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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME V SLICE VII
Cerargyrite to Charing Cross
Articles in This Slice
CERARGYRITE, a mineral species consisting of silver chloride; an important ore of silver. The name cerargyrite is a Greek form (from κέρας, horn, and ἄργυρος, silver) of the older name hornsilver, which was used by K. Gesner as far back as 1565. The chloro-bromide and bromide of silver were also included under this term until they were distinguished chemically in 1841 and 1842, and described under the names embolite and bromargyrite (or bromyrite) respectively; the chloride then came to be distinguished as chlorargyrite, though the name cerargyrite is often now applied to this alone. Chloro-bromo-iodide of silver has also been recognized as a mineral and called iodembolite. All these are strikingly alike in appearance and general characters, differing essentially only in chemical composition, and it would seem better to reserve the name cerargyrite for the whole group, using the names chlorargyrite (AgCl), embolite (Ag(Cl, Bl)), bromargyrite (AgBr) and iodembolite (Ag(Cl, Br, I)) for the different isomorphous members of the group. They are cubic in crystallization, with the cube and the octahedron as prominent forms, but crystals are small and usually indistinct; there is no cleavage. They are soft (H = 2½) and sectile to a high degree, being readily cut with a knife like horn. With their resinous to adamantine lustre and their translucency they also present somewhat the appearance of horn; hence the name hornsilver. The colour varies somewhat with the chemical composition, being grey or colourless in chlorargyrite, greenish-grey in embolite and bromargyrite, and greenish-yellow to orange-yellow in iodembolite. On exposure to light the colour quickly darkens. The specific gravity also varies with the composition: for the pure chloride it is 5.55, and the highest recorded for an iodembolite is 6.3.
The hornsilvers all occur under similar conditions and are often associated together; they are found in metalliferous veins with native silver and ores of silver, and are usually confined to the upper oxidized parts of the lodes. They are important ores of silver (the pure chloride contains 75.3% of silver), and have been extensively mined at several places in Chile, also in Mexico, and at Broken Hill in New South Wales. The chloride and chloro-bromide have been found in several Cornish mines, but never in very large amounts.
(L. J. S.)
CERBERUS, in Greek mythology, the dog who guarded the entrance to the lower world. He allowed all to enter, but seized those who attempted to escape. According to Hesiod (Theog. 311), he was a fifty-headed monster with a fearful bark, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. He was variously represented with one, two or (usually) three heads, often with the tail of a snake or with snakes growing from his head or twined round his body. One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles was to fetch Cerberus from below to the upper world, a favourite subject of ancient vase-paintings.
CERDIC (d. 534), founder of the West Saxon kingdom, is described as an ealdorman who in 495 landed with his son Cynric in Hampshire, where he was attacked at once by the Britons. Nothing more is heard of him until 508, when he defeated the Britons with great slaughter. Strengthened by fresh arrivals of Saxons, he gained another victory in 519 at Certicesford, a spot which has been identified with the modern Charford, and in this year took the title of king. Turning westward, Cerdic appears to have been defeated by the Britons in 520 at Badbury or Mount Badon, in Dorset, and in 527 yet another fight with the Britons is recorded. His last work was the conquest of the Isle of Wight, probably in the interest of some Jutish allies. All the sovereigns of England, except Canute, Hardicanute, the two Harolds and William the Conqueror, are said to be descended from Cerdic.
See Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); Gildas, De excidio Britanniae, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Nennius, Historia, Brittonum, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Bede, Historiae ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum libri v., ed. C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896); E. Guest, Origines Celticae (London, 1883); J.R. Green, The Making of England (London, 1897).
CERDONIANS, a Gnostic sect, founded by Cerdo, a Syrian, who came to Rome about 137, but concerning whose history little is known. They held that there are two first causes—the perfectly good and the perfectly evil. The latter is also the creator of the world, the god of the Jews, and the author of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the son of the good deity; he was sent into the world to oppose the evil; but his incarnation, and therefore his sufferings, were a mere appearance. Regarding the body as the work of the evil deity, the Cerdonians formed a moral system of great severity, prohibiting marriage, wine and the eating of flesh, and advocating fasting and other austerities. Most of what the Fathers narrate of Cerdo’s tenets has probably been transferred to him from his famous pupil Marcion, like whom he is said to have rejected the Old Testament and the New, except part of Luke’s Gospel and of Paul’s Epistles. (See [Marcion], and [Gnosticism].)
CEREALIS (Cerialis), PETILLIUS (1st century A.D.), Roman general, a near relative of the emperor Vespasian. He is first heard of during the reign of Nero in Britain, where he was completely defeated (A.D. 61) by Boadicea. Eight years later he played an important part in the capture of Rome by the supporters of Vespasian. In 70 he put down the revolt of Civilis (q.v.). In 71, as governor of Britain, where he had as a subordinate the famous Agricola, he inflicted severe defeats upon the Brigantes, the most powerful of the tribes of Britain. Tacitus says that he was a bold soldier rather than a careful general, and preferred to stake everything on the issue of a single engagement. He possessed natural eloquence of a kind that readily appealed to his soldiers. His loyalty towards his superiors was unshakable.
Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 32; Histories, iii. 59, 78, iv. 71, 75, 86, v. 21; Agricola, 8, 17.
CERES, an old Italian goddess of agriculture. The name probably means the “creator” or “created,” connected with crescere and creare. But when Greek deities were introduced into Rome on the advice of the Sibylline books (in 495 B.C., on the occasion of a severe drought), Demeter, the Greek goddess of seed and harvest, whose worship was already common in Sicily and Lower Italy, usurped the place of Ceres in Rome, or rather, to Ceres were added the religious rites which the Greeks paid to Demeter, and the mythological incidents which originated with her. At the same time the cult of Dionysus and Persephone (see [Liber and Libera]) was introduced. The rites of Ceres were Greek in language and form. Her priestesses were Italian Greeks and her temple was Greek in its architecture and built by Greek artists. She was worshipped almost exclusively by plebeians, and her temple near the Circus Maximus was under the care of the plebeian aediles, one of whose duties was the superintendence of the corn-market. Her chief festivals were the ludi Cereris or Cerealia (more correctly, Cerialia), games held annually from April 12-19 (Ovid, Fasti, iv. 392 ff.); a second festival, in August, to celebrate the reunion of Ceres and Proserpine, in which women, dressed in white, after a fast of nine days offered the goddess the first-fruits of the harvest (Livy xxii. 56); and the Jejunium Cereris, a fast also introduced (191 B.C.) by command of the Sibylline books (Livy xxvi. 37), at first held only every four years, then annually on the 4th of October. In later times Ceres was confused with Tellus. (See also [Demeter].)
CERIGNOLA, a town of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, 26 m. S.E. by rail from the town of Foggia. Pop. (1901) 34,195. It was rebuilt after a great earthquake in 1731, and has a considerable agricultural trade. In 1503 the Spaniards under Gonzalo de Cordoba defeated the French under the duc de Nemours below the town—a victory which made the kingdom of Naples into a Spanish province in Italy. Cerignola occupies the site of Furfane, a station on the Via Traiana between Canusium and Herdoniae.
CERIGOTTO, called locally Lius (anc. Aegilia or Ogylos; mod. Gr. officially Antikythera), an island of Greece, belonging to the Ionian group, and situated between Cythera (Cerigo) and Crete, about 20 m. from each. Some raised beaches testify to an upheaval in comparatively recent times. With an area of about 10 sq. m. it supports a population of about 300, who are mainly Cretan refugees, and in favourable seasons exports a quantity of good wheat. It was long a favourite resort of Greek pirates. It is famous for the discovery in 1900, close to its coast, of the wreck of an ancient ship with a cargo of bronze and marble statues.
CERINTHUS (c. A.D. 100), an early Christian heretic, contemporary with the closing years of the apostle John, who, according to the well-known story of Polycarp, reported by Irenaeus (iii. 3) and twice recorded in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. iii. 28, iv. 14), made a hasty exit from a bath in Ephesus on learning that Cerinthus was within. Other early accounts agree in making the province of Asia the scene of his activity, and Hippolytus (Haer. vii. 33) credits him with an Egyptian training. There can be no truth in the notice given by Epiphanius (Haer. xxviii. 4) that Cerinthus had in earlier days at Jerusalem led the judaizing opposition against Paul.
The difficulty of defining Cerinthus’s theological position is due not only to the paucity of our sources but to the fact that the witness of the two principal authorities, Irenaeus (1. 26, iii. 11) and Hippolytus (Syntagma), does not agree. Further, Irenaeus himself in one passage fails to distinguish between Cerinthian and Valentinian doctrines. It would appear, however, that Cerinthus laid stress on the rite of circumcision and on the observance of the Sabbath. He taught that the world had been made by angels, from one of whom, the god of the Jews, the people of Israel had received their Law, which was not perfect. The only New Testament writing which he accepted was a mutilated Gospel of Matthew. Jesus was the offspring of Joseph and Mary, and on him at the baptism descended the Christ,[1] revealing the hitherto unknown Father, and endowing him with miraculous power. This Christ left Jesus again before the Passion, and the resurrection of Jesus was still in the future. Together with these somewhat gnostic ideas, Cerinthus, if we may trust the notices of Gaius the Roman presbyter (c. 290) and Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 340), held a violent and crude form of chiliasm. But the chief significance of the man is his “combination of zeal for legal observances with bold criticism of the Law itself as a whole and of its origin,” which reminds us of the Clementine Recognitions. Cerinthus is a blend of judaizing christian and gnostic.
[1] So Irenaeus. According to Hippolytus and Epiphanius it was the Holy Ghost that thus descended.
CERIUM (symbol Ce, atomic weight 140.25), a metallic chemical element which occurs with the rare earths in the minerals cerite, samarskite, euxenite, monazite, parisite and many yttrium minerals. The particular earth containing cerium was discovered by M.H. Klaproth in 1803, whilst J. Berzelius at about the same time also examined it and came to the conclusion that it was the oxide of a new metal, which he termed cerium. The crude oxide of the metal is obtained from cerite, by evaporating the mineral with strong sulphuric acid, removing excess of acid and dissolving the residue in ice-cold water; sulphuretted hydrogen is passed through the solution, which is then filtered, acidified with hydrochloric acid, and precipitated as oxalate by oxalic acid; the oxalate is then converted into oxide by ignition. From the crude oxide so obtained (which contains lanthanum and didymium oxides) the cerium may be separated by conversion into its double sulphate on the addition of potassium sulphate, the sulphates of the cerium group being insoluble in a saturated solution of potassium sulphate. The sulphate is subsequently boiled with water, when a basic sulphate is precipitated. For the preparation of pure cerium compounds see Auer v. Welsbach, Monatshefte, 1884, v. 508.
The metal was first obtained, in an impure state, by C.G. Mosander, by fusing its chloride with sodium. W.F. Hillebrand and T. Norton have prepared it by the electrolysis of the melted chloride (Pogg. Ann., 1875, 156, p. 466); and C. Winkler (Berichte, 1891, xxiv. 884) obtained it by heating the dioxide with magnesium powder. The metal has somewhat the appearance of iron, and has a specific gravity of 6.628, which, after melting, is increased to 6.728. Its specific heat is 0.04479 (W.F. Hillebrand). It is permanent in dry air, but tarnishes in moist air; it can be hammered and rolled; it melts at 623° C. It burns readily on heating, with a brilliant flame; and it also combines with chlorine, bromine, iodine, sulphur, phosphorus and cyanogen. In the case of the two former elements the combination is accompanied by combustion of the metal. With water it is slowly converted into the dioxide. Cold concentrated nitric and sulphuric acids are without action on the metal, but it reacts rapidly with dilute nitric and hydrochloric acids. The dioxide is used in incandescent gas mantles (see [Lighting]).
Three oxides of cerium are known. The sesquioxide, Ce2O3, is obtained by heating the carbonate in a current of hydrogen. It is a bluish-green powder, which on exposure rapidly combines with the oxygen of the air. By the addition of caustic soda to cerous salts, a white precipitate of cerous hydroxide is formed. Cerium dioxide, CeO2, is produced when cerium carbonate, nitrate, sulphate or oxalate is heated in air. It is a white or pale yellow compound, which becomes reddish on heating. Its specific gravity is 6.739, and its specific heat 0.0877. It is not reduced to the metallic condition on heating with carbon. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves this oxide, forming a yellowish solution and ozone. By suspending the precipitated cerous hydroxide in water and passing chlorine through the solution, a hydrated form of the dioxide, 2CeO2·3H2O, is obtained, which is readily soluble in nitric and sulphuric acids, forming ceric salts, and in hydrochloric acid, where it forms cerous chloride, with liberation of chlorine. A higher hydrated oxide, CeO3·xH2O, is formed by the interaction of cerous sulphate with sodium acetate and hydrogen peroxide (Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Comptes rendus, 1885, 100, p. 605).
Cerous chloride, CeCl3, is obtained when the metal is burned in chlorine; when a mixture of cerous oxide and carbon is heated in chlorine; or by rapid heating of the dioxide in a stream of carbon monoxide and chlorine. It is a colourless substance, which is easily fusible. A hydrated chloride of composition 2CeCl3·15H2O is also known, and is obtained when a solution of cerous oxide in hydrochloric acid is evaporated over sulphuric acid. Double salts of cerous chloride with stannic chloride, mercuric chloride, and platinic chloride are also known. Cerous bromide, 2CeBr3·3H2O, and iodide, CeI3·9H2O, are known. Cerous sulphide, Ce2S3, results on heating cerium with sulphur or cerium oxide in carbon bisulphide vapour. It is a red infusible mass of specific gravity 5.1, and is slowly decomposed by warm water. The sulphate, Ce2(SO4)3, is formed on dissolving the carbonate in sulphuric acid, or on dissolving the basic sulphate in sulphuric acid, in the presence of sulphur dioxide, evaporating the solution, and drying the product obtained, at high temperature (B. Brauner, Monatshefte, 1885, vi. 793). It is a white powder of specific gravity 3.912, easily soluble in cold water. Many hydrated forms of the sulphate are known, as are also double salts of the sulphate with potassium, sodium, ammonium, thallium and cadmium sulphates. Ceric fluoride, CeF4·H2O, is obtained when the hydrated dioxide is dissolved in hydrofluoric acid and the solution evaporated on the water bath (B. Brauner). The sulphate, Ce(SO4)2·4H2O, is formed when the basic sulphate is dissolved in sulphuric acid; or when the dioxide is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, and evaporated in vacuo over sulphuric acid. It forms yellow crystals soluble in water; the aqueous solution on standing gradually depositing a basic salt. Double sulphates of composition 2Ce(SO4)2·2K2SO4·2H2O, Ce(SO4)2·3(NH4)2SO4·4H2O are known. Nitrates of cerium have been described, as have also phosphates, carbonates and a carbide.
Cerium compounds may be recognized by the red precipitate of ceric hydroxide, which is formed when sodium hypochlorite is added to a colourless cerous salt. For the quantitative determination of the metal, the salts are precipitated by caustic potash, the precipitate washed, dried and heated, and finally weighed as the dioxide.
The atomic weight of cerium has been determined by B. Brauner (Chem. News, 1895, lxxi. 283) from the analysis of the oxalate; the values obtained varying from 140.07 to 140.35.
