SALTA, capital of a. province of the same name in the Argentine Republic, with a population of about 20,000 (1881), is a well-built town occupying a somewhat insalubrious situation, 3780 feet above the sea, at the confluence of the Rio de la Sillata and Rio de Arias, head streams of the Rio Salado (there called Rio Pasaje or Juramanto), about 820 miles north-west of Buenos Ayres. The town, founded by Abreu in 1582, was originally known as San Clemente de Nueva Castilla, took the name of San Felipe de Lerma when Hernando de Lerma removed it to its present site, and began to be called Salta in the 17th century. A large trade is carried on with Bolivia.