C A V 



642 



C A V 



* 

 



fatan. liament ; and as 700 of the enrolled freeholders are 

 -Y" ' under the Earl of Farnham, and 300 under his cousin 

 Colonel Barry, the Earl commands the return of one 

 of the members : the other is independent, but the 

 Protestant interest prevails in his election. By the 

 latest return of the population of this country, it ap- 

 peared that there were 20,808 persons capable of 

 serving in the militia. A census, taken in 1797, states 

 the number of houses at 18,056, from which, allow- 

 ing five to each house, we may estimate the popula- 

 tion at 90,280 souls. The proportion of Catholics 

 to Protestants is as five to one ; but as there is only 

 one Catholic gentleman who possesses any extent of 

 landed property, and as the Catholic tenantry are 

 completely under the controul of their Protestant 

 landlords, they have here no political interest, and 

 the Protestant gentry are decidedly hostile to their 

 claims. 



In Cavan, as in most of the counties of Ireland, 

 education is deplorably neglected. By a charter of 

 Charles I., 570 acres were assigned as a fund for a 

 school in Cavan ; but by a survey, published in 1805, 

 it appears that this school had then not a single 

 boarder, nor is there any number of day-scholars 

 mentioned. The Cavan militia has a regimental 

 school, the regulations of which appear well calcula- 

 ted to promote their object. What private oppor- 



tunities the county may afford for the education'of Cavan, 

 its youth, we have not been able to ascertain. Cavanilfa. 



This county contains 30 parishes, of which 26, s ""v^*" 

 with 24 churches, are in the diocese of Kilmore, 

 three in the diocese of Ardagh, and one in that of 

 Meath. It was formerly called East Breffney, and 

 sometimes O'Reily's county, from the Irish family 

 which possessed it. It was forfeited at the beginning 

 of the reign of James I. ; and a great proportion of 

 it is still in possession of the descendants of those 

 settlers to whom he allotted it. See Wakefield's Ac- 

 count of Ireland, Statistical and Political, 1812 ; 

 Sir Charles Coote's Statistical Account of Cavan ; 

 and Beaufort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland, (ft) 



CAVAN, the assize town or the above county, 

 is a post and market town, but is in no other respect 

 of any importance. Previous to the act of Union, it 

 sent two members to parliament, but now has not 

 the privilege of returning one. N. Lat. 54, W. 

 Long. 7 16'. (?) 



CAUCALIS, a genus of plants of the class 

 Pentandria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 163. 



CAVANILLA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Dicecia, and order Tetrandria. See BOTANY, p. 

 335. 



CAUCASUS. 



Caucasus. CAUCASUS, one of the 41 governments into which 

 S *""""Y~""*' the Russian empire is divided. This government is 

 subdivided into two provinces ; Astracan, and ano- 

 ther known by the same name as that of the govern- 

 ment. Within the latter of these provinces is com- 

 prised the Cuban, and all the districts to the east and 

 south, now in the possession of Russia, between the 

 rivers Don and the Cuban, and between the Black 

 Sea and the Caspian, extending as far as the confines 

 of Georgia, and which is constantly receiving new 

 accessions, in consequence of the reduction and sub- 

 mission of the wandering hordes* The same name 

 of Caucasus is the common appellation by which 

 the whole of the great ridge of mountains is dis- 

 tinguished that stretches between the Caspian and 

 the Black Seas ; and it is also the name of the very 

 high mountain which constitutes the principal sum- 

 mit in this great and extensive ridge. 



Caucasian The Caucasian mountains are the most distinguish- 

 mountatns. j n g f ea ture in the region in which they are situated. 

 They stretch from the mouth of the river Cuban in 

 the north-west, to the outlet of the river Kur, into 

 the Caspian Sea, in the south-east. There seems 

 reason to believe, that a connected chain extends also 

 from this ridge of mountains in a south-western di- 

 rection, to the vicinity of the bay of Seanderoon, as 

 at the other extremity of it other chains branch out 

 into Persia, which they pervade from north-west to 

 south-east. These latter ridges terminate in the de- 

 serts of the south eastern part of that country, or at 

 least are so imperfectly connected with the moun- 

 tains of Hindoo- Koh, that it would be difficult to 

 trace their junction. Much less can they be con- 

 sidered as an extension of Mount Taurus, which ter- 



minates 'at the Euphrates, and the deserts of Algc- Caucasus. 

 zira. In this matter, therefore, the ancients judged -_,- ^' 

 erroneously, who regarded the principal chain of these 

 mountains as a continuation only of mount Taurus, 

 at the same time giving the name of Antitaurus to 

 the connected branch already mentioned, extending 

 from them towards the south-west. The chief no- 

 tices as to other particulars relative to the Cauca- 

 sian mountains, which occur in the works of the 

 ancient writers, are as follow : By Strabo, they are 

 represented as extending from the Euxineto the Cas- 

 pian Sea, and including, as within a wall, the isthmus 

 that separated these seas. Towards the south they 

 had Albania and Iberia ; on the north the level coun- 

 try of the Sarmatas ; and they abounded with vari- 

 ous kinds of trees, some of which were usetl in the 

 construction of ships. According to Herodotus, the 

 commencement of this range of mountains was from 

 the territory of Colchis, whence it proceeded on- 

 ward till it became a boundary to the northern part 

 of the Caspian Sea. . This writer mentions also two 

 passages in these mountains, of which, he says, that 

 the Scythians and the Cimmerians availed themselves 

 in their incursions into Upper and Minor Asia. Pro- 

 copius takes notice of the same defiles, which he re- 

 presents as situated in the eastern limit of the moun- 

 tains, and to have been called by the names, the one 

 of the Caspian way, the other of the Caucasian way. 

 He adverts also to the use to which these defiles had 

 been made subservient, in furnishing a road for the 

 Huns at the times when they invaded the territories 

 of the Persians and the Romans. The same defiles 

 are mentioned, and in a somewhat similar way, by 

 Pliny, Tacitus, and Lucan.. The first of these writ- 



