full milk, whole herds of Jersey cows give an average of 9 lb. of butter each cow per week, an exceptional cow occasionally giving as much as 16 lb. of butter in one week. Good Jersey cows yield from 500 to 700 gallons of milk, and from 300 to 350 lb. of butter in twelve months. Guernsey cows have exceeded 800 gallons of milk in a year, and the noted cow Select,' when six years old, gave 22 lb. of butter in seven days, this quantity being obtained from 19 quarts of milk per day. In America still higher records have been obtained.

Fig. 6.-Jersey Cow.

It has been stated that the improvement of cattle-breeding on scientific principles was begun by Bakewell in 1755. Almost continuously since then the good work has been prosecuted with energy and success, and for many years the British Isles have been regarded as the origin and headquarters of almost all the most valuable varieties of farm live-stock. For generations foreign countries have freely resorted to these islands for improved live-stock, and this export trade goes on as briskly and as extensively as ever. The United States of America have in particular drawn very largely upon British herds, and a great stimulus to this trade with the United States has been given by the extension of the ranching system. Vast areas of grazing land in the western states and territories have been acquired by syndicates for the breeding and rearing of cattle; and with the view of improving the stock of native cattle, large numbers of wellbred bulls of the leading British varieties, either imported from the United Kingdom or descended from imported stock, have been sent to the West for use on ranches.

The cattle of the United States and Canada present almost endless variety of form and character. This is what might be expected when it is remembered that they are descended from importations of cattle from Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, France, and England, Scotland, and Ireland. About the year 1525, some six years after the discovery of Mexico by the Spaniard Cortes, cattle were introduced into that country from Spain, and in the abundant pasturage of the Mexican territory they increased rapidly, spreading with the enterprising Spanish settlers into Texas, California, and other parts of the Far West. Exactly a hundred years later the Dutch settlers in New York brought cattle thither from Holland, and a few years earlier small importations of cattle had been made from the West India Islands into Virginia. The earliest of these arrivals in Virginia are assigned to 1610 and 1611, but that colony was broken up in 1622 by the Indians, who massacred 347 men, women, and children, and, it is presumed, also destroyed their cattle. In 1624-four years after the landing of the English Plymouth colony there-cattle were introduced into Massachusetts from England, and many other importations followed during the next few years. The Swedes brought cattle into Delaware in 1627, and in 1631 and two following years Danish emigrants introduced cattle from their native country into New Hampshire. English emigrants settled in Maryland in 1633, in North and South Carolina in 1660 and 1670, and in Pennsylvania in 1682, and took with them, or had sent after them, large numbers of English cattle. The French colonists brought cattle into

Quebec as early as 1608; and towards the close of the 17th century fresh importations of European cattle poured into the great American continent. It so happens, however, that while importations of cattle were made from all the countries named, and perhaps from others also, the existing cattle stock of America-leaving out the Mexican, now more commonly called Texan, cattle, which are still a race by themselves-are largely of British origin. In the earlier importations, again excluding Mexico, British cattle preponderated; and just as the English language has submerged all others in the gradual development of the American continent, so has British blood become the dominating element in the main bulk of the cattle stock of the country. There is no authentic information as to the character of the cattle first introduced into America, but all the leading breeds of the British Isles, as well as the chief milking breeds of the European continent, are now strongly represented in North America. There, as at home, the English shorthorn predominates, and there are also strong representations of the Hereford, Polled AberdeenAngus, Galloway, Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polls, Jersey and Dutch breeds. The cattle of America are being speedily improved, chiefly by the use of well-bred bulls, either imported from the British Isles or bred from imported cattle. Still, the majority of them are of an inferior character- quite unworthy of the rich country which they occupy. The Texan cattle still retain the rough coarse character which distinguished their Spanish ancestors. Improvement amongst the Texan cattle is proceeding very slowly.

