SALSETTE (=" sixty-six villages ")  , a large island in British India, N. of Bombay city, forming part of Thana district . Area, 246 sq. m . It is connected with Bombay Island and also with the mainland by bridge and causeway . Salsette is a beautiful, well-wooded tract, its surface being diversified by hills and mountains, some of considerable height, while it is rich in rice fields . In various parts of the island are ruins of Portuguese churches, convents and villas; while the cave temples of Kanheri form a subject of interest . There are 109 Buddhist caves, which date from the end of the 2nd century A.D., but are not so interesting as those of Ajanta, Ellora and Karli . Salsette is crossed by two lines of railway, which have encouraged the building of villa residences by the wealthier merchants of Bombay . The population in Igor was 146,933 . The island was taken from the Portuguese by the Mahrattas in 1739, and from them by the British in 1774; it was formally annexed to the East India Company's dominions in 1782 by the treaty of Salbai . There is another Salsette in the Portuguese settlement of Goa, a district with a population (1900) of 113,061 .