CERNUSCHI, HENRI (1821-1896), Italian politician and economist, was born of wealthy parents at Milan in 1821, and was destined for the legal profession. During his studies he became involved in the revolutionary movement. He played a conspicuous part in the insurrection at Milan in 1848, and also at Rome in 1849, where he had a seat in the National Assembly. On the collapse of the revolutionary government he was arrested (1850), but managed to escape to France, where he engaged in commerce and banking, became naturalized, and acquired a large fortune. He took a prominent part in opposing the Socialist movement, and in April 1870, having subscribed a large sum to the funds of a committee formed to combat the Napoleonic plebiscite, had to leave the country. In September the formation of the Third Republic enabled him to return, but he soon left Paris to travel in the East, whence he returned with a fine art collection, particularly of Japanese objects. Cernuschi is best known for his publications on financial questions, more especially bimetallism. Of the latter he was an ardent champion, and the word itself is commonly supposed to have originated with him—at least in its English form it is first found in his Silver Vindicated (1876). Among his other works may be mentioned: Mécanique de l’échange (1861); Illusion des sociétés coopératives (1886); Le Bimétallisme en Angleterre (1879); Le Grand Procès de l’Union latine (1884). He died at Mentone on the 12th of May 1896.
CEROGRAPHY (from the Gr. κηρός, wax, and γράφειν, to write), the art of painting in wax. (See [Encaustic Painting].)
CERRO DE PASCO, or Pasco, a mining town of Peru, capital of the department of Junin, 107 m. (221 m. by rail, via Oroya) N.E. of Lima. Pop. (1907 est.) 10,000. It is situated on the plateau of Bombon, 14,280 ft. above sea-level, and in the midst of one of the oldest and richest silver-mining districts of Peru. There were 342 silver mines in this district in 1890, and at the end of the 19th century the average annual output since the discovery of the mines in 1630 was estimated at 1,600,000 oz. A decline in the silver production having set in, the American company which had become owners of three-fourths of the mining properties in the district turned its attention to the extensive copper deposits there, built a railway to Oroya 83 m. distant, another, 25 m. long, to the coal-fields of Gollarisquisga, north of Pasco, and then erected large smelting works (in which 2500 men were regularly employed in 1907) 8 m. out of town and 4 m. from limestone beds. The railway to Oroya was completed in 1903, the coal mine branch and smelter later on, and in 1907 the copper output was 20,152,000 ℔ The town of Pasco is badly built and unattractive, and is inhabited chiefly by mining labourers and their families. Its population is increased 50% in times of great mining activity. The name Cerro de Pasco is that of a “knot” of mountains uniting the two great ranges of the Andes at this point.
CERTALDO, a town of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Florence, 35 m. S.S.W. by rail and 18 m. direct from the town of Florence. Pop. (1901) town, 4552; commune, 9120. It was the home of the family of Giovanni Boccaccio, who died and was buried here in 1375. His house (of red brick, like the other old houses of the town) was restored in 1823 and fitted up with old furniture. A statue of him was erected in the principal square in 1875. The Palazzo Pretorio, or Vicariale, the residence of the Florentine governors, recently restored to its original condition, has a picturesque facade and court adorned with coats of arms, and in the interior are various frescoes dating from the 13th to the 16th century. The town as a whole is picturesque, and lies on a hill 426 ft. above sea-level.
See R. Pantini, S. Gimignano e Certaldo (Bergamo, 1904), p. 101 seq.
| Fig. 1. |
| Fig. 2. |
CERUSSITE, a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and an important ore of lead. The name (sometimes erroneously spelt cerusite) is from the Lat. cerussa, “white lead.” “Cerussa nativa” was mentioned by K. Gesner in 1565, and in 1832 F.S. Beudant applied the name céruse to the mineral, whilst the present form, cerussite, is due to W. Haidinger (1845). Popular names in early use were lead-spar and white-lead-ore.
Cerussite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and is isomorphous with aragonite. Like aragonite it is very frequently twinned, the compound crystals being pseudo-hexagonal in form. Three crystals are usually twinned together on two faces of the prism m{110}, producing six-rayed stellate groups (figs, 1 and 2) with the individual crystals intercrossing at angles of nearly 60°. Twinning on the faces of the prism r{130}, the angles of which are also nearly 60°, produces a similar kind of grouping, but is much less common. Crystals are of frequent occurrence, and they usually have very bright and smooth faces. The mineral also occurs in compact granular masses, and sometimes in fibrous forms. It is usually colourless or white, sometimes grey or greenish in tint; it varies from transparent to translucent, and has an adamantine lustre. It is very brittle, and has a conchoidal fracture. Hardness 3-3½; sp. gr. 6.5. A variety containing 7% of zinc carbonate, replacing lead carbonate, is known as iglesiasite, from Iglesias in Sardinia, where it is found.
The mineral may be readily recognized by its characteristic twinning, in conjunction with the adamantine lustre and high specific gravity. It dissolves with effervescence in dilute nitric acid. Before the blow-pipe it fuses very readily, and gives reactions for lead. Cerussite occurs in metalliferous veins in association with galena, and has been formed by the action of carbonated waters on the galena; it is therefore found in the upper parts of the lodes together with other secondary minerals, such as limonite. Finely crystallized specimens have been obtained from the Friedrichssegen mine near Ems in Nassau, Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony, Mies in Bohemia, Phenixville in Pennsylvania, Broken Hill in New South Wales, and several other localities. Delicate acicular crystals of considerable length were found long ago in the Pentire Glaze mine near St Minver in Cornwall. It is often found in considerable quantities, and contains as much as 77½% of lead.
(L. J. S.)
CERUTTI, GIUSEPPE ANTONIO GIACHIMO (1738-1792), French author and politician, was born at Turin on the 13th of June 1738. He joined the Society of Jesus and became professor at the Jesuit college at Lyons. In 1762, in reply to the attacks on his order, he published an Apologie générale de l’institut et de la doctrine des Jésuites, which won him much fame and some exalted patronage; notably that of the ex-king Stanislaus of Poland and of his grandson the dauphin. During the agitations that preceded the Revolution Cerutti took the popular side, and in 1788 published a pamphlet, Mémoire pour le peuple français, in which in a clear and trenchant style he advocated the claims of the tiers état. In May 1789 he presided over the electors of Paris, by whom in January 1791 he was chosen member of the administration of the department and afterwards deputy to the Legislative Assembly. He was a friend of Mirabeau, whose policy he supported and whose funeral oration he pronounced. He himself died on the 3rd of February 1792. Of Cerutti’s literary enterprises the most interesting, and probably the most influential, was the popular newspaper founded by him, on the 30th of September 1790, in collaboration with Rabaut Saint-Étienne and Philippe Antoine Grouvelle. Its character and objects are explained by its title: La Feuille villageoise, adressée chaque semaine à tous les villages de France pour les instruire des lois, des événements, des découvertes qui interessent tout ban citoyen, &c. It was continued by Grouvelle after Cerutti’s death, the last number appearing on the 2nd of August 1795.
Cerutti’s works were published in 1793 in 3 volumes. On the Mémoire pour le peuple français, see F.A. Aulard in La Révolution française, tom. xv. (1888).
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE (1547-1616), Spanish novelist, playwright and poet, was born at Alcalá de Henares in 1547. The attempts of biographers to provide him with an illustrious genealogy are unsuccessful. The family history begins with the author’s grandfather, Juan de Cervantes (b. 1490), a lawyer who at one time (1545-6) administered the estates of the duke de Osuna, and resided later at Cordova, where he died about 1555. Cervantes’ father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, an apothecary-surgeon, who married Leonor de Cortinas in 1540 or 1541. The children of this marriage were Andrés (b. 1543), Andrea (b. 1544), Luisa (b. 1546), Miguel, Rodrigo (b. 1550), Magdalena (b. 1554) and Juan (of whom nothing is known beyond the mention of him in his father’s will).
The exact date of Cervantes’ birth is not recorded: he was baptized on the 9th of October 1547, in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor at Alcalá. There are indications that Rodrigo de Cervantes resided at Valladolid in 1554, at Madrid in 1561, at Seville in 1564-1565, and at Madrid from 1566 onwards. It may be assumed that his family accompanied him, and it seems likely that either at Valladolid or at Madrid Cervantes saw the famous actor-manager and dramatist, Lope de Rueda, of whose performances he speaks enthusiastically in the preface to his plays. In 1569 a Madrid schoolmaster, Juan Lopez de Hoyos, issued a work commemorative of Philip II.’s third wife, Isabel de Valois, who had died on the 3rd of October 1568. This volume, entitled Historia y relación verdadera de la enfermedad, felicisimo tránsito y sumptuosas exequias fúnebres de la Serenisima Reyna de Españia Doña Isabel de Valoys, contains six contributions by Cervantes: a sonnet, four redondillas, and an elegy. Lopez de Hoyos introduces Cervantes as “our dear and beloved pupil,” and the elegy is dedicated to Cardinal Espinosa “in the name of the whole school.” It has been inferred that Cervantes was educated by Lopez de Hoyos, but this conclusion is untenable, for Lopez de Hoyos’ school was not opened till 1567. On the 13th of October 1568, Giulio Acquaviva reached Madrid charged with a special mission to Philip II.; he left for Rome on the 2nd of December, and Cervantes is supposed to have accompanied him. This conjecture is based solely on a passage in the dedication of the Galatea, where the writer speaks of having been “camarero to Cardinal Acquaviva at Rome.” There is, however, no reason to think that Cervantes met Acquaviva in Madrid; the probability is that he enlisted as a supernumerary towards the end of 1568, that he served in Italy, and there entered the household of Acquaviva, who had been raised to the cardinalate on the 17th of May 1570. There exists a warrant (dated September 15, 1569) for the arrest of one Miguel de Cervantes, who had wounded Antonio de Sigura, and had been condemned in absence to have his right hand cut off and to be exiled from the capital for ten years; and it has been sought to identify the offender with the future author of Don Quixote. No evidence is available. All that is known with certainty is that Cervantes was in Rome at the end of 1569, for on the 22nd of December of that year the fact was recorded in an official information lodged by Rodrigo de Cervantes with a view to proving his son’s legitimacy and untainted Christian descent.
If it is difficult to say precisely when Cervantes was in Acquaviva’s service, it is no less difficult to say when he left it to join the regular army. There is evidence, more or less satisfactory, that his enlistment took place in 1570; in 1571 he was serving as a private in the company commanded by Captain Diego de Urbina which formed part of Miguel de Moncada’s famous regiment, and on the 16th of September he sailed from Messina on board the “Marquesa,” which formed part of the armada under Don John of Austria. At the battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571) the “Marquesa” was in the thickest of the conflict. As the fleet came into action Cervantes lay below, ill with fever; but, despite the remonstrances of his comrades, he vehemently insisted on rising to take his share in the fighting, and was posted with twelve men under him in a boat by the galley’s side. He received three gunshot wounds, two in the chest, and one which permanently maimed his right hand—“for the greater glory of the right,” in his own phrase. On the 30th of October the fleet returned to Messina, where Cervantes went into hospital, and during his convalescence received grants-in-aid amounting to eighty-two ducats. On the 29th of April 1572 he was transferred to Captain Manuel Ponce de León’s company in Lope de Figueroa’s regiment; he shared in the indecisive naval engagement off Navarino on the 7th of October 1572, in the capture of Tunis on the 10th of October 1573, and in the unsuccessful expedition to relieve the Goletta in the autumn of 1574. The rest of his military service was spent in garrison at Palermo and Naples, and shortly after the arrival of Don John at Naples on the 18th of June 1575, Cervantes was granted leave to return to Spain; he received a recommendatory letter from Don John to Philip II., and a similar testimonial from the duke de Sessa, viceroy of Sicily. Armed with these credentials, Cervantes embarked on the “Sol” to push his claim for promotion in Spain.
On the 26th of September 1575, near Les Trois Maries off the coast of Marseilles, the “Sol” and its companion ships the “Mendoza” and the “Higuera” encountered a squadron of Barbary corsairs under Arnaut Mami; Cervantes, his brother Rodrigo and other Spaniards were captured, and were taken as prisoners to Algiers. Cervantes became the slave of a Greek renegade named Dali Mami, and, as the letters found on him were taken to prove that he was a man of importance in a position to pay a high ransom, he was put under special surveillance. With undaunted courage and persistence he organized plans of escape. In 1576 he induced a Moor to guide him and other Christian captives to Oran; the Moor deserted them on the road, the baffled fugitives returned to Algiers, and Cervantes was treated with additional severity. In the spring of 1577 two priests of the Order of Mercy arrived in Algiers with a sum of three hundred crowns entrusted to them by Cervantes’ parents; the amount was insufficient to free him, and was spent in ransoming his brother Rodrigo. Cervantes made another attempt to escape in September 1577, but was betrayed by the renegade whose services he had enlisted. On being brought before Hassan Pasha, the viceroy of Algiers, he took the blame on himself, and was threatened with death; struck, however, by the heroic bearing of the prisoner, Hassan remitted the sentence, and bought Cervantes from Dali Mami for five hundred crowns. In 1577 the captive addressed to the Spanish secretary of state, Mateo Vazquez, a versified letter suggesting that an expedition should be fitted out to seize Algiers; the project, though practicable, was not entertained. In 1578 Cervantes was sentenced to two thousand strokes for sending a letter begging help from Martín de Córdoba, governor of Oran; the punishment was not, however, inflicted on him. Meanwhile his family were not idle. In March 1578 his father presented a petition to the king setting forth Cervantes’ services; the duke de Sessa repeated his testimony to the captive’s merits; in the spring of 1579 Cervantes’ mother applied for leave to export two thousand ducats’ worth of goods from Valencia to Algiers, and on the 31st of July 1579 she gave the Trinitarian monks, Juan Gil and Antón de la Bella, a sum of two hundred and fifty ducats to be applied to her son’s ransom. On his side Cervantes was indefatigable, and towards the end of 1579 he arranged to secure a frigate; but the plot was revealed to Hassan by Juan Blanco de Paz, a Dominican monk, who appears to have conceived an unaccountable hatred of Cervantes. Once more the conspirator’s life was spared by Hassan who, it is recorded, declared that “so long as he had the maimed Spaniard in safe keeping, his Christians, ships and city were secure.” On the 29th of May 1580 the two Trinitarians arrived in Algiers: they were barely in time, for Hassan’s term of office was drawing to a close, and the arrangement of any ransom was a slow process, involving much patient bargaining. Hassan refused to accept less than five hundred gold ducats for his slave; the available funds fell short of this amount, and the balance was collected from the Christian traders of Algiers. Cervantes was already embarked for Constantinople when the money was paid on the 19th of September 1580. The first use that he made of his liberty was to cause affidavits of his proceedings at Algiers to be drawn up; he sailed for Spain towards the end of October, landed at Denia in November, and made his way to Madrid. He signed an information before a notary in that city on the 18th of December 1580.