The cattle of Australia, which are small, slowgrowing, and of inferior quality as beef-producers, have also been greatly improved by the introduction of British stock, chiefly of the Shorthorn, Hereford, and Polled Aberdeen-Angus breeds.

The

In the management of cattle there is perhaps even greater variation than in the character of the cattle themselves. A full description of the various methods of management would itself occupy a moderate volume. It must suffice here to mention two or three leading features in cattle economy. In the British Isles the ox is no longer a beast of burden, save in a very few localities. yoke has fallen upon the horse, except where both have been relieved by the steam-engine. The two main purposes for which cattle are now reared are the production of milk and butchermeat. Certain breeds, as already indicated, are peculiarly adapted for milk-production, such as the Jersey and Guernsey and Ayrshire cattle; others, notably the shorthorn and red-polled breeds, are distinguished for the combination of both milking and fattening properties of the highest order; while others again, such as the Polled Aberdeen-Angus, the Hereford and Devon, &c., display remarkable aptitude to fatten, and yield meat of the choicest quality. The farmer of course selects the breed best adapted to the locality in which he lives, and to the purposes he has in view. As a rule cattle of all kinds, whether dairying or fattening, spend the summer on the pasture fields; and it is only in exceptional cases, either where there is a deficiency of grass, or where it is desired to force the growth, fattening, or milking of the animals, that any food beyond what they can pick up for themselves is given to cattle on the fields. Oil-cake, cottoncake, and bruised grain-partly imported, mostly home grown-are the principal auxiliary foods on pasture. Where a careful system of management prevails, the cattle are put into comfortable houses overnight as soon as the chill autumnal evenings set in; and throughout the winter they are kept almost entirely in the houses, store-cattle getting out now and again about mid-day when the weather

CATTLE

is favourable. As winter food, turnips and straw or hay preponderate, but in the improved practice of recent years smaller quantities of roots and more of the concentrated foods, such as cake and grain, are being given to cattle. Silage is fast becoming an important article of food for cattle. Now cattle are fattened off at from eighteen to thirty months old, instead of from three to five years, as prior to 1850. The essence of the feeder's art is to produce the maximum quantity of first-class meat in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost; and in the struggle after this the maturing and fattening properties of cattle have been greatly accelerated. The young or 'baby-beef,' as it has been called, is more tender and perhaps more palatable than the substantial rounds' of the slowgrowing five-year-old beeves of 'fifty years ago;' but it is questionable if it is either so wholesome or so strength-giving. Be that as it may, the popular taste is entirely in favour of the 'baby-beef; and what the public desire the feeder must endeavour to supply.

Since 1880 there has been considerable growth in dairy-farming throughout the British Isles. When it is mentioned, however, that in 1895 butter to the value of £16,802,400, and cheese to the value of £4,674,181, were imported into the United Kingdom, it will be seen that there is room for still further extension. The system of management on dairyfarms varies according to the locality and objects of the farmer. Where the milk can be conveniently disposed of or despatched to towns, attention is given mainly to milk-selling, which is the least troublesome, and perhaps also the most profitable system of dairying. In other cases butter is the staple produce of the dairy; in other parts again, cheesemaking is the prevailing feature. The consumption of milk as human food has vastly increased in recent years. The rate of consumption keeps on growing, and ingenious facilities are devised for bringing fresh milk from distant dairies-dairies from 50 to 60 miles distant-into towns every morning. As would be expected, the calves bred on dairy-farms get little of their mothers' milk. They are reared principally on milk substitutes,' either prepared at home or by firms who make the production of cattle foods their sole or chief business. Linseed in various forms is very extensively used in calfrearing.

