CAVANILLES -CAVE. 



Ill 



rushey ; anil lime, one of the best remedies, is not to 

 be had at a moderate price, wherefore wheat is little 

 cultivated. Oats and flax are raised in abundance, 

 and the high lands are entirely occupied in the graz- 

 ing of store-cattle. The linen manufacture is the only 

 trade carried on here to any extent, and it is con- 

 ducted with less spirit in this than in the other coun- 

 ties of Ulster. The town of Cavan is situated nearly 

 in tlie centre of the county, upon a stream, which is 

 tributary to the river Erne. Population of the county 

 in 1831, 228,050 ; of the town, 2,322. 



CAVANILLES, ANTONIO JOSEPH; a Spanish 

 clergyman and botanist ; was born, 1745, at Valen- 

 cia ; died in Madrid, 1804. In 1777, he went to Pa- 

 ris with the cliildren of the duke of Infantado, and 

 remained there twelve years, occupied with the study 

 of several sciences, but chiefly with botany. He pub- 

 lished there, in 1784, Observations on the Article 

 Spain in the New Encyclopedia, written with as much 

 patriotism as profound reasoning. In the following 

 year he commenced his great botanical work, Mona- 

 delphicE Ciassis Dissertationes decem (Paris, 1785 89, 

 Madrid, 1790, 4to, with engravings). After his re- 

 turn to Spain, he wrote another beautiful work, 

 Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum, qua out Sponte in 

 Hispania crescunt ant in Hortis hospitantur (Madrid, 

 179199, 6 vols., folio, with 601 engravings). It 

 contains a number of new genera and species, na- 

 tives of Spain, America, India, and New Holland. 

 In pursuance of a commission from the king, Cavan- 

 illes travelled in Valencia, and collected the materials 

 for his Olservaciones sobre la Historia Natural, Geo- 

 grqfia, Agricultura, Poblacion,etc., del Reyno de Va- 

 lencia (Madrid, 1795 97, 2 vols. , folio, with copper- 

 plates from the drawings of the author). The work was 

 published at the expense of the king, and intended as 

 the first part of a similar work to embrace the whole 

 of Spain. Thunberg has named a family of plants 

 Cavanilla. Cavaniiles died in 1804. 



CAVATINA ; a short air without a return or se- 

 cond part, and which is sometimes relieved with re- 

 citative. 



CAVE, or GROTTO; an opening produced by 

 nature in the solid crust of the earth. Caves are 

 principally met with in limestone of the transition 

 and floetz period, in gypsum, sometimes in sandstone, 

 and in volcanic rocks (basalt, lava, tufa, &c.) ; some- 

 times they are the effect of crystallization. The form 

 of the caves depends partly upon the nature of the 

 substance in which they exist ; but it is frequently 

 altered by external causes. In reference to their 

 internal construction, the hollows in the earth may 

 be divided into three classes : those of the first are 

 wide clefts ; those of the second admit the daylight 

 at both ends, and form natural passages, which some- 

 times serve the rivers as beds ; the third and most 

 common class consists of those which form a line of 

 grottoes, about of an equal height, running in the 

 same direction, and connected by passages more or 

 less narrow. Out of some grottoes rivers take their 

 course ; others, again, admit rivers, or may be said 

 to swallow them for a space, till they again emerge. 

