CAT-O'-NINE-TAILS 



OATTERMOLE 



17 



Hi* example was more fruitful in results than the 



.icliic\cmciits of his life, for he became the typical 



n|)lt> of the stoic that kindled to imitation the 



iniii^iniitioiis of the noblest Romans for two cen- 



tuiic- miller the empire. 



Cat-o'-nine-tails. See FLOGGING. 



Catoptrics is that division of geometrical 

 optics \vhich treats of the phenomena of light 

 incident upon the surfaces of oodles, and reflected 

 therefrom. See OPTICS. 



Cato Street Conspiracy, a plot formed in 

 London in 1820 by a handful of crazy ruffians for 

 tlie murder of Lord Castlereagh and the other 

 ministers of the crown, so called from the place of 

 meeting in Cato Street, Edgeware Road. As usual 

 tin- plot was revealed beforehand to the police by 

 one of the gang, and accordingly the conspirators 

 were seized, after a short scuffle, in a stable in 

 Cato Street. Arthur Thistlewood, the ringleader, 

 and four of his dupes, were hanged, while five more 

 were transported tor life. 



Catrail (also known as the Picts' WorkorPicts 1 

 Work Ditch ) is the name applied to the remains of 

 a large earthwork, about 50 miles in length, which, 

 beginning at Torwoodlee Hill, near the junction of 

 the Gala Water with the Tweed, runs with a semi- 

 circular sweep southward through the counties of 

 .Selkirk and Roxburgh to a point under Peel Fell, 

 in the Cheviots. The earthwork consisted of a 

 deep ditch, with a rampart on each side, and varied 

 in breadth from 20 to 26 feet. The cultivation of 

 land and other causes have resulted in the destruc- 

 tion of the ramparts in many places. The Catrail 

 was first described by Gordon in his Itinerarium 

 Septentrionale (1726), and since then has been the 

 suoject of much speculation among antiquaries. 

 For a full description of the Catrail, see paper in 

 Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club 

 for 1880, by James Smail, F.S.A. An account of 

 the various theories which have been promulgated 

 regarding the Catrail will be found in Blackwood's 

 Magazine for 1888. 



Cats, JACOB, a Dutch statesman and poet, was 

 born at Brouwershaven, in Zeeland, in 1577, and 

 after studying law at Leyden and Orleans, finally 

 settled at Middelburg. He rose to high offices in 

 the state, and was twice sent as ambassador to 

 England, first in 1627, and again in 1652, while 

 Cromwell was at the head of affairs. From this 

 time till his death, September 1660, he lived in 

 retirement at his villa near the Hague. Here he 

 wrote his autobiography, which, however, was not 

 published until 1709. As a poet, 'Father Cats' 

 enjoyed the highest popularity. His poems are 

 characterised by simplicity, rich fancy, clearness, 

 homely vigour, and purity of style, and by their 

 excellent moral tendency; while throughout are 

 richly scattered those shrewd maxims and worldly- 

 wise axioms which have been so dear to his prac- 

 tical countrymen. The most highly prized of his 

 productions were the Houwelyk, and the Trouwring 

 (a series of romantic stories relating to remarkable 

 marriages), and the Spiegel van den Ouden en 

 Nieuwen Tyd. His works were first collected in a 

 folio volume in 1658. A late edition is that by 

 Wolterink (Dordrecht, 1878-82). 



Cat's-eyCj a beautiful variety of chalcedonic 

 quartz receiving its name from the resemblance 

 which the reflection of light from it, especially 

 when cut en cabochon, or in a convex form, is 

 supposed to exhibit to the light that seems to 

 emanate from the interior of the eye of a cat. It 

 has a sort of pearly appearance, and is chatoyant, 

 or characterised by a fine play of light, which is 

 supposed to result from the parallel arrangement of 

 fine fibres of some foreign substance, such as ami- 

 *) 106 



.uithiis, or of minute hollow tubules similarly 

 arranged. It is of various colours, and is obtained 

 chiefly from India and Ceylon, but occurs also in 

 the Harz. A chatoyant variety of felspar hat* been 

 sometimes confounded with cat's-eye. 