Cattle are very variously used, and are the only or the chief beasts of draught in many countries, as Cape Colony and large part of America. In India also horned cattle are the only beasts used for ploughing, and are chiefly valued as draught animals. A famous breed was formed for military purposes; and in the Central Provinces there is a high-class breed of trotting bullocks. The best ghee of India is obtained from the milk not of cows but of buffaloes. In China, no use whatever is made of cow's milk, though human milk is sometimes given to old people as a restorative. Nearer home, in Italy even, milk and butter are but little used, and cows are in request mainly for rearing calves. The large Italian breed can do little more than feed their young; and milch cows, if wanted, are brought from Switzerland. In Italy and some other countries, cattle are all stall-fed, vine, elm, and oak leaves forming an important part of their

food.

Wild Cattle.-In various parts of the world, species occur of cattle more or less wild, which are certainly different from any of the domesticated European breeds. Such are the Banteng (Bos banteng), the Gaur Ox (B. gaurus), the Gayal (B. gavaus). But besides these extra-European wild cattle, there are abundant remains of three virtually extinct European species, from which the domesticated breeds are believed to have gradually

originated. These are B. primigenius, B. longi frons, B. frontosus. The first became virtually extinct within historic times, is known as the Ur in the Nibelungenlied, was domesticated in Switzerland in the Neolithic period, was common in Britain and on the Continent in the time of Cæsar, seems to have persisted in Poland till the 17th century, and still survives in a semi-wild stage, though much degenerated in size,' in Chillingham Park in the north of Northumberland. In 1692 the flock numbered but 28; in 1875, 62 in all. At Cadzow near Hamilton is another herd, differing somewhat from those of Chillingham, but presumed to be also representatives of a detachment of the wild cattle that roamed the Caledonian Forest. Other herds are still found at Chartley (Staffordshire), Somerford (Cheshire), and Kilmory (Argyllshire); whilst that at Gisburn (Yorkshire) became extinct in 1859, and that of Lyme (Cheshire) dwindled from 34 head in 1850 to 4 in 1875. Though the interesting survivals preserved at Chillingham are less altered from the true primigenius type than any other known breed,' there is some reason to suppose from their white colour and some other features that they are descended from a partially domesticated ancestry. As to other descendants of B. primigenius, which have diverged further from the primitive type, it is generally supposed that the Podolian cattle of South Russia, Hungary, &c., the larger breeds in Friesland, Holland, and other parts of the Continent, and the Pembroke breed in England, are to be referred back to the same source.

B. longifrons or brachyceros was a smaller animal with short body. It was domesticated in Switzerland in the Neolithic period; it was early introduced into Britain (vast quantities of its bones having been found in remains of a lake-dwelling at Croyland); and it has its probable descendants in some of the mountain breeds of Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Bavaria (e.g. the Appenzell cattle), and, according to Owen, in some of the Welsh and Highland cattle.

B. frontosus is found along with the latter species, to which it is closely allied. It occurs in the peat-mosses of Scandinavia, and also in Ireland. It is regarded as the probable ancestor of the Norwegian mountain cattle, of the Bern cattle, and, according to Owen and others, of some of the Scotch Highland varieties. In regard to many of these pedigrees, dogmatic statement is quite impossible, and much difference of opinion obtains. The most divergent opinion is that of Wilckens, who maintains that some of the European domestic breeds are descended from the European bison.

Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. i., may be conveniently consulted for facts and references. See the articles BOVIDE, BREED, BULL-FIGHT, GAUR, MUSK OX, RANCHING, YAK, ZEBU, &c.

The

diseases of cattle are discussed under their own heads

CATTLE-PLAGUE, PLEURO-PNEUMONIA, ANTHRAX, MURRAIN, BOT, BLACK QUARTER, &c. ; the law thereof under CONTAGIOUS DISEASES; and G. Fleming's Animal Plagues (1871-82). See also DAIRY, BUTTER, CHEESE, and MILK. On cattle generally, see Youatt's Complete Grazier (13th ed., rewritten by Dr Wm. Fream, 1893); Pringle's Live Stock of the Farm; Wallace's Farm Live Stock of Great Britain; Stephens's Book of the Farm (new ed. by Macdonald); and Allen's American Cattle (New York). For Wild Cattle, see Wilckens, Rinderrassen Mittel-Europas (Vienna, 1876); J. A. Smith, Ancient Cattle of Scotland (1873); and Harting, Extinct British Animals (1880). Cattle, in English Law. See CHATTEL.

