Salto

Salto, a town and river port of Uruguay and capital of a department of the same name, on the Uruguay river 60 m. above Paysandu. Pop. (1900, estimate) 12,000. It has railway connexion with Montevideo via Paysandu and Rio Negro (394 m.), and with Santa Rosa, on the Brazilian;frontier (113 m.). It is also connected with Montevideo and Buenos Aires by river steamers, Salto being at the head of high water navigation for large vessels. There are reefs and rocks in the river between Paysandu and Salto that make navigation dangerous except at high water. Above Salto the river is obstructed by reefs all the way up to the Brazilian frontier, about 95 m., and is navigable for light-draft vessels only at high water. Farther up, the river is freely navigable to Santo Tome (Argentina) - a distance of about 170 m. Travellers wishing to ascend the river above Salto usually cross to Concordia, Entre Rios, and go up by railway to Ceibo, near Monte Caseros, from which point small steamers ascend to Uruguayana, Itaqui, and other river ports. The streets of Salto are well paved and lighted with electricity, and there are some good public buildings. The town has two meat-curing establishments (saladeros) and is the shipping port for north-western Uruguay and, to some extent, for western Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). Behind Salto lies a rich, undulating grazing country, whose large herds supply its chief exports.

The department of Salto - area, 4866 sq. m., pop. (1900) 40,589, (1907, estimate) 53,154 - is an undulating, well-watered region occupying the north-west angle of Uruguay. Its industries are almost exclusively pastoral About one-third of its population are foreigners, chiefly Brazilians.