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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
SALEM, an incorporated city, the county-seat of Marion County, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois and the Illinois Southern Railroads, 71 miles east of St. Louis, and 16 miles northeast of Centralia; in agricultural and coal district. A leading industry is the culture-, evaporation and shipment of fruit. The city has flour-mills, two banks and three weekly newspapers. Pop. (1890), 1,493; (1900), 1,642.
SALINE COUNTY, a southeastern county, organized in 1817, having an area of 380 square miles. It derives its name from the salt springs which are found in every part of the county. The northern portion is rolling and yields an abundance of coal of a quality suitable for smithing. The bottoms are swampy, but heavily timbered, and saw-mills abound. Oak, hickory, sweet gum, mulberry, locust and sassafras are the prevailing varieties. Fruit and tobacco are extensively cultivated. The climate is mild and humid, and the vegetation varied. The soil of the low lands is rich, and, when drained, makes excellent farming lands. In some localities a good gray sandstone, soft enough to be worked, is quarried, and millstone grit is frequently found. In the southern half of the county are the Eagle Mountains, a line of hills having an altitude of some 450 to 500 feet above the level of the Mississippi at Cairo, and believed by geologists to have been a part of the upheaval that gave birth to the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and Arkansas. The highest land in the county is 864 feet above sea-level. Tradition says that these hills are rich in silver ore, but it has not been found in paying quantities. Springs strongly impregnated with sulphur are found on the slopes. The county-seat was originally located at Raleigh, which was platted in 1848, but it was subsequently removed to Harrisburg, which was laid out in 1859. Population of the county (1880), 15,940; (1890), 19,342; (1900), 21,685.
SALINE RIVER, a stream formed by the confluence of two branches, both of which flow through portions of Saline County, uniting in Gallatin County. The North Fork rises in Hamilton County and runs nearly south, while the South Fork drains part of Williamson County, and runs east through Saline. The river (which is little more than a creek), thus formed, runs southeast, ent