Cattle-plague (Ger. Rinderpest; Lat. Typhus Bovis Contagiosus). This is a specific malignant and contagious fever indigenous to the Asiatic steppes of Russia, India, Persia, China, Burma, Ceylon, &c.; never occurring in Britain but as a result of direct or indirect communication with imported

cattle, or with hides and offal which have been exposed to the contagion; and is hitherto unknown in America, Australia, and New Zealand. It is essentially a disease of the bovine family (ox, aurochs, and zebu), but may be communicated to the sheep, goat, deer, caniel, giraffe, antelope, gazelle, and even the peccary.

Records of fatal plagues in cattle have been handed down from very early dates, but the descriptions are so meagre that it is possible only to surmise their nature. It is probable that one of the plagues of Egypt was a form of anthrax, but in the reign of Nero (69 A.D.) Columella describes a disease which resembles cattle-plague. He says: The fever is present when tears are trickling down the face, when the head is carried low and heavily, and the eyes are closed; when the saliva flows from the mouth, when the respiration is shorter than in health, and seemingly embarrassed or sometimes accompanied by groaning.' About 400 A.D. Vegetius Renatus describes, under the term Malleus, a disease which might have been cattle-plague. In 809-10 A.D., during the wars of Charlemagne, occurred a great outbreak of cattleplague, which spread over nearly the whole of Europe, and particularly Britain. In 1348-49 a plague broke out amongst the cattle in England, just after the black death had destroyed thousands of human beings; it seems to have been similar to cattle-plague. Even in those days the stampingout system was understood, as the diseased cattle were slaughtered, and infected herds, and the herdsmen attending them, were kept from coming into contact with sound animals.

In 1480 another outbreak occurred which committed great devastation. It cannot be stated positively that these outbreaks were cattle-plague, as the symptoms have not been clearly handed down, but there is evidence to prove that outbreaks occurring in 1715, in 1745, and which continued until 1757, were those of the veritable plague. That of 1745 was brought from Holland either by two white calves, or by a parcel of distempered hides brought from Zealand. The disease broke out near London, continued for twelve years, and was only suppressed by most vigorous measures. It again made its appearance in 1865, and was introduced by 331 cattle shipped at Revel, and landed at Hull. Amongst these were 13 Russian cattle, the remainder of 46 which had been brought from St Petersburg and its neighbourhood. The cargo arrived on 29th May, and a lot of 146 were disposed of at Hull on the 30th. The remaining 175 were sent to London. Amongst them were 330 sheep which were sold at Hull to the butchers and killed, and all the 175 cattle except 20 were sold for killing, but the remaining 20 were sent to Gosport. From this source the disease spread rapidly, and by the end of July it appeared in Aberdeenshire, brought by 4 calves sent to Huntly from the south. By the beginning of November the plague was present in 30 counties in England, 17 in Scotland, and 1 in Wales; and on December 30 the disease had appeared on 7443 farms or in cattle-sheds in England, 2065 in Scotland, and 245 in Wales; total-9753 centres of infection. The total number of cattle on farms, in sheds, or other places where the disease had been officially reported to exist, was-England, 110,647; Scotland, 44,527; Wales, 4536; total, 159,710. And the number of healthy animals in contact and slaughtered were-England, 10,636; Scotland, 6578; Wales, 152; total, 17,366. The number attacked were-England, 48,964; Scotland, 22,298; Wales, 2287; total, 73,549. Out of this number 7045 recovered, 41,491 died, 13,931 were killed, and 11,082 remained diseased at this date. The plague continued to spread and to commit great havoc,

CATULLUS

until an Order in Council was issued making it compulsory to slaughter and bury all diseased cattle, as well as those which had been in contact with them. The beneficial effect of this order was soon made apparent, as the disease gradually diminished and eventually died out.

