GIANT’S KETTLE, Giant’s Cauldron or Pot-Hole, in physical geography, the name applied to cavities or holes which appear to have been drilled in the surrounding rocks by eddying currents of water bearing stones, gravel and other detrital matter. The size varies from a few inches to several feet in depth and diameter. The commonest occurrence is in regions where glaciers exist or have existed; a famous locality is the Gletscher Garten of Lucerne, where there are 32 giant’s kettles, the largest being 26 ft. wide and 30 ft. deep; they are also common in Germany, Norway and in the United States. It appears that water, produced by the thawing of the ice and snow, forms streams on the surface of the glacier, which, having gathered into their courses a certain amount of morainic débris, are finally cast down a crevasse as a swirling cascade or moulin. The sides of the crevasse are abraded, and a vertical shaft is formed in the ice. The erosion may be continued into the bed of the glacier, and, the ice having left the district, the giant’s kettle so formed is seen as an empty shaft, or as a pipe filled with gravel, sand or boulders. Such cavities and pipes afford valuable evidence as to the former extent of glaciers (see J. Geikie, The Great Ice Age). Similar holes are met with in river beds at the foot of cascades, and under some other circumstances. The term “pot-hole” is also sometimes used synonymously with “swallow-hole” (q.v.).
GIAOUR (a Turkish adaptation of the Pers. gâwr or gōr, an infidel), a word used by the Turks to describe all who are not Mahommedans, with especial reference to Christians. The word, first employed as a term of contempt and reproach, has become so general that in most cases no insult is intended in its use; similarly, in parts of China, the term “foreign devil” has become void of offence. A strict analogy to giaour is found in the Arabic kaffir, or unbeliever, which is so commonly in use as to have become the proper name of peoples and countries.
GIB, ADAM (1714-1788), Scottish divine and leader of the Antiburgher section of the Scottish Secession Church, was born on the 14th of April 1714 in the parish of Muckhart, Perthshire, and, on the completion of his literary and theological studies at Edinburgh and Perth, was licensed as a preacher in 1740. His eldest brother being a prodigal he succeeded to the paternal estate, but threw the will into the fire on his brother’s promising to reform. In 1741 he was ordained minister of the large Secession congregation of Bristo Street, Edinburgh. In 1745 he was almost the only minister of Edinburgh who continued to preach against rebellion while the troops of Charles Edward were in occupation of the town. When in 1747 “the Associate Synod,” by a narrow majority, decided not to give full immediate effect to a judgment which had been passed in the previous year against the lawfulness of the “Burgess Oath,” Gib led the protesting minority, who separated from their brethren and formed the Antiburgher Synod (April 10th) in his own house in Edinburgh. It was chiefly under his influence that it was agreed by this ecclesiastical body at subsequent meetings to summon to the bar their “Burgher” brethren, and finally to depose and excommunicate them for contumacy. Gib’s action in forming the Antiburgher Synod led, after prolonged litigation, to his exclusion from the building in Bristo Street where his congregation had met. In 1765 he made a vigorous and able reply to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which had stigmatized the Secession as “threatening the peace of the country.” From 1753 till within a short period of his death, which took place on the 18th of June 1788, he preached regularly in Nicolson Street church, which was constantly filled with an audience of two thousand persons. His dogmatic and fearless attitude in controversy earned for him the nickname “Pope Gib.”
Principal publications: Tables for the Four Evangelists (1770, and with author’s name, 1800); The Present Truth, a Display of the Secession Testimony (2 vols., 1774); Vindiciae dominicae (Edin., 1780). See Chambers’s Eminent Scotsmen; also article [United Presbyterian Church].
GIBARA, or Jibara (once “Punta del Yarey” and “Yarey de Gibara”), a north-coast city of Oriente Province, Cuba, 80 m. N.W. of Santiago de Cuba. Pop. (1907) 6170. It is served by railway to the S.S.W., to Holguín and Cacocum (where it connects with the main line between Santiago and Havana), and is a port of call for the American Munson Line. It lies on a circular harbour, about 1 m. in diameter, which, though open to the N., affords fair shelter. At the entrance to the harbour is San Fernando, an old fort (1817), and the city is very quaint in appearance. At the back of the city are three stone-topped hills, Silla, Pan and Tabla, reputed to be those referred to by Columbus in his journal of his first voyage. Enclosing the town is a stone wall, built by the Spaniards as a defence against attack during the rebellion of 1868-1878. Gibara is the port of Holguín. It exports cedar, mahogany, tobacco, sugar, tortoise-shell, Indian corn, cattle products, coco-nuts and bananas; and is the centre of the banana trade with the United States. Gibara is an old settlement, but it did not rise above the status of a petty village until after 1817; its importance dates from the opening of the port to commerce in 1827.