natural channel of the river which normally emptied into the Gulf of California, an area of over 400 square miles was flooded and over 2,000 square miles were threatened. Unsuc- cessful attempts were made to restore the Colorado river into its original channel, but the overflow was not controlled until February, 1907, when three trestles were constructed across the break, from which stones were dumped. By this means the lake was checked and gradually disap- peared. In 1910 the second break oc- forded unique opportunity for biologists and botanists to study the effects under such conditions. SALTPETER, or SALTPETRE, in chemistry KNO3, potassium nitrate or niter; found in dry and hot countries as a natural product, but prepared artifi- cially by exposing a mixture of calcare- ous soil and animal matter to the atmos- phere, or by decomposing native sodium nitrate with potassium carbonate. It is chiefly used in the manufacture of gun- powder, fireworks, and nitric acid. When fused and poured into molds, it forms the sal prunella of commerce. SALT RANGE, a mountain system in the Punjab, India, consisting of two main chains which run E. and W., and embrace between them an elevated table-land. It begins on the S. side of the Jhelum, runr- W. to the Indus, and varies from 3,201 to 5,000 feet in height. Its appearance is exceedingly bleak and barren, but not without much savage grandeur. The sys- tem gets its name from the inexhaustible beds of rock salt that occur on the edges of the plateau. About 60,000 tons are extracted annually, four-fifths from the Mayo mines, a few miles N. E. of Pind Dadan Khan. Coal and other minerals also occur. SALT RIVER, a river in Kentucky, formed of three branches, the Rolling Fork, East Fork, and Beech river. It is in the N. part of the State and joins the