Had the restrictions upon cattle traffic been removed, there would have been another visitation in 1872, for in July of that year, animals affected with the disease were sent to Deptford, Hull, and Leith, but owing to its swift recognition, were not allowed to land in Scotland. From Hull, however, it spread to Bridlington, Pocklington, and two other parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire, but through the activity of the authorities was prevented from spreading further.

Sheep do not readily take the disease when kept in fields with affected cattle, but if kept together in close sheds, they take the disease in a short time.

Symptoms.-The virus absorbed into the blood gives rise to elevation of temperature (fever), which precedes all other symptoms, and occurs in from 36 to 48 hours after an animal has been inoculated. It will be thus seen that the period of latency-incubation-is very short. Two days after this elevation of temperature, the mucous membrane of the mouth, as well as that of the vagina in the cow, assumes a salmon colour, and is covered with an eruption. Even at this time the pulse is but little affected, but on the fourth day from the first rise of temperature there are marked signs of illness; the constitution is thoroughly invaded, and now ensue the drooping head, hanging ears, distressed look, with rigors and twitching of the muscles, failing pulse, oppressed breathing, diarrhoea, fetid breath, dís charge from the eyes, nose, and mouth, and constant moan so characteristic of this dreadful malady; death usually occurs on the seventh day from the first perceptible elevation of temperature, but the third or fourth after the illness is apparent to ordinary observers.

Cause and Cure.-As long ago as 1872 the disease was believed, and has since been proved, to be caused by microbes (see GERM). The awful epidemic which, entering Africa from the north-east about 1889, desolated a great part of South Africa, gave appalling opportunities for studying the malady and attempting cures. The disease reached the Zambesi in 1895; in Matabeleland between March 1896 and January 1897 it left of all the vast herds of horned cattle probably not 500 alive, buffaloes and antelopes being also exterminated. Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Cape Colony (1897) were successively desolated. In 1897 Koch of Berlin was at work, and his inoculative methods (with cultivated microbes, serum, &c.) were believed to lend belp if not immunity; and Edington obtained success by inoculating living animals with the blood of those dead of the disease after treating it with citric acid, as also by inoculating with glycerine and bile, &c.

Cattolica, a town of Sicily, with sulphurworks, 14 miles NW. of Girgenti. Pop. 6591.

Catullus, GAIUS VALERIUS, the greatest lyric poet of ancient Italy, and one of the greatest poets of all ages, was born at Verona either in 87 or, more probably, in 84 B.C. Few of the incidents in his life are known to us, and the dates assigned to these are in most cases only conjectural. He appears to have belonged to the equestrian order, and his years were spent mainly at Rome, where he settled about 62 B.C., and at his villas, to which he was fond of retiring, at Tibur and Sifmio. He began to write verses when a boy of sixteen or seventeen. When my primrose youth was in its

CATULLUS

pleasant spring,' he says, 'I played enough at rhyming. In Rome he mingled with the best society, becoming intimate with the two Ciceros, the Metelli, Hortensius, and probably with Lucretius. And in Rome he met the lady whom, under the name of Lesbia, he has sung in verses which stand at the head of the lyric poetry of passion. It is almost certain that the Lesbia of Catullus was none other than Clodia, the sister of Cicero's enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher. One of the most beautiful and accomplished women of her time, she inspired Catullus with a passionate love of which the changing phases are mirrored in a wonderful cycle of poems. There is first a time of rapturous joy; then come doubts, quarrels, and reconciliations, and in the end betrayal and despair. The final rupture seems to have happened in 57 B.C., and in that year Catullus accompanied the proprætor Gaius Memmius to his province of Bithynia. He returned to Rome disappointed in his hopes of enriching himself, and entered impetuously into the contest which was then being waged between the senatorian and the democratic parties. Like Cicero and most of the men of letters of his day, he espoused the cause of the senate. A fiery, unscrupulous partisan, he assailed his enemies with equal scurrility and wit, and directed one of his coarsest lampoons at the head of Julius Cæsar. His closing years were darkened by the loss of a favourite brother, on whose tomb in the Troad, which he visited when returning from Bithynia, he wrote one of the most exquisite of all poems that breathe regret for the dead. He was himself cut off in early life, for, though the exact date of his death can only be conjectured, in all probability he did not survive the year

