Fanny And Therese Elssler, two sisters celebrated as dancers, born in Vienna, Therese in 1808, Fanny in 1811. Fanny, the more famous, was instructed in the juvenile ballet corps of the Viennese theatre, and at the age of six made her appearance on the stage. Subsequently she received instructions from Aumer, and a marked influence upon her general aesthetic culture was exercised by Baron Friedrich von Gentz. The two sisters went to Naples in 1827, and in 1830 made their first appearance at Berlin. Subsequently they went to Vienna and other cities, and on Sept. 19, 1834, they made their first appearance in Paris, in La tempete, a ballet adapted from Shakespeare's "Tempest" by Adolphe Nourrit. Fanny was ranked with Taglioni, then at the head of her profession in Paris, and she soon eclipsed her celebrated rival in the Spanish cachucha. In 1841 the sisters visited the United States, where they met with brilliant success, and afterward went to Russia. In 1851 Fanny retired from the stage with a large fortune, and purchased a villa near Hamburg. Her sister contracted in April, 1850, a morganatic marriage with Prince Adalbert of Prussia (who died in 1873), and was ennobled under the title of Fran von Barnim. ELTON, a salt lake in the government of Saratov, Russia, 70 m. E. of the Volga, and 130 sq. m. in extent.

It yields annually upward of 100,000 tons of salt, the collection of which gives employment to 10,000 persons. In the hottest season the crystallized salt along its banks and on its surface gives it the appearance of a vast sheet of ice or frozen snow. It is nowhere more than 15 inches deep.