Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/443

* SABLE. 4(13 SACCHARIN. highest value, an ordiiiaiy saMe skin beinf; worth $30 or $.'!r), and one of the tincst quality .$200. Tlu' fur attains its liif^hest perfection in early winter, and the pursuit of the sabk> at that season is one of the most dillicult and adventur- ous of enterprises. It is taken by trajis, which arc of a kind to avoid injury to the fur. and it is not easily captured. Its general habits are those of the marten (q.v.). See Plate of FuR- BEAUiNii Animals. SABLE. The name for blaek in heraldry (q.v.). SABLE, Cate. 8oe Cape Sable. SABLE ANTELOPE. A large antelope of South Africa (Jiiiiiidtratius iiiiicr), remarkable for its glossy black coat, shar)dy set oil' by the white of the under parts, buttocks, and parts of the face. It carries its head high, its neck is adorned with a heavy nmne, and it has long, curv- ing, anil heavily ringed liorns, which it uses with terrible ell'ect when attacked by packs of the Cape hunting-dogs or by hunters' hounds. It has been known to impale and kill leopards and even lions. It formerly ranged over all the high plains in small herds which had great speed and endurance, and its beauty and the sport it atl'orded have been enthusiastically commented upon by every South African hunter, but it is now scarce. Consult The Book of the Antelopes (London, 1894-lUOO). See Plate of Antelopes. SABLE ISLAND. A low^-lying crescent- sliaped island in the Atlantic Ocean, situated in latitude 44° north and longitude 60° west. 104 miles southeast of Cape Canso (Map: Nova Sco- tia, DO). Formed of sandhills thrown up by the se.a, it is about 25 miles long by 1 14 miles wide. The sandhills surround a shallow lagoon 11 miles long, and nowhere exceed 80 feet in height. The island lies in the track of navigation between America and Great Britain ; since 1873 it has had tliree lighthouses built upon it by the Ca- nadian Government, two of which have been swejit aw'ay by the sea, which frequently levels the outlying h'ills. From 1583 to 1899, 170 ves- sels were lost on its treacherous shoals. A life- saving estal)lishment of 30 persons is now sta- tioned here. In 1901 the Canadian Government completed arrangements for cheeking the shift- ing of the sands and making tiie island a more prominent feature on the ocean by the planting of 08,000 spruces, pines, and junipers, and 13,000 hardy, deciduous trees. Covered with wild grasses and cranlierry bushes, which formerly supported a breed of wild horses, known as Sable Island ponies, the island is interesting to the naturalist as the only known nesting place of the Ipswich siiiirrow. SABLES D'OLONNE, sa'bl' dc.'lou', Les. The capital of an arrondissemeiit and a seaport in the Department of Vendee, France. 23 miles south of La Roche-sur-Yon by rail ( Jlap: France, E 3). Oyster and sardine fishing and canning and ship- building are carried on. There is a lighthouse, visilde for 14 miles. The fine, sandy beacli, en- circled by a wide promenade, carriage road, and elegant villas, attracts numerous summer visit- ors. Population, in 1901. 12,244. SABOTS, sa'brt' (Fr,, wooden shoe). A species of woollen shoes much used by the French and Bel- gian peasantry, especially by those who hihabit moist and marsh}' districts, as an efl'ectual pro- tection of the feet from c.vterniil moisture. The fabrication of sabots forms nn iniporlaiU branch of French industry, and is ehielly earrieil on in the departments of Aisne, .ube, ".Maine et-Loire, and Vosges. .After In-ing made they are subject- ed to the smoke of burning woorded as constituting a distinct family, while others rank the group as a subfamily of the Felida>. The term '^abre- toothed tiger' designates particularly Siiiiluilon (or Macharodus) tuoiianis, a fossil cat from the Pleistocene deposits of South .America, of which complete skeletons have been found exceeding the lion in size. It is chiefly remarkable by reason of the enormous develiqinient of the np]ier ca- nines, which are seven inches long an<l llatlened, with fhiely serrated cutting edges. In compensa- tion for the enlargement of these teeth, the lower canines are so reduced as to resemble the incisors. The brain is proportionally smaller than in the modern large eats. In England the sabre-toothed tigers are known to have been contemporaneous with cave man. The group attained its highest specialization and finally became extinct in the Pleistocene period. A nearly allied form (Nim- ravus) occurs in the -Middle Miocene of Oregon. SABRI'NA. Daughter of l.ocrine, the son of King Brute of ancient Britain, and Estrildis, thrown into the river Severn by t^uceu Guendolen, and metamorphosed by Nereus into the goddess of the river, .She is deserilicd as a nymph in Drayton's I'olf/iilliinii. in Milton's C'omu.i, and in Fletclier's Fnillifiil Shi /iIk rdcs-x. SAC AND FOX INDIANS. A confederacy of the two North American Indian tribes of .Sacs or Sauks and Foxes or Muskwaki. The tribes combined about 1700 as a result of the attacks of the Ojibwa (q.v.) and of the French. The united population in 1903 was about 930. See Fo. or Muskwaki : Saik. SACCARDO, sak-k;ir'd6, Pietro .Vndrea (184.")—). .Vn Italian botanist, born at Treviso, and educated at the I.ieeo of Venice and in the University of Padua, where he became professor of botany in 1879 after ten years as teacher of natural history in the school of technology of the same city. Save for his f^omiiiniio d'un corso di hotaniea (3d ed. 18S0), his work is almo.st en- tirely on mycology. Following such special treat- ises as Musci Tfin-ixini (1872) and Finiiii llalici (1877-80. with 1500 colored ])latcs), came his great universal work, Sylhie I'uniiorum. in ten volumes, which began to apjH'ar in 1882, SACCHARIN, sak'ka-rlu ( from ML. sun ha- rum, Lat. sucehiiroii, from (!k. adKxi^pov, sahclia- JOH, sugar, from Pers. sukirr, from Prakrit siikLiira, sugar, Skt. sarkaru, candied sugar, grit), ortlio- /t'0 benzo-sulphimide,C|,H, Ml. An intensely S0.,/ sweet substance discovered by Remsen and Fahl- hcrg in 1870. Its sweet properties were not rec- ognized imtil some time rtfter. The sulwtance was patented in the United States and in Euro-