54 B.C.

The extant works of Catullus comprise 116 pieces, many of which are extremely brief, while the longest of them contains only some 400 lines. There is considerable variety, however, in this somewhat slender body of poetry. There are graceful, playful verses of society, and there are verses, struck out in the heat of party warfare, in which satiric wit sparkles through fescennine raillery. There are elaborate descriptive and mythological pieces, such as the Coma Berenices and the stately and richly-coloured Peleus and Thetis, which appear to have been translated or adapted from the Greek. There is the Attis, a strange poem, unlike any other work of a Latin writer in its wild imaginative power and in the magnificent sound and sweep of its galliambic verse. And there is the crowning series of love-poems, in which the incarnation of burning passion in exquisite language, the mastery of verbal music, are carried to what is seemingly the highest attainable point of perfection. In these Lesbia poems there is no sign of the laborious art which produced the mosaic-work of the Horatian odes. They seem to have flowed forth-thought, feeling, phrase, and cadence combined in a perfect whole at a single creative impulse. Their author's mastery of the Latin tongue was unerring and unbounded. In his works it seems endowed with the elastic and radiant strength of the Greek. He revealed all it had of energy, sonority, and sweetness, of monumental dignity and laughing grace. He moulded it into lines which neither Lucretius nor Virgil has surpassed for majesty of rhythm; he wove it into lyrics which for lightness of movement and caressing sweetness of cadence are unmatched in all the fields of Latin verse. For breadth of vision, fertility of thought, insight into human character, we must turn to other writers than Catullus. For fire and music and unlaboured felicity of phrase he has no superior among the lyric poets of all time.

The text of the works of Catullus, after having been lost for more than three hundred years, was discovered in the 14th century at Verona. The original manuscript was again lost, and until lately only one copy of it, which was preserved at St Germains, and is now in Paris, was believed to be in existence. A manuscript in the Bodleian Library, however, has been discovered by Dr Bährens to be a sister copy of the St Germains manuscript. The best editions are by Mr Robinson Ellis (1867; new ed. 1878; Commentary, new ed. 1889), Bährens (Leip. 1876; new ed. 1885); Postgate (1889); and S. G. Owen (1893). Among English verse translations are those of Martin (1861), Cranstoun (1867), Ellis (1871), Hart Davies (1879), and Grant Allen (the Attis, 1892). also Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations (1878); Sellar's Roman Poets of the Republic (new ed. 1881); and Lafaye, Catulle et ses Modèles (1894). Catydid. See KATYDID.

See

Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine, 30 miles Caub, a town in the Prussian province of HesseWNW. of Wiesbaden by rail. Here Blücher crossed the Rhine with his army, January 1, 1814; and here, too, till 1866, toll was levied by the Duke of Nassau-the only ruler who kept up this feudal privilege-from vessels navigating the Rhine. Caub has underground slate-quarries; and opposite, on an island in the river, where Louis le Débonnaire died in 840, is a castle called the Pfalz, built in 1326, which is said to have been resorted to for safety by the Countesses Palatine during childbed. In 1876 and 1879 Caub was the scene of two serious landslips. Pop. 2179.

which, after a northerly course of 600 miles, falls Cauca, a river of Colombia, in South America, into the Magdalena. Its valley is one of the richest and most populous districts of the continent, and it gives name to the largest of the Colombian states, traversed by the Andean coast-range, and extending along the Pacific from Panama to Ecuador. Area, 260,000 sq. m.; population estiIt is rich in minerals, and mated at 460,000. possesses the most productive platinum mine in America. Capital, Popayán.