These dates prove that he cannot, as is often alleged, have served under Alva in the Portuguese campaign of 1580: that campaign ended with the battle of Alcántara on the 25th of August 1580. It seems certain, however, that he visited Portugal soon after his return from Algiers, and in May 1581 he was sent from Thomar on a mission to Oran. Construed literally, a formal statement of his services, signed by Cervantes on the 21st of May 1590, makes it appear that he served in the Azores campaigns of 1582-83; but the wording of the document is involved, the claims of Cervantes are confused with those of his brother Rodrigo (who was promoted ensign at the Azores), and on the whole it is doubtful if he took part in either of the expeditions under Santa Cruz. In any case, the stories of his residence in Portugal, and of his love affairs with a noble Portuguese lady who bore him a daughter, are simple inventions. From 1582-3 to 1587 Cervantes seems to have written copiously for the stage, and in the Adjunta al Parnaso he mentions several of his plays as “worthy of praise”; these were Los Tratos de Argel, La Numancia, La Gran Turquesa, La Batalla naval, La Jerusalem, La Amaranta ó la de Mayo, El Bosque amoroso, La Unica y Bizarra Ársinda—“and many others which I do not remember, but that which I most prize and pique myself on was, and is, one called La Confusa which, with all respect to as many sword-and-cloak plays as have been staged up to the present, may take a prominent place as being good among the best.” Of these only Los Tratos de Argel (or El Trato de Argel) and La Numancia have survived, and, though La Numancia contains many fine rhetorical passages, both plays go to prove that the author’s genius was not essentially dramatic. In February 1584 he obtained a licence to print a pastoral novel entitled Primera parte de la Galatea, the copyright of which he sold on the 14th of June to Blas de Robles, a bookseller at Alcalá de Henares, for 1336 reales. On the 12th of December he married Catalina de Palacios Salazar y Vozmediano of Esquivias, eighteen years his junior. The Galatea was published in the spring of 1585, and is frequently said to relate the story of Cervantes’ courtship, and to introduce various distinguished writers under pastoral names. These assertions must be received with great reserve. The birth of an illegitimate daughter, borne to Cervantes by a certain Ana Francisca de Rojas, is referred to 1584, and earlier in that same year the Galatea had passed the censor; with few exceptions, the identifications of the characters in the book with personages in real life are purely conjectural. These circumstances, together with the internal evidence of the work, point to the conclusion that the Galatea was begun and completed before 1583. It was only twice reprinted—once at Lisbon (1590), and once at Paris (1611)—during the author’s lifetime; but it won him a measure of repute, it was his favourite among his books, and during the thirty years that remained to him he repeatedly announced the second part which is promised conditionally in the text. However, it is not greatly to be regretted that the continuation was never published; though the Galatea is interesting as the first deliberate bid for fame on the part of a great genius, it is an exercise in the pseudo-classic literature introduced into Italy by Sannazaro, and transplanted to Spain by the Portuguese Montemõr; and, ingenious or eloquent as the Renaissance prose-pastoral may be, its innate artificiality stifles Cervantes’ rich and glowing realism. He himself recognized its defects; with all his weakness for the Galatea, he ruefully allows that “it proposes something and concludes nothing.” Its comparative failure was a serious matter for Cervantes who had no other resource but his pen; his plays were probably less successful than his account of them would imply, and at any rate play-writing was not at this time a lucrative occupation in Spain. No doubt the death of his father on the 13th of June 1585 increased the burden of Cervantes’ responsibilities; and the dowry of his wife, as appears from a document dated the 9th of August 1586, consisted of nothing more valuable than five vines, an orchard, some household furniture, four beehives, forty-five hens and chickens, one cock and a crucible.
It had become evident that Cervantes could not gain his bread by literature, and in 1587 he went to Seville to seek employment in connexion with the provisioning of the Invincible Armada. He was placed under the orders of Antonio de Guevara, and before the 24th of February was excommunicated for excessive zeal in collecting wheat at Écija. During the next few months he was engaged in gathering stores at Seville and the adjacent district, and after the defeat of the Armada he was retained as commissary to the galleys. Tired of the drudgery, and without any prospect of advancement, on the 21st of May 1590 Cervantes drew up a petition to the king, recording his services and applying for one of four posts then vacant in the American colonies: a place in the department of public accounts in New Granada, the governorship of Soconusco in Guatemala, the position of auditor to the galleys at Cartagena, or that of corregidor in the city of La Paz. The petition was referred to the Council of the Indies, and was annotated with the words:—“Let him look for something nearer home.” Cervantes perforce remained at his post; the work was hard, uncongenial and ill-paid, and the salary was in constant arrears. In November 1590 he was in such straits that he borrowed money to buy himself a suit of clothes, and in August 1592 his sureties were called upon to make good a deficiency of 795 reales in his accounts. His thoughts turned to literature once more, and on the 5th of September 1592, he signed a contract with Rodrigo Osorio undertaking to write six plays at fifty ducats each, no payment to be made unless Osorio considered that each of these pieces was “one of the best ever produced in Spain.” Nothing came of this agreement, and it appears that, between the date of signing it and the 19th of September, Cervantes was imprisoned (for reasons unknown to us) at Castro del Río. He was speedily released, and continued to perquisition as before in Andalusia; but his literary ambitions were not dead, and in May 1595 he won the first prize—three silver spoons—at a poetical tourney held in honour of St Hyacinth at Saragossa. Shortly afterwards Cervantes found himself in difficulties with the exchequer officials. He entrusted a sum of 7400 reales to a merchant named Simón Freire de Lima with instructions to pay the amount into the treasury at Madrid; the agent became bankrupt and absconded, leaving Cervantes responsible for the deficit. By some means the money was raised, and the debt was liquidated on the 21st of January 1597. But Cervantes’ position was shaken, and his unbusinesslike habits lent themselves to misinterpretation. On the 6th of September 1597 he was ordered to find sureties that he would present himself at Madrid within twenty days, and there submit to the exchequer vouchers for all official moneys collected by him in Granada and elsewhere. No such sureties being available, he was committed to Seville jail, but was released on the 1st of December on condition that he complied with the original order of the court within thirty days. He was apparently unable to find bail, was dismissed from the public service, and sank into extreme poverty. During a momentary absence from Seville in February 1590, he was again summoned to Madrid by the treasury, but does not appear to have obeyed: it is only too likely that he had not the money to pay for the journey. There is some reason to think that he was imprisoned at Seville in 1602, but nothing positive is known of his existence between 1600 and the 8th of February 1603: at the latter date he seems to have been at Valladolid, to which city Philip III. had removed the court in 1601.
Since the publication of the Galatea in 1585 Cervantes’ contributions to literature had been limited to occasional poems. In 1591 he published a ballad in Andrés de Villalta’s Flor de varios y nuevos romances; in 1595 he composed a poem, already mentioned, to celebrate the canonization of St Hyacinth; in 1596 he wrote a sonnet ridiculing Medina Sidonia’s tardy entry into Cadiz after the English invaders had retired, and in the same year his sonnet lauding Santa Cruz was printed in Cristóbal. Mosquera de Figueroa’s Comentario en breve compendio de disciplina militar; to 1597 is assigned a sonnet (the authenticity of which is disputed) commemorative of the poet Herrera; in 1598 he wrote two sonnets and a copy of quintillas on the death of Philip II.; and in 1602 a complimentary sonnet from his pen appeared in the second edition of Lope de Vega’s Dragontea. Curiously enough, it is by Lope de Vega that Don Quixote is first mentioned. Writing to an unknown correspondent (apparently a physician) on the 14th of August 1604, Lope de Vega says that “no poet is as bad as Cervantes, nor so foolish as to praise Don Quixote,” and he goes on to speak of his own plays as being odious to Cervantes. It is obvious that the two men had quarrelled since 1602, and that Lope de Vega smarted under the satire of himself and his works in Cervantes’ forthcoming book; Don Quixote may have been circulated in manuscript, or may even have been printed before the official licence was granted on the 26th of September 1604. It was published early in 1605, and was dedicated to the seventh duke de Béjar in phrases largely borrowed from the dedication in Herrera’s edition (1580) of Garcilaso de la Vega, and from Francisco de Medina’s preface to that work.
The mention of Bernardo de la Vega’s Pastor de Iberia shows that the sixth chapter of Don Quixote cannot have been written before 1591. In the prologue Cervantes describes his masterpiece as being “just what might be begotten in a jail”; on the strength of this passage, it has been thought that he conceived the story, and perhaps began writing it, during one of his terms of imprisonment at Seville between 1597 and 1602. Within a few weeks of its publication at Madrid, three pirated editions of Don Quixote were issued at Lisbon; a second authorized edition, imperfectly revised, was hurried out at Madrid; and another reprint appeared at Valencia with an aprobación dated 18th July 1605. With the exception of Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache, no Spanish book of the period was more successful. Modern criticism is prone to regard Don Quixote as a symbolic, didactic or controversial work intended to bring about radical reforms in church and state. Such interpretations did not occur to Cervantes’ contemporaries, nor to Cervantes himself. There is no reason for rejecting his plain statement that his main object was to ridicule the romances of chivalry, which in their latest developments had become a tissue of tiresome absurdities. It seems clear that his first intention was merely to parody these extravagances in a short story; but as he proceeded the immense possibilities of the subject became more evident to him, and he ended by expanding his work into a brilliant panorama of Spanish society as it existed during the 16th century. Nobles, knights, poets, courtly gentlemen, priests, traders, farmers, barbers, muleteers, scullions and convicts; accomplished ladies, impassioned damsels, Moorish beauties, simple-hearted country-girls and kindly kitchen-wenches of questionable morals—all these are presented with the genial fidelity which comes of sympathetic insight. The immediate vogue of Don Quixote was due chiefly to its variety of incident, to its wealth of comedy bordering on farce, and perhaps also to its keen thrusts at eminent contemporaries; its reticent pathos, its large humanity, and its penetrating criticism of life were less speedily appreciated.
Meanwhile, on the 12th of April 1605, Cervantes authorized his publisher to proceed against the Lisbon booksellers who threatened to introduce their piratical reprints into Castile. By June the citizens of Valladolid already regarded Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as proverbial types. Less gratifying experiences awaited the popular author. On the 27th of June 1605 Gaspar de Ezpeleta, a Navarrese gentleman of dissolute life, was wounded outside the lodging-house in which Cervantes and his family lived; he was taken indoors, was nursed by Cervantes’ sister Magdalena, and died on the 29th of June. That same day Cervantes, his natural daughter (Isabel de Saavedra), his sister Andrea and her daughter were lodged in jail on suspicion of being indirectly concerned in Ezpeleta’s death; one of the witnesses made damaging charges against Cervantes’ daughter, but no substantial evidence was produced, and the prisoners were released. Little is known of Cervantes’ life between 1605 and 1608. A Relación of the festivities held to celebrate the birth of Philip IV., and a certain Carta á don Diego Astudillo Carrillo have been erroneously ascribed to him; during these three years he apparently wrote nothing beyond three sonnets, and one of these is of doubtful authenticity. The depositions of the Valladolid enquiry show that he was living in poverty five months after the appearance of Don Quixote, and the fact that he borrowed 450 reales from his publisher before November 1607 would convey the idea that his position improved slowly, if at all. But it is difficult to reconcile this view of his circumstances with the details concerning his illegitimate daughter revealed in documents recently discovered. Isabel de Saavedra was stated to be a spinster when arrested at Valladolid in June 1605; the settlement of her marriage with Luis de Molina in 1608 describes her as the widow of Diego Sanz, as the mother of a daughter eight months old, and as owning house-property of some value. These particulars are perplexing, and the situation is further complicated by the publication of a deed in which Cervantes declares that he himself is the real owner of this house-property, and that his daughter has merely a life-interest in it. This claim may be regarded as a legal fiction; it cannot easily be reconciled with Cervantes’ statement towards the end of his life, that he was dependent on the bounty of the count de Lemos and of Bernardo de Sandoval, cardinal-archbishop of Toledo. In 1609 he joined the newly founded confraternity of the Slaves of the Most Blessed Sacrament; in 1610 Lemos was appointed viceroy of Naples, and Cervantes was keenly disappointed at not being chosen to accompany his patron. In 1611 he lost his sister Magdalena, who was buried by the charity of the Tertiaries of Saint Francis; in 1612 he joined the Academia Selvaje, and there appears to have renewed his former friendly relations with Lope de Vega; in 1613 he dedicated his Novelas exemplares to the count de Lemos, and disposed of his rights for 1600 reales and twenty-four copies of the book. The twelve tales in this volume, some of them written very much later than others, are of unequal merit, but they contain some of the writer’s best work, and the two picaresque stories—Rinconete y Cortadillo and the Coloquio de los perros—are superb examples of their kind, and would alone entitle Cervantes to take rank with the greatest masters of Spanish prose. In 1614 he published the Viage del Parnaso, a burlesque poem suggested by the Viaggio in Parnaso (1582) of the Perugian poet Cesare Caporali. It contains some interesting autobiographical passages, much flattery of contemporary poetasters, and a few happy satirical touches; but, though it is Cervantes’ most serious bid for fame as a poet, it has seldom been reprinted, and would probably have been forgotten but for an admirably humorous postscript in prose which is worthy of the author at his best. In the preface to his Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos (1615) he good-humouredly admits that his dramatic works found no favour with managers, and, when this collection was first reprinted (1749), the editor advanced the fantastic theory that the comedias were deliberate exercises in absurdity, intended to parody the popular dramas of the day. This view cannot be maintained, but a sharp distinction must be drawn between the eight set plays and the eight interludes; with one or two exceptions, the comedias or set plays are unsuccessful experiments in Lope de Vega’s manner, while the entremeses or interludes, particularly those in prose, are models of spontaneous gaiety and ingenious wit.
In the preface to the Novelas exemplares Cervantes had announced the speedy appearance of the sequel to Don Quixote which he had vaguely promised at the end of the first part. He was at work on the fifty-ninth chapter of his continuation when he learned that he had been anticipated by Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda of Tordesillas, whose Segunde tamo del ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha was published at Tarragona in 1614. On the assumption that Fernandez de Avellaneda is a pseudonym, this spurious sequel has been ascribed to the king’s confessor, Luis de Aliaga, to Cervantes’ old enemy, Blanco de Paz, to his old friend, Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, to the three great dramatists, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Ruiz de Alarcón, to Alonso Fernandez, to Juan José Martí, to Alfonso Lamberto, to Luis de Granada, and probably to others. Some of these attributions are manifestly absurd—for example, Luis de Granada died seventeen years before the first part of Don Quixote was published—and all of them are improbable conjectures; if Avellaneda be not the real name of the author, his identity is still undiscovered. His book is not devoid of literary talent and robust humour, and possibly he began it under the impression that Cervantes was no more likely to finish Don Quixote than to finish the Galatea. He should, however, have abandoned his project on reading the announcement in the preface to the Novelas exemplares; what he actually did was to disgrace himself by writing an insolent preface taunting Cervantes with his physical defects, his moral infirmities, his age, loneliness and experiences in jail. He was too intelligent to imagine that his continuation could hold its own against the authentic sequel, and malignantly avowed his intention of being first in the field and so spoiling Cervantes’ market. It is quite possible that Don Quixote might have been left incomplete but for this insulting intrusion; Cervantes was a leisurely writer and was, as he states, engaged on El Engaño à los ojos, Las Semanas del Jardín and El Famoso Bernardo, none of which have been preserved. Avellaneda forced him to concentrate his attention on his masterpiece, and the authentic second part of Don Quixote appeared towards the end of 1615. No book more signally contradicts the maxim, quoted by the Bachelor Carrasco, that “no second part was ever good.” It is true that the last fourteen chapters are damaged by undignified denunciations of Avellaneda; but, apart from this, the second part of Don Quixote is an improvement on the first. The humour is more subtle and mature; the style is of more even excellence; and the characters of the bachelor and of the physician, Pedro Recio de Agüero, are presented with a more vivid effect than any of the secondary characters in the first part. Cervantes had clearly profited by the criticism of those who objected to “the countless cudgellings inflicted on Señor Don Quixote,” and to the irrelevant interpolation of extraneous stories in the text. Don Quixote moves through the second part with unruffled dignity; Sancho Panza loses something of his rustic cunning, but he gains in wit, sense and manners. The original conception is unchanged in essentials, but it is more logically developed, and there is a notable progress in construction. Cervantes had grown to love his knight and squire, and he understood his own creations better than at the outset; more completely master of his craft, he wrote his sequel with the unfaltering confidence of a renowned artist bent on sustaining his reputation.