< atskill. a village of New York, on the Hud- 

 son, 34 miles by rail bfllow Albany. P. (1890) 4920. 



Catskill Mountains, a group of mountains 

 in the state of New York, U.S., west of the 

 Hudson River, and south of the Mohawk. They 

 belong to the Appalachian system, and are con- 

 tinuous northward with the Helderbergs, south- 

 ward with the Shawangunks, south-westward with 

 the Delaware Mountains, and westward with a 

 high plateau which occupies much of the region of 

 the southern half of Western New York, and apart 

 of the northern counties of Pennsylvania. The 

 Catskills proper cover about 5000 sq. m., chiefly in 

 Greene County, N.Y. Some peaks reach nearly 

 4000 feet in height. The mountains generally 

 have steep and often precipitous ascents, and their 

 summits are broad and rocky. The deep valleys 

 or ' cloves ' of this region, with almost perpendicular 

 walls, form a remarkable scenic feature. What is 

 known as ' the Catskill red sandstone ' is regarded 

 by most geologists as the very latest formed of the 

 Devonian strata of North America. The moun- 

 tains are well wooded, and afford many summer- 

 resorts for the people of the larger cities. See 

 Searing's Land of Rip Van Winkle (1885). 



Cat's-tail. See BULRUSH. 



Cat's-tail Grass. See TIMOTHY GRASS. 



Cat'taro. a strongly fortified port in the Aus- 

 trian crown-land of Dalmatia, lies at the head 

 of the Gulf of Cattaro, 40 miles SE. of Ragusa, 

 under the steep Montenegrin hills. Cattaro has 

 a cathedral, a naval school, and a population of 

 5453, chiefly engaged in the Montenegrin trade. 

 At one time the capital of a small republic, the 

 town in 1420 joined the republic of Venice, and 

 after varied fortunes was handed over to Austria in 

 1814 by the treaty of Vienna. The Gulf of Cattaro, 

 an inlet of the Adriatic, consists of three basins or 

 lakes, connected by straits of about half a mile in 

 breadth. Its length is 19 miles, and its depth from 

 15 to 20 fathoms. 



Cattegat, or KATTEGAT, the bay or arm of the 

 sea between the east coast of Jutland and the west 

 coast of Sweden, to the north of the Danish islands. 

 It is connected with the Baltic Sea by the Great 

 and Little Belt (q.v.), and by the Sound ; and the 

 Skager Rack ( q. v. ) connects it with the North Sea. 

 The length of the Cattegat is about 150 miles, and 

 its greatest breadth 85 miles. Its greatest depth is 

 36 Fathoms, but it has numerous sand-banks ; and 

 navigation is rendered more dangerous by its strong 

 currents and violent storms. The Danish shores are 

 low, with stretches of sand or reefs, but the Swedish 

 shore is very steep and rocky. 



Cattermole, GEORGE, water-colour painter and 

 book-illustrator, was born at Dickleborough, Nor- 

 folk, 8th August 1800. He began life as a topo- 

 graphical draftsman. At the age of sixteen he was 

 engaged upon Britton's English Cathedrals, and 

 in 1830 he visited Scotland to obtain materials for 

 his fine series of illustrations to the Waverley 

 Novels. He was soon known as a brilliant designer, 

 and was largely employed by the publishers, con- 

 tributing to tfie annuals, his best work of this 

 class being the illustrations to his brother, the Rev. 

 C. Cattermole's Historical Annual, dealing with the 

 period of the Civil War. In 1822 he was elected an 

 associate exhibitor, and in 1833 a member, of the 

 Water-colour Society, to whose exhibitions he con- 

 tributed ' Sir Walter Raleigh witnessing the Execu- 

 tion of the Earl of Essex' (1839), 'Old English 