Caucasus and the Caucasians. The great mountain-range of the Caucasus forms, the backbone of a well-marked geographical region, nearly corresponding with the Russian governor-generalship or lieutenancy of Caucasia. The natural and administrative northern limit is the great Manitch depression, extending from the Sea of Azov to the Caspian, and including the basins of the Kuban and Terek rivers. The southern natural limit is along the basins of the Rion and Kur rivers. The Russian province comprises all the Russian territory to the Turkish and Persian frontiers, including also part of the Armenian highlands and the mountain masses adjoining them, now known by the infelicitous name of Little Caucasus, south of the Rion and Kur rivers. Little or Anti-Caucasus is connected with Caucasus proper by the narrow Mesk ridge crossing the Rion-Kur Valley between the headwaters of those streams. The Sea of Azov and the Caspian seem at one time to have been connected by the Manitch depression; south_of which extend vast steppes of Hat treeless landfertile, but with little or no water. South of the steppe to the northern spurs of the mountains is luxuriant park land covered with magnificent grasses, and also quite level. Beyond this rise the mountains in successive terraces. On the south side, towards the Rion and Kur, the mountain face is much steeper and more sudden.

The Caucasus occupies the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian, its general direction being from west-north-west to east-south-east.

From the peninsula of Taman on the Black Sea, to the peninsula of Apsheron on the Caspian, it has a length of about 750 miles. The breadth, including the secondary ranges and spurs, is about 150 miles, but that of the higher Caucasus does not exceed 70 miles. This range is sometimes treated as part of the boundary line between Europe and Asia, but the region is really Asiatic in character (see ASIA), The higher and central part of the range is formed of parallel chains, not separated by deep and wide valleys, but remarkably connected by elevated plateaus, which are traversed by narrow fissures of extreme depth. The highest peaks are in the most central ridge or chain, at least six of them well over 16,000 feet, much exceeding the highest Alps. Mount Elburz attains an elevation of 18,540 feet above the sea; Kazbek reaches a height of more than 16,500 feet; and between these come Koshtantau and Dikh-tau. Here the line of perpetual snow is between 10,000 and 11,000 feet high; but the whole amount of perpetual snow is not great, nor are the glaciers very large or numerous. For more than 100 miles' length of the main ridge there are no passes lower than 10,000 feet. The central chain, in its highest part at least, is granitic or even pure granite. On either side of the granitic axis are metamorphic rocks, such as mica-schists and talc-schists; and beyond these, clay-slates and schists. The secondary parallel chains on both sides of the central ridge are of limestone. The spurs and outlying mountains or hills are of less extent and importance than those of almost any other mountain-range of similar magnitude, subsiding as they do until they are only about 200 feet high along the shores of the Black Sea. Some parts are entirely destitute of wood, but other parts are very densely wooded, and the secondary ranges near the Black Sea exhibit most magnificent forests of oak, beech, ash, maple, and walnut; grain is cultivated in some parts to a height of 8000 feet, while in the lower valleys rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo, &c. are produced. As might be expected from the geographical situation of the Caucasus, the climate, though it is generally healthy, is very different on the northern and southern sides, the vine growing wild in great abundance on the south, which is not the case on the north. The south declivity of the mountains towards Georgia presents much exceedingly beautiful and romantic scenery.

There are no active volcanoes in Mount Caucasus, but every evidence of volcanic action. Elburz and Kazbek are both of volcanic origin. There are hot springs and mud volcanoes at each end of the range, and there are also famous petroleum wells in the peninsula of Apsheron (see BAKU). Mineral springs also occur in many places, notably at Vladikavkaz. The bison, or aurochs, is found in the mountains; bears, wolves, and jackals are among the carnivorous animals. Lead, iron, sulphur, coal, and copper are found.