The first part of Don Quixote had been reprinted at Madrid in 1608; it had been produced at Brussels in 1607 and 1611, and at Milan in 1610; it had been translated into English in 1612 and into French in 1614. Cervantes was celebrated in and out of Spain, but his celebrity had not brought him wealth. The members of the French special embassy, sent to Madrid in February 1615, under the Commandeur de Sillery, heard with amazement that the author of the Galatea, the Novelas exemplares and Don Quixote was “old, a soldier, a gentleman and poor.” But his trials were almost at an end. Though failing in health, he worked assiduously at Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, which, as he had jocosely prophesied in the preface to the second part of Don Quixote, would be “either the worst or the best book ever written in our tongue.” It is the most carefully written of his prose works, and the least animated or attractive of them; signs of fatigue and of waning powers are unmistakably visible. Cervantes was not destined to see it in print. He was attacked by dropsy, and, on the 18th of April 1616, received the sacrament of extreme unction; next day he wrote the dedication of Persiles y Sigismunda to the count de Lemos—the most moving and gallant of farewells. He died at Madrid in the Calle del León on the 23rd of April; he was borne from his house “with his face uncovered,” according to the rule of the Tertiaries of St Francis, and on the 24th of April was buried in the church attached to the convent of the Trinitarian nuns in the Calle de Cantarranas. There he rests—the story of his remains being removed in 1633 to the Calle del Humilladero has no foundation in fact—but the exact position of his grave is unknown. Early in 1617 Persiles y Sigismunda was published, and passed through eight editions within two years; but the interest in it soon died away, and it was not reprinted between 1625 and 1719. Cervantes’ wife died without issue on the 31st of October 1626; his natural daughter, who survived both the child of her first marriage and her second husband, died on the 20th of September 1652. Cervantes is represented solely by his works. The Novelas exemplares alone would give him the foremost place among Spanish novelists; Don Quixote entitles him to rank with the greatest writers of all time: “children turn its leaves, young people read it, grown men understand it, old folk praise it.” It has outlived all changes of literary taste, and is even more popular to-day than it was three centuries ago.
Bibliography.—Leopold Rius, Bibliografía crítica de las obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Madrid, 1895-1905, 3 vols.); Obras completas (Madrid, 1863-1864, 12 vols.), edited by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch; Complete Works (Glasgow, 1901-1906, 8 vols. in progress), edited by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly; Don Quijote (Madrid, 1833-1839, 6 vols.), edited by Diego Clemencíu; Don Quixote (London, 1899-1900, 2 vols.), edited by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly and John Ormsby; Don Quijote (Madrid, 1905-1906, 2 vols. in progress), edited by Clemente Cortejón; Rinconete y Cortadillo (Sevilla, 1905), edited by Francisco Rodriguez Marín; Epístola á Mateo Vázquez (Madrid, 1905), edited by E[milio] C[otarelo]; Julián Apráiz, Estudio histórico-crítico sobre las Novelas ejemplares de Cervantes (Madrid, 1901); Francisco A. de Icaza, Las Novelas ejemplares de Cervantes (Madrid, 1901); Francisco Rodríguez Marín, El Loaysa de “El Celoso Extremeño” (Sevilla, 1901); Narciso Díaz de Escovar, Apuntes escénicos cervantinos (Madrid, 1905); Manuel José García, Estudio crítico acerca del entremés “El Vizcaino fingido” (Madrid, 1905); Alfred Morel-Fatio, L’Espagne de Don Quichotte in Études sur l’Espagne (Paris, 1895, 2me série); Julio Puyol y Alonso, Estado social que refleja “El Quijote” (Madrid, 1905); James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Cervantes in England (London, 1905); Raymond Foulché-Delbose, Étude sur “La tia fingida,” in the Revue hispanique (Paris, 1899), vol. vi. pp. 256-306; Benedetto Croce, Due illustrazioni al “Viage del Parnaso,” in the Homenaje á Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid, 1899), vol. i. pp. 161-193; Paul Groussac, Une Énigme littéraire: le Don Quichotte d’Avellaneda (Paris, 1903); Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (Barcelona, [1905]), edited by Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo; Julio Cejador y Franca, La Lengua de Cervantes (Madrid, 1905, &c.); Martin Fernández de Navarrete, Vida de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Madrid, 1819); Cristóbal Perez Pastor, Documentos Cervantinos hasta ahora inéditos (Madrid, 1897-1902, 2 vols.); Emilio Cotardo y Mori, Efemérides Cervantinas (Madrid, 1905); Francisco Rodríguez Marín, Cervantes estudió en Sevilla, 1564-1565 (Seville, 1905).
(J. F.-K.)
CERVERA, PASCUAL CERVERA Y TOPETE (1839-1909), Spanish admiral, was born at Medina Sidonia on the 18th of February 1839. He showed an early inclination for the sea, and his family sent him to the naval cadet school at the age of twelve. As a sub-lieutenant he took part in the naval operations on the coast of Morocco during the campaign of 1859-60. Then he was for some time engaged in operations in the Sulu Islands and the Philippines. Afterwards he was on the West Indian station during the early part of the first Cuban War (1868-78), returning to Spain in 1873 to serve on the Basque coast against the Carlists. He distinguished himself in defending the Carraca arsenal near Cadiz against the Federals in 1873. He won each step in his promotion up to flag-rank through his steadiness and brilliant conduct in action, and was awarded the crosses of the Orders of Military and Naval Merit, Isabella the Catholic, and St Hermengilde, besides several medals. Cervera had a great reputation for decision, unbending temper and honesty, before he was placed at the head of the Bilbao building-yards. This post he resigned after a few months in order to become minister of marine in 1892, in a cabinet presided over by Sagasta. He withdrew from the cabinet when he found that his colleagues, from political motives, declined to support him in making reforms and, on the other hand, unwisely cut down the naval estimates. When in 1898 the Spanish-American War (q.v.) broke out, he was chosen to command a squadron composed of four first-class cruisers, the “Maria Theresa,” his flagship, “Oquendo,” “Vizcaya,” and “Columbus,” and several destroyers. This ill-fated squadron only started upon its reckless cruise across the ocean after its gallant commander had repeatedly warned both the minister of marine and the prime minister, Sagasta, in despatches from Cadiz and from the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, that the ships were insufficiently provided with coal and ammunition. Some of them, indeed, even lacked proper guns. In compliance with the instructions of the government, Admiral Cervera made for the landlocked harbour of Santiago de Cuba, where he co-operated in the defence, landing some guns and a naval brigade. In spite of his energetic representations, Cervera received an order from Madrid, dictated by political considerations, to sally forth. It meant certain destruction. The gallant squadron met forces trebly superior to it, and was totally destroyed. The admiral, three of his captains, and 1800 sailors and marines were taken by the victors to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.A. After the war, Cervera and his captains were tried before the supreme naval and military court of the realm, which honourably acquitted them all. In 1901 he became vice-admiral, in 1902 was appointed chief of staff of the Spanish navy, and in 1903 was made life senator. He died at Puerto Real on the 3rd of April 1909.
CESAREVICH, or more properly Tsesarevich, the title of the heir-apparent to the Russian throne. The full official title is Nasliednik Tsesarevich, i.e. “heir of Caesar,” and in Russia the heir to the throne is commonly called simply Nasliednik, the word Tsesarevich never being used alone. Tsarevich, a form now much used in England, means simply any “king’s son”; it is an antiquated term now out of use in Russia, and was last borne as heir to the throne by the unfortunate Alexius, son of Peter the Great. The style of the wife of the tsesarevich is Tsesarevna. The Cesarewitch handicap race at Newmarket, founded in 1839, was named after the prince who was afterwards Alexander II. of Russia, who paid a state visit to England that year.
CESARI, GIUSEPPE, called Il Cavaliere d’ Arpino (born in or about 1568 and created a “Cavaliere di Cristo” by Pope Clement VIII.), also named Il Giuseppino, an Italian painter, much encouraged at Rome and munificently rewarded. His father had been a native of Arpino, but Giuseppe himself was born in Rome. Cesari is stigmatized by Lanzi as not less the corrupter of taste in painting than Marino was in poetry; indeed, another of the nicknames of Cesari is “Il Marino de’ Pittori” (the pictorial Marino). There was spirit in Cesari’s heads of men and horses, and his frescoes in the Capitol (story of Romulus and Remus, &c.), which occupied him at intervals during forty years, are well coloured; but he drew the human form ill. His perspective is faulty, his extremities monotonous, and his chiaroscuro defective. He died in 1640, at the age of seventy-two, or perhaps of eighty, at Rome. Cesari ranks as the head of the “Idealists” of his period, as opposed to the “Naturalists,” of whom Michelangelo da Caravaggio was the leading champion,—the so-called “idealism” consisting more in reckless facility, and disregard of the common facts and common-sense of nature, than in anything to which so lofty a name could be properly accorded. He was a man of touchy and irascible character, and rose from penury to the height of opulence. His brother Bernardino assisted in many of his works.
CESAROTTI, MELCHIORE (1730-1808), Italian poet, was born at Padua in 1730, of a noble but impoverished family. At the university of his native place his literary progress procured for him at a very early age the chair of rhetoric, and in 1768 the professorship of Greek and Hebrew. On the invasion of Italy by the French, he gave his pen to their cause, received a pension, and was made knight of the iron crown by Napoleon I., to whom, in consequence, he addressed a bombastic and extravagantly flattering poem called Pronea. Cesarotti is best known as the translator of Homer and Ossian. Much praise cannot be given to his version of the Iliad, for he has not scrupled to add, omit and modernize. Ossian, which he held to be the finest of poems, he has, on the other hand, considerably improved in translation; and the appearance of his version attracted much attention in Italy and France, and raised up many imitators of the Ossianic style. Cesarotti also produced a number of works in prose, including a Course of Greek Literature, and essays On the Origin and Progress of the Poetic Art, On the Sources of the Pleasure derived from Tragedy, On the Philosophy of Language and On the Philosophy of Taste, the last being a defence of his own great eccentricities in criticism. His weakness was a straining after novelty. His style is forcible, but full of Gallicisms.
A complete edition of his works, in 42 vols. 8vo. began to appear at Pisa in 1800, and was completed in 1813, after his death. See Memoirs, by Barbieri (Padua, 1810), and Un Filosofo delle lettere, by Alemanni (Turin, 1894).
CESENA (anc. Caesena), a town and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Forlì, 12 m. S.E. by rail from the town of Forlì, on the line between Bologna and Rimini, 144 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1905) 12,245 (town); 43,468 (commune). The town is picturesquely situated at the foot of the slopes of the Apennines, and is crowned by a medieval fortress (Rocca), begun by the emperor Frederick I. (Barbarossa) probably, but altered and added to later. The cathedral has two fine marble altars by the Lombardi of Venice (or their school). The library, built for Domenico Malatesta in 1452 by Matteo Nuzio, is a fine early Renaissance building, and its internal arrangements, with the original desks to which the books are still chained, are especially well preserved (see J.W. Clark, The Care of Books, Cambridge, 1901, p. 199). In it are valuable MSS., many of which were used by Aldus Manutius. It also contains a picture gallery with a good “Presentation in the Temple” by Francesco Francia. There are some fine palaces in the town. Three-quarters of a mile south-east on the hill stands the handsome church of S. Maria del Monte, after the style of Bramante, with carved stalls of the 16th century. Wine, hemp and silk are the main articles of trade. About the ancient Caesena little is said in classical authors: it is mentioned as a station on the Via Aemilia and as a fortress in the wars of Theodoric and Narses. During the middle ages it was at first independent. In 1357 it was unsuccessfully defended by the wife of Francesco Ordelaffi, lord of Forlì, against the papal troops under Albornoz. In 1377 it was sacked by Cardinal Robert of Geneva (afterwards Clement VII., antipope). It was then held by the Malatesta of Rimini until 1465, when it came under the dominion of the church. Both Pius VI. (1717) and Pius VII. (1742) were born at Cesena.
(T. As.)
CESNOLA, LUIGI PALMA DI (1832-1904), Italian-American soldier and archaeologist, was born near Turin on the 29th of July 1832. Having served in the Austrian and Crimean Wars, in 1860 he went to New York, where he taught Italian and French and founded a military school for officers. He took part in the American Civil War as colonel of a cavalry regiment, and at Aldie (June 1863) was wounded and taken prisoner. He was released from Libby prison early in 1864, served in the Wilderness and Petersburg campaigns (1864-65) as a brigadier of cavalry, and at the close of the war was breveted brigadier-general. He was then appointed United States consul at Larnaca in Cyprus (1865-1877). During his stay in the island he carried on excavations, which resulted in the discovery of a large number of antiquities. The collection was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and Cesnola became director in 1879. Doubt having been thrown by Gaston L. Feuerdant, in an article in the New York Herald (August 1880), upon the genuineness of his restorations, the matter was referred to a special committee, which pronounced in his favour.[1] He is the author of Cyprus, its ancient Cities, Tombs and Temples (1877), an interesting book of travel and of considerable service to the practical antiquary; and of a Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities (3 vols., 1884-6). He died in New York on the 21st of November 1904. He was a member of several learned societies in Europe and America, and in 1897 he received a Congressional medal of honour for conspicuous military services.
His brother, Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, born in 1839, conducted excavations at Paphos (where he was U.S. vice-consul) and Salamis on behalf of the British government. The results of these are described in Salaminia (1882).
[1] For the Cesnola controversy see C.D. Cobham’s Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus (4th ed., 1900). See also article [Cyprus].
CESPEDES (in Ital. Cedaspe), PABLO DE (1538-1608), Spanish poet, painter, sculptor and architect, was born at Cordova, and was educated at Alcalá de Henares, where he studied theology and Oriental languages. On leaving the university, he went to Rome, where he became the pupil and friend of Federigo Zuccaro, under whose direction he studied particularly the works of Raphael and of Michelangelo. In 1560, while yet in Rome, proceedings were taken against him by the Inquisition at Valladolid on account of a letter which, found among the papers of the archbishop of Toledo, had been written by Cespedes during the preceding year, and in which he had spoken with great freedom against the holy office and the inquisitor-general, Fernando de Valdés. Cespedes remained in Rome at this critical moment, and he appears rightly to have treated the prosecution with derision. It is not known how he contrived to bring the proceedings to an end; he returned, however, to Spain a little before 1577, and in that year was installed in a prebend of the cathedral at Cordova, where he resided till his death. Pablo de Cespedes has been called the most savant of Spanish artists. According to his friend Francisco Pacheco, to whom posterity is indebted for the preservation of all of Cespedes’s verse that is extant, the school of Seville owes to him its introduction to the practice of chiaroscuro. He was a bold and correct draughtsman, a skilful anatomist, a master of colour and composition; and the influence he exerted to the advantage of early Spanish art was considerable. Cristobal de Vera, Juan de Peñalosa and Zambrano were among his pupils. His best picture is a Last Supper at Cordova, but there are good examples of his work at Seville and at Madrid. Cespedes was author of several opuscules in prose on subjects connected with his profession. Of his poem on The Art of Painting enough was preserved by Pacheco to enable us to form an opinion of the whole. It is esteemed the best didactic verse in Spanish; and it has been compared, not disadvantageously, with the Georgics. It is written in strong and sonorous octaves, in the majestic declamatory vein of Fernando Herrera, and is not altogether so dull and lifeless as is most didactic verse. It contains a glowing eulogy of Michelangelo, and some excellent advice to young painters, insisting particularly on hard work and on the study of nature. The few fragments yet remaining, amounting in all to some six hundred lines, were first printed by Pacheco in his treatise Del arte de la pintura, in 1649.
CÉSPEDES Y MENESES, GONZALO DE (1585?-1638), Spanish novelist, was born at Madrid about 1585. Nothing positive is known of him before the publication of his celebrated romance, the Poema trágico del Español Gerardo, y desengaño del amor lascivo (1615-1617); there is evidence that he had been sentenced to eight years at the galleys previous to the 1st of January 1620, and that the penalty had been remitted; but the nature of his offence is not stated. His treatment of political questions in the Historia apologética en los sucesos del reyno de Aragón, y su ciudad de Zaragoza, años de 91 y 92 (1622), having led to the confiscation of the book, Céspedes took up his residence at Saragossa and Lisbon. While in exile he issued a collection of short stories entitled Historias peregrinas y exemplares (1623), the unfinished romance Varia fortuna del soldado Píndaro (1626), and the first part of his Historia de Felipe IV. (1631), a fulsome eulogy which was rewarded by the author’s appointment as official historiographer to the Spanish king. Céspedes died on the 27th of January 1638. His novels, though written in a ponderous, affected style, display considerable imagination and insight into character. The Poema trágico has been utilized by Fletcher in The Spanish Curate and in The Maid of the Mill.