 There are many and various causes for the formation 

 of caves. Those in limestone and gypsum are un- 

 questionably the results of the dissolving power of 

 water ; in fact, the almost perfectly uniform direction, 

 the gentle and equable declivity of most caves, ap- 

 pear to be the defect of the long continuance of wa- 

 ter in them, the action of which has widened the ex- 

 isting crevices. In trachyt and lava, caves appear to 

 have been produced by the effects of gas. The caves 

 of gypsum often contain foul air ; the caves of lime- 

 stone, various figures of stalactites, produced by the 

 deposit of the lime dissolved hi the water. The most 

 of these lime caves contain remnants of bones of ani- 



mals, viz., of hyaenas, elephants, bears. Many caves 

 are remarkable only on account of their great size, 

 or sublime from the awful gloom which pervades 

 them, and the echoes which roll like thunder through 

 their vaulted passages. Some are of great depth, as 

 that of Fredericshall, in Norway, which is calculated 

 to be 11,000 feet in depth. One of the grandest na- 

 tural caverns known is Fingal's cave, in Staffa, one of 

 the Western islands of Scotland. Its sides are formed 

 of ranges of basaltic columns, which are almost as 

 regular as hewn stone. The grotto of Antiparos, on 

 the island of the same name, in the Archipelago, is 

 celebrated for its magnificence. The passage at the 

 entrance glitters, in the torch-light, as if it were 

 studded with diamonds. The roof is adorned with 

 stalactites, many of them twenty feet long, and hung 

 with festoons of various forms and brilliant appear- 

 ance. In some parts immense columns descend to 

 the floor ; others present the appearance of trees and 

 brooks turned to marble. The Peak cavern, in Der- 

 byshire, England, is also a celebrated curiosity of this 

 kind. It is nearly half a mile in length, and, at its 

 lowest part, 600 feet below the surface. The caves 

 of Kirkdale, in England, and Gailenreuth,, in Germa- 

 ny, are remarkable for the quantities of bones of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, and hyaena, found in them. 

 The mine of fluor spar, in Castleton, Derbyshire, 

 passes through several stalactic caverns. Other ca- 

 verns in England contain subterraneous cascades. In 

 the rock of Gibraltar there are a number of stalactic 

 caverns, of which the principal is St Michael's cave, 

 1000 feet above the sea. The most famous caves in 

 Germany are those of Baumann and Bielstein, in the 

 Hartz. (See Buckland's Reliquiae Diluvianee, Lon- 

 don, 1823.) The most celebrated caves in America 

 are Madison's cave, in Rockingham county, Virginia, 

 extending 300 feet into the earth, and adorned with 

 beautiful incrustations of stalactites ; Wier's cave, in 

 the same county, extending 800 yards, but extremely 

 irregular in its course and size. Near Corydon, In- 

 diana, is a cave, which has been explored for the 

 distance of several miles, celebrated for producing 

 Epsom salts. In Kentucky and Tennessee caves are 

 numerous, which appear to have been used as burial- 

 places. In the north-west part of Georgia is a cave, 

 called Nickojack cave, 50 feet high and 100 wide, 

 which has been explored to the distance of three 

 miles. A stream of considerable size, runs through 

 it, which is interrupted by a fall. Caves are some- 

 times found which exhale poisonous vapours. The 

 most remarkable known is the Grotto del Cane, a 

 small cave near Naples. In Iceland there are many 

 caves, formed by the lava from its volcanoes. In the 

 volcanic country, near Rome, there are many natural 

 cavities of great extent and coolness, which are some- 

 tunes resorted to as a refuge from the heat. The 

 grottoes hi the Cevennes mountains in France are 

 both numerous and extensive, and abound in objects 

 of curiosity. In South America is the cavern of Gu- 

 acharo, which is said to extend for leagues. 



CAVE, EDWARD, an English printer, the founder 

 of the Gentleman's Magazine, was born in 1691. 

 His first occupation was that of clerk to a collector 

 of the excise in the country. He then went to Lon- 

 don, and put himself apprentice to a printer. When 

 his indentures expired, he obtained a place in the 

 post-office, and employed liis leisure in writing for 

 the newspapers. He published, in January, 1731, 

 the first iiombt-r of the Gentleman's Magazine, which 

 has continued till this day, amid the crowd of maga- 

 zines which have been established since. Cave was 

 deprived of his place in the postoffice on account of 

 his having resisted some abuses relative to the privi- 

 lege of franking letters. He died January 10, 

 1754. 