The waters of the Caucasus flow into four principal rivers the Kuban and the Rion or Faz (the Phasis of the ancients), which flow into the Black Sea; and the Terek and the Kur, which flow into the Caspian. Kuban and Terek are north, Rion and Kur or Kura south of the mountains. The Russians have with great labour carried a military road through a valley somewhat wider than most of the Caucasian valleys. This is the tremendous fissure or ravine of the Dariel gorge about halfway from the Black Sea to the Caspian. The road passes over a height of about 8000 feet, and is protected by many forts. The only other road is by the Pass of Derbend, near the Caspian Sea. There is a railway from Baku by Tiflis to Poti and Batoum; Vladikavkaz is the terminus of the railway from the north.

ČAUCASIAN was the name adopted by Blumen

bach (q.v.) for one of his main ethnological divisions of mankind; and as the Georgian skull he had was the finest in his collection, the Caucasian was taken as the finest type of the Indo-European stock. Subsequent ethnologists have, mainly on philological grounds, broken up the Caucasian variety of Blumenbach into two well-marked philological groups, the Aryan (q.v.) and the Semitic peoples (q.v.). The name Caucasian was clearly a misnomer when it suggested affinity in blood or in language between the very various races of the Caucasus, classified below, and Aryans or Semites; and Prichard and others proposed actually to connect most of the Caucasus peoples with the Mongolian races of Asia. Later anthropologists, finding the word convenient, use Caucasian or Caucasic for the Fair type of man as opposed to the Mongolic or Yellow type. But they distinctly repudiate any suggestion of community of race or of language between the peoples so named; and desire to indicate a physical fact and an anthropological type. See ETHNOLOGY; also PHILOLOGY.

The Caucasus has been called the Mountain of Languages from the multiplicity of tongues spoken in this narrow area-tongues many of them totally distinct from one another, and, with one exception, apparently unconnected with the languages of any other part of the globe, or race of men; though both Aryan and Turkoman affinities have been alleged for Georgian, and Sayce has suggested that the ancient Hittites (q.v.), whose empire in Asia Minor rivalled that of the Assyrians, were of the same stock. There are certain well-marked groups amongst them, within which manifest affinity prevails. (1) The Southern division or Kartveli stock comprises the Georgians or Grusians, mainly in the upper and middle basin of the Kur; the Imeritians, west of the watershed between the Kur and Rion; the Mingrelians, farther west reaching to the Black Sea; the Gurians, south of the Rion; the Laz, on the Turkish frontiers; and the Svans or Suanetians, between the Mingrelians and the higher Caucasus. (2) The Western division contains the Tcherkess or Circassian race, formerly on the left bank of the Kuban, north of Caucasus; the Abkhasians in the narrow strip of land between the Caucasus and the Black Sea on the south; and the Kabards, north and east of Elburz. (3) The Eastern division contains the Chechenz or Tchetchens on the northern slopes of the Eastern Caucasus down to the Terek; and the Lesghians farther east and south. It is doubtful whether the numerous small tribes called Lesghians have any affinity with the Tchetchens, or how far they are related to one another; only one, the Avars, have a written language, and they use Arabic characters. (4) The Ossetes or Ossetians in the centre of Caucasus, on both slopes about Kazbek, are unquestionably a race of the Aryan stock, and the language has affinity with the Persian branch; they call themselves Irun (probably meaning Aryan). The Kartveli group may contain 850,000 persons; the Western group, 130,000; the Eastern, 520,000; the Ossetian, 120,000. All the Caucasian languages are tremely harsh. Some of them are partially inflectional; all save the Ossetian are substantially agglutinative.

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In various portions of this territory there are of course other intrusive elements of population of foreign race: Russian Slavs; Tartars; numerous Armenians; Kurds; Greeks; Tats and other Iranians or Tajiks; and a German colony from Würtemberg, east of Tiflis. Not merely do the inhabitants of the Caucasus differ widely in race, but they represent great variety of stages of culture, from the indolent, music-loving Georgians to the