The Historias peregrinas has been reprinted (1906) with a valuable introduction by Sr. Cotarelo y Mori.
CESS (a shortened form of “assess”; the spelling is due to a mistaken connexion with “census”), a tax; a term formerly more particularly applied to local taxation, in which sense it still is used in Ireland; otherwise it has been superseded by “rate.” In India it is applied, with the qualifying word prefixed, to any taxation, such as “irrigation-cess” and the like, and in Scotland to the land-tax.
CESSIO BONORUM (Latin for a “surrender of goods”), in Roman law, a voluntary surrender of goods by a debtor to his creditors. It did not amount to a discharge unless the property ceded was sufficient for the purpose, but it secured the debtor from personal arrest. The creditors sold the goods in satisfaction, pro tanto, of their claims. The procedure of cessio bonorum avoided infamy, and the debtor, though his after-acquired property might be proceeded against, could not be deprived of the bare necessaries of life. The main features of the Roman law of cessio bonorum were adopted in Scots law, and also in the French legal system. (See further [Bankruptcy].)
CESTI, MARC’ ANTONIO (1620?-1669?), Italian musical composer, was born at Florence about 1620. He was a pupil of Carissimi, and after holding a post somewhere in Florence as maestro di cappella entered the papal chapel in 1660. In 1666 he became Vice-Kapellmeister at Vienna, and died at Venice in 1669. Cesti is known principally as a composer of operas, the most celebrated of which were La Dori (Venice, 1663) and Il Pomo d’ oro (Vienna, 1668). He was also a composer of chamber-cantatas, and his operas are notable for the pure and delicate style of their airs, more suited to the chamber than to the stage.
CESTIUS, LUCIUS, surnamed Pius, Latin rhetorician, flourished during the reign of Augustus. He was a native of Smyrna, a Greek by birth. According to Jerome, he was teaching Latin at Rome in the year 13 B.C. He must have been living after A.D. 9, since we are told that he taunted the son of Quintilius Varus with his father’s defeat in the Teutoburgian forest (Seneca, Controv. i. 3, 10). Cestius was a man of great ability, but vain, quarrelsome and sarcastic. Before he left Asia, he was invited to dinner by Cicero’s son, then governor of the province. His host, being uncertain as to his identity, asked a slave who Cestius was; and on receiving the answer, “he is the man who said your father was illiterate,” ordered him to be flogged (Seneca, Suasoriae, vii. 13). As an orator in the schools Cestius enjoyed a great reputation, and was worshipped by his youthful pupils, one of whom imitated him so slavishly that he was nicknamed “my monkey” by his teacher (Seneca, Controv. ix. 3, 12). As a public orator, on the other hand, he was a failure. Although a Greek, he always used Latin in his declamations, and, although he was sometimes at a loss for Latin words, he never suffered from lack of ideas. Numerous specimens of his declamations will be found in the works of Seneca the rhetorician.
See the monograph De Lucio Cestio Pio, by F.G. Lindner (1858); T. Brzoska in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopadie, iii. 2 (1899); Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist, of Roman Lit. (Eng. tr.), § 268, 6; M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, ii.
CESTUI, CESTUY, an Anglo-French word, meaning “that person,” which appears in the legal phrases cestui que trust, use, or vie. It is usually pronounced as “cetty.” Cestui que trust means literally “the person for whose benefit the trust” is created. The cestui que trust is the person entitled to the equitable, as opposed to the legal, estate. Thus, if land be granted unto, and to the use of A. in trust for B., B. is cestui que trust, and A. trustee. The term, principally owing to its cumbersomeness, is being gradually superseded in modern law by that of “beneficiary.” Cestui que use (sometimes cestui à que use) means “the person for whose benefit a use” is created (see TRUST). Cestui que vie is “the person for whose life” lands are held by another (see [Remainder]).
CETACEA (from the Gr. κέτος, a whale), the name of the mammalian order represented by whales, dolphins, porpoises, &c. From their fish-like form, which is manifestly merely an adaptation to their purely aquatic life, these creatures are often regarded as fishes, although they are true mammals, with warm blood, and suckle their young.
The general form is essentially fish-like, the spindle-shaped body passing anteriorly into the head without any distinct neck, and posteriorly tapering gradually towards the extremity of the tail, which is provided with a pair of lateral, pointed expansions of skin supported by fibrous tissue, called “flukes,” forming a horizontal triangular propelling organ, notched behind in the middle line. The head is generally large, in some cases attaining more than one-third the entire length; and the mouth is wide, and bounded by stiff, immobile lips. The fore-limbs are reduced to flattened paddles, encased in a continuous skin, showing no external sign of division, and without trace of nails. There are no signs of hind-limbs visible externally. The surface of the skin is smooth and glistening, and devoid of hair, although in many species there are a few bristles in the neighbourhood of the mouth which may persist through life or be present only in the young state. Immediately beneath the skin is a thick layer of fat, held together by a mesh of tissue, constituting the “blubber,” which retains the heat of the body. In nearly all species a compressed dorsal fin is present. The eye is small, and not provided with a true lacrymal apparatus. The external ear is a minute aperture in the skin situated at a short distance behind the eye. The nostrils open separately or by a single crescentic aperture, near the vertex of the head.
The bones generally are spongy in texture, the cavities being filled with oil. In the vertebral column, the cervical region is short and immobile, and the vertebrae, always seven in number, are in many species more or less fused together into a solid mass. The odontoid process of the second cervical vertebra, when that bone is free, is usually very obtuse, or even obsolete. In a paper on the form and function of the cervical vertebrae published in the Jenaische Zeitschrift for 1905, Dr O. Reche points out that the shortening and soldering is most pronounced in species which, like the right-whales, live entirely on minute organisms, to capture which there is no necessity to turn the head at all. Accordingly we find that in these whales the whole seven cervical vertebrae are fused into an immovable solid mass, of which the compound elements, with the exception of the first and second, are but little thicker than plates. On the other hand, in the finner-whales, several of which live exclusively on fish, and thus require a certain amount of mobility in the head and neck, we find all the cervical vertebrae much thicker and entirely separate from one another. Among the dolphin group the narwhal and the white whale, or beluga, are distinguished from all other cetaceans by the great comparative length of their cervical vertebrae, all of which are completely free. In the case of the narwhal such an abnormal structure is easily accounted for, seeing that to use effectively the long tusk with which the male is armed a considerable amount of mobility in the neck is absolutely essential. The beluga, too, which is believed to feed on large and active fishes, would likewise seem to require mobility in the same region in order to effect their capture. On the other hand, the porpoise preys on herrings, pilchards and mackerel, which in their densely packed shoals must apparently fall an easy prey with but little exertion on the part of their captor, and we accordingly find all the neck-vertebrae very short, and at least six out of the seven coalesced into a solid immovable mass. None of the vertebrae are united to form a sacrum. The lumbar and caudal vertebrae are numerous and large, and, as their arches are not connected by articular processes (zygapophyses), they are capable of free motion in all directions. The caps, or epiphyses, at the end of the vertebral bodies are flattened disks, not uniting until after the animal has attained its full dimensions. There are largely developed chevron-bones on the under side of the tail, the presence of which indicates the distinction between caudal and lumbar vertebrae.
In the skull, the brain-case is short, broad and high, almost spherical, in fact (fig. 1). The supra-occipital bone rises upwards and forwards from the foramen magnum, to meet the frontals at the vertex, completely excluding the parietals from the upper region; and the frontals are expanded laterally to form the roof of the orbits. The nasal aperture opens upwards, and has in front of it a more or less horizontally prolonged beak, formed of the maxillae, premaxillae, vomer, and mesethmoid cartilage, extending forwards to form the upper jaw or roof of the mouth.
There are no clavicles. The humerus is freely movable on the scapula at the shoulder-joint, but beyond this the articulations of the limb are imperfect; the flattened ends of the bones coming in contact, with fibrous tissue interposed, allowing of scarcely any motion. The radius and ulna are distinct, and about equally developed, and much flattened, as are all the bones of the flippers. There are four, or more commonly five, digits, and the number of the phalanges of the second and third always exceeds the normal number in mammals, sometimes considerably; they present the exceptional character of having epiphyses at both ends. The pelvis is represented by a pair of small rod-like bones placed longitudinally, suspended below and at some distance from the vertebral column at the commencement of the tail. In some species, to the outer surface of these are fixed other small bones or cartilages, the rudiments of the hind-limb.
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| Fig. 1.—A Section of the Skull of a Black-Fish (Globicephalus melas). | |
PMx, Premaxilla. Mx, Maxilla. ME, Ossified portion of the mesethmoid. an, Nostrils. Na, Nasal. IP, Inter-parietal. Fr, Frontal. Pa, Parietal. SO, Supra-occipital. ExO, Ex-occipital. BO, Basi-occipital. Sq, Squamosal. Per, Periotic. | AS, Alisphenoid. PS, Presphenoid. Pt, Pterygoid. pn, Posterior nares. Pl, Palatine. Vo, Vomer. s, Symphysis of lower jaw. id, Inferior dental canal. cp, Coronoid process of lower jaw. cd, Condyle. a, Angle. sh, Stylo-hyal. bh, Basi-hyal. th, Thyro-hyal. |
Teeth are generally present, but exceedingly variable in number. In existing species, they are of simple, uniform character, with conical or compressed crowns and single roots, and are never preceded by milk-teeth. In the whalebone whales teeth are absent (except in the foetal condition), and the palate is provided with numerous transversely placed horny plates, forming the “whalebone.” Salivary glands are rudimentary or absent. The stomach is complex, and the intestine simple, and only in some species provided with a small caecum. The liver is little fissured, and there is no gall-bladder. The blood-vascular system is complicated by net-like expansions of both arteries and veins, or retia mirabilia, The larynx is of peculiar shape, the arytenoid cartilages and the epiglottis being elongated, and forming a tubular prolongation, which projects into the posterior nares, and when embraced by the soft palate forms a continuous passage between the nostrils and the trachea, or wind-pipe, in a more perfect manner. The brain is relatively large, round in form, with its surface divided into numerous and complex convolutions. The kidneys are deeply lobulated; the testes are abdominal; and there are no vesiculae seminales nor an os penis. The uterus is bicornuate; the placenta non-deciduate and diffuse. The two teats are placed in depressions on each side of the genital aperture. The ducts of the milk-glands are dilated during suckling into large reservoirs, into which the milk collects, and from which it is injected by the action of a muscle into the mouth of the young animal, so that sucking under water is greatly facilitated.
Whales and porpoises are found in all seas, and some dolphins and porpoises are inhabitants of the larger rivers of South America and Asia. Their organization necessitates their passing their life entirely in the water, as on land they are absolutely helpless. They have, however, to rise very frequently to the surface for the purpose of respiration; and, in relation to the upward and downward movement in the water thus necessitated, the principal instrument of motion, the tail, is expanded horizontally. The position of the nostril on the highest part of the head is important for this mode of life, as it is the only part of the body the exposure of which above the surface is absolutely necessary. Of numerous erroneous ideas connected with natural history, few are so widespread as that whales spout through their blow-holes water taken in at the mouth. But the “spouting,” or “blowing,” of whales is nothing more than the ordinary act of expiration, which, taking place at longer intervals than land-animals, is performed with a greater emphasis. The moment the animal rises to the surface it forcibly expels from its lungs the air taken in at the last inspiration, which is charged with vapour in consequence of the respiratory changes. This rapidly condensing in the cold atmosphere in which the phenomenon is often observed, forms a column of steam or spray, which has been taken for water. It happens, however, especially when the surface of the ocean is agitated into waves, that the animal commences its expiratory puff before the orifice has cleared the top of the water, some of which may thus be driven upwards with the blast, tending to complete the illusion. From photographs of spouting rorquals, it appears that the height and volume of the “spout” of all the species is much less than was supposed to be the case by the older observers; even that of the huge “sulphur-bottom” (Balaenoptera sibbaldi) averaging only about 14 ft. in height, although it may occasionally reach 20 ft.
As regards their powers of hearing, the capacity of cetaceans for receiving (and acting upon) sound-waves is demonstrated by the practice of shouting on the part of the fishermen when engaged in driving a shoal of porpoises or black-fish into shallow water, for the purpose of frightening their intended victims. As regards the possession of a voice by cetaceans, it is stated that one species, the “buckelwal” of the Germans, utters during the breeding-season a prolonged scream, comparable to the scream of a steam-siren, and embracing the whole musical scale, from base to treble. In respect of anatomical considerations, it is true that the external ear is much reduced, the “pinna” being absent, and the tube or “meatus” of very small calibre. On the other hand, the internal auditory organs are developed on the plan of those of ordinary mammals, but display certain peculiar modifications (notably the remarkable shell-like form of the tympanic bone) for intensifying and strengthening the sound-waves as they are received from the water. It seems, therefore, perfectly evident that whales must hear when in the water. This inference is confirmed by the comparatively small development of the other sense-organs. The eye, for instance, is very small, and can be of little use even at the comparatively small depths to which whales are now believed to descend. Again, the sense of smell, judging from the rudimentary condition of the olfactory organs, must be in abeyance; and whales have no sense-organs comparable to the lateral-line-system of fishes. Consequently, it would seem that when below the surface of the water they must depend chiefly upon the sense of hearing. Probably this sense is so highly developed as to enable the animals, in the midst of the vibrations made by the screw-like movements of the tail, or flukes, to distinguish the sound (or the vibrations) made by the impact of water against rocks, even in a dead calm, and, in the case of piscivorous species, to recognize by the pulse in the water the presence of a shoal of fish. Failing this explanation, it is difficult to imagine how whales can find their way about in the semi-darkness, and avoid collisions with rocks and rock-bound coasts.
In the Christiania Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, vol. xxxviii., Dr G. Guldberg has published some observations on the body-temperature of the Cetacea, in which he shows how extremely imperfect is our knowledge of this subject. As he remarks, it is a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain the temperature of living cetaceans, although this has been taken in the case of a white-whale and a dolphin, which some years ago were kept in confinement in a pond in the United States. With the larger whales such a mode of procedure is, however, obviously quite impracticable, and we have, accordingly, to rely on post-mortem observations. The layer of blubber by which all cetaceans are protected from cold renders the post-mortem refrigeration of the blood a much slower process than in most mammals, so that such observations have a much higher value than might at first be supposed to be the case. Indeed, the blood-temperature of a specimen of Sibbald’s rorqual three days after death still stood at 34° C. The various observations that have been taken have afforded the following results in individual cases: Sperm-whale, 40° C.; Greenland right-whale, 38.8° C.; porpoise, 35.6° C.; liver of a second individual, 37.8° C.; common rorqual, 35.4° C.; dolphin, 35.6° C. The average blood-temperature of man is 37° C., and that of other mammals 39° C.; while that of birds is 42 C. The record of 40° C. in the case of the sperm-whale seems to indicate that at least some cetaceans have a relatively high temperature.
With the possible exception of one West African dolphin, all the Cetacea are predaceous, subsisting on living animal food of some kind. One kind alone (Orca) eats other warm-blooded animals, as seals, and even members of its own order, both large and small. Many feed on fish, others on small floating crustaceans, pteropods and jelly-fishes, while the principal staple of the food of many is constituted by cuttle-fishes and squids. In size cetaceans vary much, some of the smaller dolphins scarcely exceeding 4 ft. in length, while whales are the most colossal of all animals. It is true that many statements of their bulk are exaggerated, but the actual dimensions of the larger species exceed those of all other animals, not even excluding the extinct dinosaurian reptiles. With some exceptions, cetaceans are generally timid, inoffensive animals, active in their movements and affectionate in their disposition towards one another, especially the mother towards the young, of which there is usually but one, or at most two at a time. They are generally gregarious, swimming in herds or “schools,” sometimes amounting to many thousands in number; though some species are met with either singly or in pairs.
Commercially these animals are of importance on account of the oil yielded by the blubber of all of them; while whalebone, spermaceti and ambergris are still more valuable products yielded by certain species. Within the last few years whalebone has been sold in America for £2900 per ton, while it is also asserted that £3000 per ton has been paid for two and a quarter tons at Aberdeen, although there seems to be some degree of doubt attaching to the statement. Soon after the middle of the last century, the price of this commodity was as low as £150 per ton, but, according to Mr Frank Buckland, it suddenly leapt up to £620 with the introduction of “crinoline” into ladies’ costume, and it has apparently been on the rise ever since. Ambergris, which is very largely used in perfumery, is solely a product of the sperm-whale, and appears to be a kind of biliary calculus. It generally contains a number of the horny beaks of the cuttle-fishes and squids upon which these whales chiefly feed. Its market-price is subject to considerable variation, but from £3 to £4 per oz. is the usual average for samples of good quality. In 1898 a merchant in Mincing Lane was the owner of a lump of ambergris weighing 270 ℔, which was sold in Paris for about 85 s. per oz., or £18,360.
Whalebone Whales.—Existing Cetacea are divisible into two sections, or suborders, the relationships of which are by no means clearly apparent. The first section is that of the whalebone whales, or Mystacoceti, in which no functional teeth are developed, although there are tooth-germs during foetal life. The palate is furnished with plates of baleen or whalebone; the skull is symmetrical; and the nasal bones form a roof to the nasal passages, which are directed upwards and forwards. The maxilla is produced in front of, but not over, the orbital process of the frontal. The lacrymal is small and distinct from the jugal. The tympanic is welded with the periotic, which is attached to the base of the skull by two strong diverging processes. The olfactory organ is distinctly developed. The two halves of the lower jaw are arched outwards, their anterior ends meeting at an angle, and connected by fibrous tissue without any symphysis. All the ribs at their upper extremity articulate only with the transverse processes of the vertebrae; their capitular processes when present not articulating directly with the bodies of the vertebrae. The sternum is composed of a single piece, and articulates only with a single pair of ribs; and there are no ossified sternal ribs. External openings of nostrils distinct from each other, longitudinal. A short conical caecum.
When in the foetal state these whales have numerous minute teeth lying in the dental groove of both upper and lower jaws. They are best developed about the middle of foetal life, after which they are absorbed, and no trace of them remains at the time of birth. The whalebone does not make its appearance until after birth; and consists of a series of flattened horny plates, between three and four hundred in number, on each side of the palate, with a bare interval along the middle line. The plates are placed transversely to the long axis of the palate, with short intervals between them. Each plate or blade is somewhat triangular in form, with the base attached to the palate and the apex hanging downwards. The outer edge of the blade is hard and smooth, but the inner edge and apex fray out into long bristly fibres, so that the roof of the whale’s mouth looks as if covered with hair, as described by Aristotle. At the inner edge of each principal blade are two or three much smaller or subsidiary blades. The principal blades are longest near the middle of the series, and gradually diminish towards the front and back of the mouth. The horny plates grow from a fibrous and vascular matrix, which covers the palatal surface of the maxillae, and sends out plate-like processes, one of which penetrates the base of each blade. Moreover, the free edges of these processes are covered with long vascular thread-like papillae, one of which forms the central axis of each of the hair-like fibres mainly composing the blade. A transverse section of fresh whalebone shows that it is made up of numbers of these soft vascular papillae, circular in outline, and surrounded by concentrically arranged epidermic cells, the whole bound together by other epidermic cells, that constitute the smooth (so-called “enamel”) surface of the blade, which, disintegrating at the free edge, allows the individual fibres to become loose and assume a hair-like appearance.
Whalebone really consists of modified papillae of the mucous membrane of the mouth, with an excessive and horny epithelial development. The blades are supported and bound together for a certain distance from their base, by a mass of less hardened epithelium, secreted by the surface of the palatal membrane or matrix of the whalebone in the intervals of the plate-like processes. This is the “gum” of the whalers. Whalebone varies much in colour in different species; in some it is almost jet black, in others slate colour, horn colour, yellow, or even creamy-white. In some descriptions the blades are variegated with longitudinal stripes of different hues. It differs also greatly in other respects, being short, thick, coarse, and stiff in some cases, and greatly elongated and highly elastic in those species in which it has attained its fullest development. Its function is to strain the water from the small marine molluscs, crustaceans, or fish upon which the whales subsist. In feeding, whales fill the immense mouth with water containing shoals of these small creatures, and then, on closing the jaws and raising the tongue, so as to diminish the cavity of the mouth, the water streams out through the narrow intervals between the hairy fringe of the whalebone blades, and escapes through the lips, leaving the living prey to be swallowed.
Although sometimes divided into two families, Balaenidae and Balaenopteridae, whalebone-whales are best included in a single family group under the former name. The typical members of this family are the so-called right-whales, forming the genus Balaena, in which there are no folds on the throat and chest, and no back-fin; while the cervical vertebrae are fused into a single mass. The flippers are short and broad, with five digits; the head is very large and the whalebone very long and narrow, highly elastic and black; while the scapula is high, with a distinct coracoid and coronoid process. This genus contains the well-known Greenland right-whale (B. mysticetus) of the Arctic seas, the whalebone and oil of which are so much valued in commerce, and also other whales, distinguished by having the head somewhat smaller in proportion to the body, with shorter whalebone and a larger number of vertebrae. These inhabit the temperate seas of both northern and southern hemispheres, and have been divided into species in accordance with their geographical distribution, such as B. biscayensis of the North Atlantic, B. japonica of the North Pacific, B. australis of the South Atlantic, and B. antipodarum and novae-zelandiae of the South Pacific; but the differences between them are so small that they may probably be regarded as races of a single species, the black whale (B. australis). On the head these whales carry a peculiar structure which is known to whalers as the “bonnet.” This is a large horny excrescence, worn into hollows like a much-denuded piece of limestone rock, growing probably in the neighbourhood of the blow-hole. More than one theory has been suggested to account for its presence. One suggestion is that it indicates the descent of whales from rhinoceros-like mammals; another that this species of whale is in the habit of rubbing against rocks in order to free itself from barnacles, and thus produces a kind of corn—although why on the nose alone is not stated. Dr W.G. Ridewood, however, considers that the structure is due to the fact that the horny layers which are produced all over the skin are not shed on this particular spot.
The pigmy whale (Neobalaena marginata) represents a genus agreeing with the right-whales in the absence of throat-flutings, and with the rorquals in the presence of a dorsal fin. The cervical vertebrae are united, and there are only 43 vertebrae altogether. The flippers are small, narrow, and with only four digits. The ribs remarkably expanded and flattened; the scapula low and broad, with completely developed acromion and coracoid processes. The whalebone is long, slender, elastic and white. The species which inhabits the South American, Australian and New Zealand seas is the smallest of the whalebone-whales, being not more than 20 ft. in length.
In contrast to the preceding is the great grey whale (Rachianectes glaucus) of the North Pacific, which combines the relatively small head, elongated shape, and narrow flippers of the fin-whales, with the smooth throat and absence of a back-fin distinctive of the right-whales. The whalebone is shorter and coarser than in any other species. In the skeleton the cervical vertebrae are free, and the first two ribs on each side expanded and united to form a large bony shield. In the humpback-whale (Megaptera longimana or boops) the head is of moderate size, the whalebone-plates are short and wide, and the cervical vertebrae free. The skin of the throat is fluted so as to form an expansible pouch; there is a low back-fin; and the flippers, which have four digits each, are extremely long, equalling about one-fourth the total length of the animal. The acromion and coracoid processes of the scapula are rudimentary. See [Humpback-Whale].
The right-whales are built for cruising slowly about in search of the shoals of small floating invertebrates which form their food, and are consequently broad in beam, with a float-shaped body and immovable neck. The humpback is of somewhat similar build, but with a smaller head, and probably attains considerable speed owing to the length of its flippers. The finners, or rorquals (Balaenoptera), which prey largely on fish, are built entirely for speed, and are the ocean greyhounds of the group. Their bodies are consequently long and attenuated, and their necks are partially mobile; while they are furnished with capacious pouches for storing their food. They chiefly differ from the humpback by the smaller head, long and slender build, small, narrow, and pointed flippers, each containing four digits, and the large acromion and coracoid processes to the low and broad scapula. Rorquals are found in almost every sea. Among them are the most gigantic of all animals, B. sibbaldi, which attains the length of 80 ft., and the small B. rostrata, which does not exceed 30. There are certainly four distinct modifications of this genus, represented by the two just mentioned, and by B. musculus and B. borealis, all inhabitants of British seas, but the question whether almost identical forms found in the Indian, Southern and Pacific Oceans are to be regarded as specifically identical or as distinct awaits future researches, although some of these have already received distinct names. See [Rorqual].
In the report on the zoology of the “Discovery” expedition, published in 1907 by the British Museum, E.A. Wilson describes a whale frequenting the fringe of the Antarctic ice which indicates a new generic type. Mainly black in colour, these whales measure about 20 or 30 ft. in length, and have a tall dorsal fin like that of a killer.
Toothed Whales.—-The second suborder is represented by the toothed whales, or Odontoceti, in which there is no whalebone, and teeth, generally numerous, though sometimes reduced to a single pair, and occasionally wanting, are normally developed. Unlike that of the whalebone-whales, the upper surface of the skull is more or less unsymmetrical. The nasal bones are in the form of nodules or flattened plates, applied closely to the frontals, and not forming any part of the roof to the nasal passage, which is directed upwards and backwards. The olfactory organ is rudimentary or absent. Hinder end of the maxilla expanded and covering the greater part of the orbital plate of the frontal bone. Lacrymal bone either inseparable from the jugal, or, if distinct, large, and forming part of the roof of the orbit. Tympanic bone not welded with the periotic, which is usually only attached to the rest of the skull by ligament. Two halves of the lower jaw nearly straight, expanded in height posteriorly, with a wide funnel-shaped aperture to the dental canal, and coming in contact in front by a flat surface of variable length, but constituting a symphysis. Several of the anterior ribs with well-developed capitular processes, which articulate with the bodies of the vertebrae. Sternum almost always composed of several pieces, placed one behind the other, with which several pairs of ribs are connected by well-developed cartilaginous or ossified sternal ribs. External respiratory aperture single, the two nostrils uniting before they reach the surface, usually in the form of a transverse sub-crescentic valvular aperture, situated on the top of the head. Flippers with five digits, though the first and fifth are usually little developed. No caecum, except in Platanista.
The first family, Physeteridae, is typified by the sperm-whale, and characterized by the absence of functional teeth in the upper jaw; the lower teeth being various, and often much reduced in number. Bones of the skull raised so as to form an elevated prominence or crest behind the nostrils. Pterygoid bones thick, produced backwards, meeting in the middle line, and not involuted to form the outer wall of the post-palatine air-sinuses, but simply hollowed on their outer side. Transverse processes of the arches of the dorsal vertebrae, to which the tubercles of the ribs are attached, ceasing abruptly near the end of the series, and replaced by processes on the body at a lower level, and serially homologous anteriorly with the heads of the ribs, and posteriorly with the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. Costal cartilages not ossified.
The first group, or Physeterinae, includes the sperm-whale itself and is characterized by the presence of a full series of lower teeth, which are set in a groove in place of sockets, the groove being imperfectly divided by partial septa, and the teeth held in place by the strong, fibrous gum. No distinct lacrymal bone. Skull strikingly asymmetrical in the region of the nasal apertures, in consequence of the left opening greatly exceeding the right in size.
| Fig. 2.—Skull of Sperm-Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). |
In the sperm-whale (Physeter macrocephalus) the upper teeth are apparently of uncertain number, rudimentary and functionless, being embedded in the gum. Lower jaw with from 20 to 25 teeth on each side, stout, conical, recurved and pointed at the apex until they are worn, without enamel. Upper surface of the skull concave; its posterior and lateral edges raised into a very high and greatly compressed semicircular crest or wall (fig. 2). Zygomatic processes of jugal bones thick and massive. Muzzle greatly elongated, broad at the base, and gradually tapering to the apex. Lower jaw exceedingly long and narrow, the symphysis being more than half the length. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 8, Ca 24; total 50. Atlas, or first vertebra, free; all the other cervical vertebrae united by their bodies and spines into a single mass. Eleventh pair of ribs rudimentary. Head about one-third the length of the body; very massive, high and truncated, and rather compressed in front; owing its huge size and form mainly to the accumulation of a mass of fatty tissue filling the large hollow on the upper surface of the skull and overlying the long muzzle. The single blow-hole is longitudinal, slightly S-shaped, and placed at the upper and anterior extremity of the head to the left side of the middle line. The opening of the mouth is on the under side of the head, considerably behind the end of the snout. Flippers short, broad and truncated. Dorsal fin represented by a low protuberance. See [Sperm-Whale].
| Fig. 3.—Bottle-nose (Hyperoödon rostratus). From a specimen taken off the coast of Scotland, 1882. |
In the lesser or pigmy sperm-whale (Cogia breviceps) there may be a pair of rudimentary teeth in the upper jaw, while on each side of the lower jaw there are from 9 to 12 rather long, slender, pointed and curved teeth, with a coating of enamel. Upper surface of the skull concave, with thick, raised, posterior and lateral margins, massive and rounded at their anterior terminations above the orbits. Muzzle not longer than the cranial position of the skull, broad at the base, and rapidly tapering to the apex. Zygomatic process of the jugal rod-like. Lower jaw with symphysis less than half its length. Vertebrae: C 7, D 13 or 14, L and Ca 30; total 50 or 51. All the cervical vertebrae united by their bodies and arches. The head is about one-sixth of the length of the body, and obtusely pointed in front; the mouth small and placed far below the apex of the snout; the blow-hole crescentic, and placed obliquely on the crown of the head in advance of the eyes and to the left of the middle line; while the flippers are bluntly sickle-shaped, and the back-fin triangular. This species attains a length of from 9 to 13 ft.
A second subfamily is represented by the bottle-noses and beaked whales, and known as the Ziphiinae. In this group the lower teeth are rudimentary and concealed in the gum, except one, or rarely two, pairs which may be largely developed, especially in the male. There is a distinct lacrymal bone. Externally the mouth is produced into a slender rostrum or beak, from above which the rounded eminence formed by a cushion of fat resting on the cranium in front of the blow-hole rises somewhat abruptly. The blow-hole is single, crescentic and median, as in the Delphinidae. Flippers small, ovate, with five digits moderately well developed. A small obtuse dorsal fin situated considerably behind the middle of the back. Longitudinal grooves on each side of the skin of the throat, diverging posteriorly, and nearly meeting in front. In external characters and habits the whales of this group closely resemble each other. They appear to be almost exclusively feeders on cuttle-fishes, and occur either singly, in pairs, or in small herds. By their dental and osteological characters they are easily separated into four genera.
In the first of these, Hyperoödon, or bottle-nose, there is a small conical pointed tooth at the apex of each half of the lower jaw, concealed by the gum during life. Skull with the upper ends of the premaxillae rising suddenly behind the nostrils to the vertex and expanded laterally, their outer edges curving backwards and their anterior surfaces arching forwards and overhanging the nostrils; the right larger than the left. Nasal bones lying in the hollow between the upper extremities of the premaxillae, strongly concave in the middle line and in front; their outer edges, especially that of the right, expanded over the front of the inner border of the maxilla. Very high longitudinal crests on the maxillae at the base of the beak, extending backwards almost to the nostrils, approaching each other in the middle line above; sometimes compressed and sometimes so massive that their inner edges come almost in contact. Preorbital notch distinct, and mesethmoid cartilage slightly ossified. Vertebrae: C 7, D 9, L 10, Ca 19; total 45. All the cervical vertebrae united. Upper surface of the head in front of the blow-hole very prominent and rounded, rising abruptly from above the small, distinct snout. Two species are known. See [Bottle-nose Whale].
The typical representative of the beaked whales is Ziphius cuvieri, in which there is a single conical tooth of moderate size on each side close to the anterior extremity of the lower jaw, directed forwards and upwards. Skull with the premaxillae immediately in front and at the sides of the nostrils expanded, hollowed, with elevated lateral margins, the posterior ends rising to the vertex and curving forwards, the right being considerably more developed than the left. The conjoint nasals form a pronounced symmetrical eminence at the top of the skull, projecting forwards over the nostrils, flat above, prominent and rounded in the middle line in front, and separated by a notch on each side from the premaxillae. Preorbital notch not distinct. Rostrum (seen from above) triangular, tapering from the base to the apex; upper and outer edges of maxillae at base of rostrum raised into low roughened tuberosities. Mesethmoid cartilage densely ossified in adult age, and coalescing with the surrounding bones of the rostrum. Vertebrae: C 7, D 10, L 10, Ca 22; total 49. The three anterior cervical vertebrae united, the rest free.
| Fig. 4.—Sowerby’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens). |
In the numerous species of the allied genus Mesoplodon there is a much-compressed and pointed tooth in each half of the lower jaw, variously situated, but generally at some distance behind the apex; its point directed upwards, and often somewhat backwards, occasionally developed to a great size. In the skull the region round the nostrils is as in Hyperoödon, except that the nasals are narrow and more sunk between the upper ends of the premaxillae; like those of Hyperoödon, they are concave in the middle line in front and above. No maxillary tuberosities. Preorbital notch not very distinct. Rostrum long and narrow. Mesethmoid in the adult ossified in its entire length, and coalescing with the surrounding bones. Vertebrae: C 7, D 10, L 10 or 11, Ca 19 or 20; total 46 to 48. Two or three anterior cervicals united, the rest usually free.
| Fig. 5.—Skull of a Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris). |
Though varying in form, the lower teeth of the different members of this genus agree in their essential structure, having a small and pointed enamel-covered crown, composed of dentine, which, instead of surmounting a root of the ordinary character, is raised upon a solid mass of osteo-dentine, the continuous growth of which greatly alters the form and general appearance of the tooth as age advances, as in the case of M. layardi, where the long, narrow, flat, strap-like teeth, curving inwards at their extremities, meet over the rostrum, and interfere with the movements of the jaw. In one species (M. grayi) a row of minute, conical, pointed teeth, like those of ordinary Dolphins, 17 to 19 in number, is present even in the adults, on each side of the middle part of the upper jaw, but embedded by their roots only in the gum, and not in bony sockets. This, with the frequent presence of rudimentary teeth in other species of this genus, indicates that the beaked whales are derived from ancestral forms with teeth of normal character in both jaws. The species are distributed in both northern and southern hemispheres, but most frequent in the latter. Among them are M. bidens, M. europaeas, M. densirostris, M. layardi, M. grayi and M. hectori; but there is still much to be learned with regard to their characters and distribution. This group was abundant in the Pliocene age, as attested by the frequency with which the imperishable long, cylindrical rostrum of the skull, of more than ivory denseness, is found among the rolled and waterworn animal remains which compose the “bone-bed” at the base of the Red Crag of Suffolk.
Finally, in Arnoux’s beaked whale (Berardius arnouxi), of New Zealand, which grows to a length of 30 ft., there are two moderate-sized, compressed, pointed teeth, on each side of the symphysis of the lower jaw, with their summits directed forwards, the anterior being the larger of the two and close to the front of the jaw. Upper ends of the premaxillae nearly symmetrical, moderately elevated, slightly expanded, and not curved forward over the nostrils. Nasals broad, massive and rounded, of nearly equal size, forming the vertex of the skull, flattened in front, most prominent in the middle line. Preorbital notch distinct. Rostrum long and narrow. Mesethmoid partially ossified. Small rough eminences on the outer edge of the upper surface of the maxillae at base of rostrum. Vertebrae: C 7, D 10, L 12, Ca 19; total 48. The three anterior cervicals welded, the rest free and well developed. Apparently this whale has the power of thrusting its teeth up and down, exposing them to view when attacked.
| Fig. 6.—The Susu, or Ganges Dolphin (Platanista gangetica). |
In a family by themselves—the Platinistidae—are placed three cetaceans which differ from the members of the preceding and the following groups in the mode of articulation of the ribs with the vertebrae, as the tubercular and capitular articulations, distinct at the commencement of the series, gradually blend together, as in most mammals. The cervical vertebrae are all free. The lacrymal bone is not distinct from the jugal. The jaws are long and narrow, with numerous teeth in both; the symphysis of the lower one exceeding half its length. Externally the head is divided from the body by a slightly constricted neck. Pectoral limbs broad and truncated. Dorsal fin small or obsolete. In habits these dolphins are fluviatile or estuarine. In the Indian susu, or Ganges dolphin (Platanista gangetica), the teeth number about 30⁄30 on each side, are set near together, are rather large, cylindrical, and sharp-pointed in the young, but in old animals acquire a large laterally compressed base, which in the posterior part of the series becomes irregularly divided into roots. As the conical enamel-covered crown wears away, the teeth of the young and old animals have a totally different appearance. The beak and tooth-bearing portion of the lower jaw are so narrow that the teeth of the two sides are almost in contact. Maxillae supporting large, incurved, compressed bony crests, which overarch the nostrils and base of the rostrum, and almost meet in the middle line above. Orbits very small and eyes rudimentary, without crystalline lens. Blow-hole longitudinal, linear. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 8, Ca 25; total 51. A small caecum. No pelvic bones. Dorsal fin represented by a low ridge.
| Fig. 7.—River Plate Dolphin (Stenodelphis blainvillei). |
The second genus is represented by Inia geoffroyi, of the Amazon, in which the teeth vary from 26 to 33 pairs in each jaw; those at the posterior part with a distinct tubercle at the inner side of the base of the crown. Vertebrae: C 7, D 13, L 3, Ca 18; total 41. Transverse processes of lumbar vertebrae very broad. Sternum short and broad, and consisting of a single segment only. Dorsal fin a mere ridge. The long cylindrical rostrum externally furnished with scattered, stout and crisp hairs. The third type is Stenodelphis blainvillei, the River Plate dolphin, a small brown species (fig. 7), with from 50 to 60 pairs of teeth in each jaw, furnished with a cingulum at the base of the crown. Jaws very long and slender. Vertebrae: C 7, D 10, L 5, Ca 19; total 41. Transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae extremely broad. Sternum elongated, composed of two segments, with four sternal ribs attached. Dorsal fin rather small, triangular, pointed. Blow-hole transverse. In several respects this species connects the two preceding ones with the Delphinidae (see [Dolphin]).
| Fig. 8.—Upper surface of the Skull of male Narwhal (Monodon monoceros), with the whole of both teeth exposed by removal of the upper wall of their alveolar cavities. |
The last family of existing cetaceans is the above-mentioned Delphinidae, which includes the true dolphins, porpoises, grampuses and their relatives. As a rule there are numerous teeth in both jaws; and the pterygoid bones of the skull are short, thin and involuted to form with a process of the palate bone the outer wall of the post-palatine air-sinus. Symphysis of lower jaw short, or moderate, never exceeding one-third the length of the jaw. Lacrymal bone not distinct from the jugal. Transverse processes of the dorsal vertebrae gradually transferred from the arches to the bodies of the vertebrae without any sudden break, and becoming posteriorly continuous serially with the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. Anterior ribs attached to the transverse process by the tubercle, and to the body of the vertebra by the head; the latter attachment lost in the posterior ribs. Sternal ribs ossified. The blow-hole is transverse, crescentic, with the horns of the crescent pointing forwards.
First on the long list is the narwhal, Monodon monoceros, in which, apart from some irregular rudimentary teeth, the dentition is reduced to a single pair of teeth which lie horizontally in the maxilla, and in the female remain permanently concealed within the socket, so that this sex is practically toothless, while in the male (fig. 8), the right tooth usually remains similarly concealed while the left is immensely developed, attaining a length equal to more than half that of the entire animal, projecting horizontally from the head in the form of a cylindrical, or slightly tapering, pointed tusk, without enamel, and with the surface marked by spiral grooves and ridges, running in a sinistral direction. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 6, Ca 26; total 50. Cervical region comparatively long, and all the vertebrae distinct, or with irregular unions towards the middle of the series, the atlas and axis being usually free. Flipper small, short and broad, with the second and third digits nearly equal, the fourth slightly shorter. No dorsal fin. See [Narwhal].
Closely allied is the beluga or white-whale (Delphinapterus leucas), of the Arctic seas, in which, however, there are from eight to ten pairs of teeth in each jaw, occupying the anterior three-fourths of the rostrum and corresponding portion of the lower jaw, rather small, conical, and pointed when unworn, but usually become obliquely truncated, separated by intervals considerably wider than the diameter of the tooth, and implanted obliquely, the crowns inclining forwards especially in the upper jaw. Skull rather narrow and elongated, depressed. Premaxillae convex in front of the nostrils. Rostrum about equal in length to the cranial portion of the skull, triangular, broad at the base, and gradually contracting towards the apex, where it is somewhat curved downwards. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 9, Ca 23; total 50. Cervical vertebrae free. Flippers broad, short and rounded, all the digits being tolerably well developed, except the first. Anterior part of head rounded; no distinct snout. No dorsal fin, but a low ridge in its place. See [Beluga].
In all the remaining genera of Delphinidae the cervical region of the vertebral column is very short, and the first two, and usually more, of the vertebrae are firmly united. The common porpoise (Phocaena communis, or P. phocaena) is the typical representative of the first genus, in which the teeth vary from 18⁄18 to 25⁄25 , are small, and occupy nearly the whole length of the rostrum, with compressed, spade-shaped crowns, separated from the root by a constricted neck. Rostrum rather shorter than the cranium proper, broad at the base and tapering towards the apex. Premaxillae raised into tuberosities in front of the nostrils. The frontal bones form a somewhat square elevated protuberance in the middle line of the skull behind the nostrils, rising above the flattened nasals. Symphysis of lower jaw very short. Vertebrae: C 7, D 13, L 14, Ca 30; total 64. First to sixth cervical vertebrae and sometimes the seventh also, coalesced. Flippers of moderate size, oval, slightly sickle-shaped, with the second and third digits nearly equal in length, and the fourth and fifth well developed, but shorter. Head short, moderately rounded in front of the blow-hole. Dorsal fin near the middle of the back, triangular; its height considerably less than the length of the base; its anterior edge frequently furnished with one or more rows of conical horny tubercles.
The porpoise, which is so common in British waters and the Atlantic, seldom enters the Mediterranean, and apparently never resides there. There is, however, a porpoise in the Black Sea, which, according to Dr O. Abel, is entitled to rank as a distinct species, with the name of Phocaena relicta. This Black Sea porpoise is readily distinguished from the Atlantic species by the contour of the profile of the head, which, in place of forming a continuous curve from the muzzle to what represents the neck, has a marked prominence above the angle of the mouth, followed by an equally marked depression. The teeth are also different in form and number. The absence of porpoises from the Mediterranean is explained by Dr Abel on account of the greater saltness of that sea as compared with the ocean in general; his idea being that these cetaceans are near akin to fresh-water members of the group, and therefore unsuited to withstand an excessively saline medium. From the Taman Peninsula, on the north shore of the Black Sea, the same writer has described an extinct type of ancestral porpoise, under the name of Palaeophocaena andrussowi. Another species is the wholly black P. spinipennis, typically from South America. Black is also the hue of the Indian porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), which wants a dorsal fin, and has eighteen pairs of teeth rather larger than those of the ordinary porpoise. (See [Porpoise].)
| Fig. 9.—Beluga or White-Whale (Delphinapterus leucas). From a specimen taken in the river St Lawrence and exhibited in London, 1877. |
Next comes the Indo-Malay genus Orcella, in which the 12⁄12 to 14⁄14 , small, conical teeth are pointed, rather closely set, and occupy nearly the whole length of the rostrum. Skull sub-globular, high. Rostrum nearly equal in length to the cranial portion of the skull, tapering. Flippers of moderate size, not elongated, but somewhat pointed, with all the bones of the digits broader than long, except the first phalanges of the index and third fingers. Head globular in front. Dorsal fin rather small, placed behind the middle of the body. Two species, both of small size—O. brevirostris, from the Bay of Bengal, and O. fluminalis, from the Irrawaddy river, from 300 to 900 m. from the sea.
In the grampus, or killer, Orca gladiator (or O. orca) the teeth form about twenty pairs, above and below, occupying nearly the whole length of the rostrum, very large and stout, with conical recurved crowns and large roots, expanded laterally and flattened, or rather hollowed, on the anterior and posterior surfaces. Rostrum about equal in length to the cranial part of the skull, broad and flattened above, rounded in front; premaxillae broad and rather concave in front of the nostrils, contracted at the middle of the rostrum, and expanding again towards the apex. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11-12, L 10, Ca 23; total 51 or 52; bodies of the first and second and sometimes the third cervical vertebrae united; the rest free. Flippers very large, ovate, nearly as broad as long, with all the phalanges and metacarpals broader than long. General form of body robust. Face short and rounded. Dorsal fin near the middle of the back, very high and pointed. See [Grampus].
| Fig. 10.—The Grampus or Killer (Orca gladiator). |
The lesser killer or black killer, Pseudorca crassidens, has its 8-12⁄8-12 teeth confined to the anterior half of the rostrum and corresponding part of the lower jaw; they are small, conical, curved and sharp-pointed when unworn, but sometimes deciduous in old age. Skull broad and depressed; with the rostrum and cranial portions about equal in length. Upper surface of rostrum broad and flat. Premaxillae concave in front of the nostrils, as wide at the middle of the rostrum as at the base, and nearly or completely concealing the maxillae in the anterior half of this region. Vertebrae: C 7, D II, L 12-14, Ca 28-29; total 58 or 59. Bodies of the anterior five or six cervical vertebrae united. Length of the bodies of the lumbar and anterior caudal vertebrae about equal to their width. Flippers very long and narrow, with the second digit the longest, and having as many as 12 or 13 phalanges, the third shorter (with 9 phalanges), the first, fourth and fifth very short. Fore part of the head round, in consequence of the great development of a cushion of fat, placed on the rostrum of the skull in front of the blow-hole. Dorsal fin low and triangular, the length of its base considerably exceeding its vertical height.
Next comes the ca’ing whale, or black-fish (Globicephalus melas), with about ten pairs of upper and lower teeth. Cranial and dental characters generally like those of Orca, except that the roots of the teeth are cylindrical. Vertebrae: C 7, D 10, L 9, Ca 24; total 50; first to sixth or seventh cervical vertebrae united; bodies of the lumbar vertebrae distinguished from those of the preceding genera by being more elongated, the length being to the width as 3 to 2. Flippers of moderate size, narrow and pointed. Dorsal fin situated near the middle of the back, of moderate size, and sickle-shaped. Head in front of the blow-hole high, and compressed anteriorly, the snout truncated. See [Ca’ing Whale].
Risso’s dolphin, Grampus griseus, represents another genus, characterized by the absence of teeth in the upper and the small number of these in the lower jaw (3 to 7 on each side, and confined to the region of the symphysis). Vertebrae: C 7, D 12, L 19, Ca 30; total 68. General external characters much as in Globicephalus, but the fore part of the head less rounded, and the flippers less elongated. G. griseus is about 13 ft. long, and remarkable for its great variability of colour. It has been found, though rarely, in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is the typical representative of a large group of relatively small species, some of which are wholly marine, while others are more or less completely fluviatile. They are divided into a number of genera, such as Prodelphinus, Steno, Lagenorhynchus, Cephalorhynchus, Tursiops, &c., best distinguished from one another by the number and size of the teeth, the form and relations of the bones on the hinder part of the palate, the length of the beak and of the union of the two halves of the lower jaw, and the number of vertebrae. For the distinctive characters of these genera the reader may refer to one of the works mentioned below; and it must suffice to state that, collectively, all these dolphins are characterized by the following features. The teeth are numerous in both jaws, and more than 20⁄20 in number, occupying nearly the whole length of the rostrum, and small, close-set, conical, pointed and slightly curved. Rostrum more or less elongated, and pointed in front, usually considerably longer than the cranial portion of the skull. Vertebrae: C 7, D 12-14, L and Ca variable; total 51 to 90. Flippers of moderate size, narrow, pointed, somewhat sickle-shaped, with the first digit rudimentary, the second longest, third nearly equal, and the fourth and fifth extremely short. Externally the head shows a distinct beak or pointed snout, marked off from the antenasal fatty elevation by a V-shaped groove. Dorsal fin rather large, triangular or sickle-shaped, rarely wanting. A curiously marked brown and white species, perhaps referable to Lagenorhynchus is found on the fringe of the Antarctic ice (see report on the zoology of the “Discovery,” published in 1907 by the British Museum). See [Dolphin].
Extinct Cetacea.
At present we are totally in the dark as to the origin of the whalebone-whales, not being even assured that they are derived from the same stock as the toothed whales. It is noteworthy, however, that some of the fossil representatives of the latter have nasal bones of a type recalling those of the former. Such fossil whalebone-whales as are known occur in Pliocene, and Miocene formations are either referable to existing genera, or to more or less nearly related extinct ones, such as Plesiocetus, Herpetocetus and Cetotherium.
The toothed whales, on the other hand, are very largely represented in a fossil state, reaching as low in the geological series as the upper Cretaceous. Many of these present much more generalized characters than their modern representatives, while others indicate apparently a transition towards the still more primitive zeuglodonts, which, as will be shown later, are themselves derived from the creodont Carnivora. In the Pliocene deposits of Belgium and England are preserved the teeth and other remains of a number of cetaceans, such as Physodon, Encetus, Dinoziphius, Hoplocetus, Balaenodon and Scaldicetus, more or less nearly related to the sperm-whale, but presenting several primitive characters. A complete skull of a member of this group from the Tertiary deposits of Patagonia, at first referred to Physodon, but subsequently to Scaldicetus, has a full series of enamelled teeth in the upper jaw; and it is probable that the same was the case in other forms. This entails either a modification of the definition of the Physeteridae as given above, or the creation of a separate family for these primitive sperm-whales. In other cases, however, as in the Miocene Prophyseter and Placoziphius, the anterior portion or the whole of the upper jaw had already become toothless; and these forms are regarded as indicating the descent of the sperm-whales from the under-mentioned Squalodon. The beaked whales, again, are believed to be independently descended from the latter type, Berardius being traced into the Miocene Mioziphius, Anoplonassa and Palaeoziphius, the last of which shows signs in its dentition of approximating to the complicated tooth-structure of the squalodonts.
Another line of descent from the latter, apparently culminating in the modern Platanistidae, is represented by the family Eurhinodelphidae, typified by the European Miocene Eurhinodelphis, but also including the contemporary Patagonian Argyrocetus and the nearly allied European Cyrtodelphis. All these were very long-beaked dolphins; and in Argyrocetus, at all events, the occipital condyles, instead of being closely pressed to the skull, are as prominent as in ordinary mammals, while the nasal bones, instead of forming mere rudimentary nodules, were squared and roofed over the hind part of the nasal chamber.
In the Miocene Squalodon, representing the family Squalodontidae, the dentition is differentiated into incisors, canines and cheek-teeth, the hinder ones of the latter series having double roots and compressed crowns carrying serrations on the hinder edge; generally the dental formula has been given as i. 3⁄3 , c. 1⁄1 , p. 4⁄4 , m. 7⁄7 , the single-rooted cheek-teeth being regarded as premolars and those with double roots as molars. Dr Abel is, however, of opinion that the formula is better represented as i. 3⁄3 , c. 1⁄1 , p. 8 or 9⁄9, m. 3⁄2 ; the teeth reckoned as molars corresponding to those of the creodont Carnivora. The single-rooted cheek-teeth are regarded as due, not to the division of double-rooted ones, but to the fusion of the two roots of teeth of the latter type. In Squalodon the nasal bones were of the modern nodular type, but in the Miocene Patagonian Prosqualodon they partially covered the nasal chamber.
At present there is a gap between the most primitive squalodonts and the Eocene zeuglodonts (Zeuglodontidae), which are regarded by Messrs Max Weber, O. Abel and C.W. Andrews as the direct forerunners of the modern-toothed whales, forming the suborder Archaeoceti. It is, however, right to mention that some authorities refuse to admit the relation of the Archaeoceti to the whales.
In the typical zeuglodonts the long and flat skull has large temporal fossae, a strong sagittal crest, a long beak formed mainly by the premaxillae (in place of the maxillae, as in modern whales), and long nasal bones covering over the nasal chamber, so that the nostrils opened about half-way down the beak. All the cervical vertebrae were free. Normally the dentition in the typical genus Zeuglodon (which is common to the Eocene of North America and Egypt) is i. 3⁄3 , c. 1⁄1 , p. 4⁄4 , m. 3⁄3 ; the cheek-teeth being two-rooted, with compressed pointed crowns, of which the fore-and-aft edges are coarsely serrated. In the Egyptian Zeuglodon osiris the number of the molars is, however, reduced to 2⁄3 , while some of the earlier cheek-teeth have become single-rooted, as in the squalodonts. The probable transitional form between the latter and the zeuglodonts is the small Microzeuglodon caucasicus described by the present writer, from the Caucasus. As regards the origin of the zeuglodonts themselves, remains discovered in the Eocene formations of Egypt indicate a practically complete transition, so far at least as dental characters are concerned, from these whale-like creatures to the creodont Carnivora. In the earliest type, Protocetus, the skull is practically that of a zeuglodont, the snout being in fact more elongated than in some of the earliest representatives of the latter, although the nostrils are placed nearer the tip. The incisors are unknown, but the cheek-teeth are essentially those of a creodont, none of them having acquired the serrated edges distinctive of the typical zeuglodonts; and the hinder premolars and molars retaining the three roots of the creodonts. In the somewhat later Prozeuglodon the skull is likewise essentially of the zeuglodont type, although the nostrils have shifted a little more backwards; as regards the cheek-teeth, which have acquired serrated crowns, the premolars at any rate retain the inner buttress supported by a distinct third root, so that they are precisely intermediate between Protocetus and Zeuglodon. Yet another connecting form is Eocetus, a very large animal from nearly the same horizon as Prozeuglodon; its skull approaching that of Zeuglodon as regards the backward position of the nostrils, although the cheek-teeth are of the creodont type, having inner, or third, roots. It is noteworthy that Zeuglodon apparently occurs in the same beds as these intermediate types.
It follows from the foregoing that if zeuglodonts are the ancestors of the true Cetacea—and the probability that they are so is very great—the latter are derived from primitive Carnivora, and not, as has been suggested, from herbivorous Ungulata. The idea that the zeuglodonts were provided with a bony armour does not appear to be supported by recent discoveries.
Authorities.—The above article is based on that by Sir W.H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also W.H. Flower, “On the Characters and Divisions of the Family Delphinidae,” Proc. Zool. Soc. (London, 1883); F.W. True, “Review of the Family Delphinidae,” Proc. U.S. Museum, No. 36 (1889); R. Lydekker, “Cetacean Skulls from Patagonia,” Palaeontol. Argentina, vol. ii: An. Mus. La Plata (1893); W. Dames, “Über Zeuglodonten aus Ägypten,” Paläontol. Abhandlungen, vol. i. (1894); F.E. Beddard, A Book of Whales (London, 1900); O. Abel, “Untersuchungen über die fossilen Platanistiden des Wiener Beckens,” Denks. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien., vol. lxviii. (1899); “Les Dauphins longirostres du Bolérien,” Mém. musée d’hist. nat. belgique (1901 and 1902); “Die phylogenetische Entwickelung des Cetaceengebisses und die systematische Stellung der Physeteriden,” Verhandl. deutsch. zool. Gesellschaft (1905); E. Fraas, “Neue Zeuglodonten aus dem unteren Mittelocean vom Mokattam bei Cairo,” Geol. und paläontol. Abhandl. ser. 2, vol. vi. (1904); C.W. Andrews, “Descriptive Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayum” (British Museum, 1906).
(R. L.*)
CETHEGUS, the name of a Roman patrician family of the Cornelian gens. Like the younger Cato its members kept up the old Roman fashion of dispensing with the tunic and leaving the arms bare (Horace, Ars Poëtica, 50; Lucan, Pharsalia, ii. 543). Two individuals are of some importance:—
(1) Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, pontifex maximus and curule aedile, 213 B.C. In 211, as praetor, he had charge of Apulia; later, he was sent to Sicily, where he proved a successful administrator. In 209 he was censor, and in 204 consul. In 203 he was proconsul in Upper Italy, where, in conjunction with the praetor P. Quintilius Varus, he gained a hard-won victory over Mago, Hannibal’s brother, in Insubrian territory, and obliged him to leave Italy. He died in 196. He had a great reputation as an orator, and is characterized by Ennius as “the quintessence of persuasiveness” (suadae medulla). Horace (Ars Poët. 50; Epistles, ii. 2. 117) calls him an authority on the use of Latin words.
Livy xxv. 2, 41, xxvii. 11, xxix. 11, xxx. 18.
(2) Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, the boldest and most dangerous of Catiline’s associates. Like many other youthful profligates, he joined the conspiracy in the hope of getting his debts cancelled. When Catiline left Rome in 63 B.C., after Cicero’s first speech, Cethegus remained behind as leader of the conspirators with P. Lentulus Sura. He himself undertook to murder Cicero and other prominent men, but was hampered by the dilatoriness of Sura, whose age and rank entitled him to the chief consideration. The discovery of arms in Cethegus’s house, and of the letter which he had given to the ambassadors of the Allobroges, who had been invited to co-operate, led to his arrest. He was condemned to death, and executed, with Sura and others, on the night of the 5th of December.
Sallust, Catilina, 46-55; Cicero, In Cat. iii. 5-7; Appian, Bell. Civ. ii. 2-5; see [Catiline].
CETINA, GUTIERRE DE (1518?-1572?), Spanish poet and soldier, was born at Seville shortly before 1520. He served under Charles V. in Italy and Germany, but retired from the army in 1545 to settle in Seville. Soon afterwards, however, he sailed for Mexico, where he resided for some ten years; he appears to have visited Seville in 1557, and to have returned to Mexico, where he died at some date previous to 1575. A follower of Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega, a friend of Jerónimo de Urrea and Baltavar del Alcázar, Cetina adopted the doctrines of the Italian school and, under the name of Vandalio, wrote an extensive series of poems in the newly introduced metres; his sonnets are remarkable for elegance of form and sincerity of sentiment, his other productions being in great part adaptations from Petrarch, Ariosto and Ludovico Dolce. His patrons were Antonio de Leyva, prince of Ascoli, Hurtado de Mendoza, and Alva’s grandson, the duke de Sessa, but he seems to have profited little by their protection. His works have been well edited by Joaquín Hazañas y la Rúa in two volumes published at Seville (1895).
CETTE, a seaport of southern France in the department of Hérault, 18 m. S.W. of Montpellier by the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 32,659. After Marseilles it is the principal commercial port on the south coast of France. The older part of Cette occupies the foot and slope of the Mont St Clair (the ancient Mons Setius), a hill 590 ft. in height, situated on a tongue of land that lies between the Mediterranean and the lagoon of Thau. This quarter with its wide streets and lofty stone buildings is bounded on the east by the Canal de Cette, which leads from the lagoon of Thau to the Old Basin and the outer harbour. Across the canal lie the newer quarters, which chiefly occupy two islands separated from each other by a wet dock and limited on the east by the Canal Maritime, parallel to the Canal de Cette. A lateral canal unites the northern ends of the two main canals. A breakwater running W.S.W. and E.N.E. protects the entrance to the harbour, which is one of the safest in France. The outer port and the Old Basin are enclosed by a mole to the south and by a jetty to the east. Behind the outer port lies an inner and more recent basin which communicates with the Canal Maritime. The entire area of the harbour, including the canals, is 111 acres with a quayage length of over 8000 yds. The public institutions of Cette include tribunals of commerce and of maritime commerce, councils of arbitration in commercial and fishing affairs, an exchange and chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France and a large hospital. There are also a communal college, a naval school, and schools of music, commerce and industry, and navigation. Cette is much resorted to for sea-bathing. The town is connected with Lyons by the canal from the Rhone to Cette, and with Bordeaux by the Canal du Midi, and is a junction of the Southern and Paris-Lyon railways. The shipping trade is carried on with South America, the chief ports of the Mediterranean, and especially with Spain. The chief exports are wines and brandy, chemical products, skins and soap; the chief imports are wine, cereals, coal, timber, petroleum, sulphur, tar and chemical substances. In the five years 1901-1905 the average annual value of imports was £3,720,000 (£4,980,000 in years 1896-1900), of exports £1,427,000 (£1,237,000 in 1896-1900). More than 400 small craft are employed in the sardine, tunny, cod and other fisheries. Large quantities of shell-fish are obtained from the lagoon of Thau. There are factories for the pickling of sardines, for the manufacture of liqueurs and casks, and for the treatment of sulphur, phosphates, and nitrate of soda. The Schneider Company of Creusot also have metallurgical works at Cette, and the establishments for making wine give employment to thousands. The port of Cette was created in 1666 by the agency of Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., and according to the plans of Vauban; toward the end of the 17th century its development was aided by the opening of the Canal du Midi.
CETTIGNE (Servian, Tsetinye; also written Cettinje, Tzetinje, and Tsettinye), the capital of Montenegro; in a narrow plain deeply sunk in the heart of the limestone mountains, at a height of 2093 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1900) about 3200. The surrounding country is bare and stony, with carefully cultivated patches of rich red soil among the crevices of the rock. In winter it is often so deeply covered with snow as to be well-nigh inaccessible, while in spring and autumn it is frequently flooded by the waters of a small brook which becomes a torrent after rain or a thaw. Cettigne itself is little more than a walled village, consisting of a cluster of whitewashed cottages and some unadorned public buildings. These include a church; a fortified monastery which was founded in 1478, but so often burned and rebuilt as to seem quite modern, and which is visited by pilgrims to the tomb of Peter I. (1782-1830); residences for the archimandrite and the vladika or metropolitan of Cettigne; a palace built in 1863, which accommodates the ministries; the court of appeal, and a school modelled on the gymnasia of Germany and Austria; the newer palaces of the prince and his heir; foreign legations; barracks; a seminary for priests and teachers, established by the tsar Alexander II. (1855-1881), with a very successful girls’ school founded and endowed by the tsaritsa Marie; a library and reading-room; a theatre, a museum and a hospital. In an open space near the old palace stood the celebrated plane tree, beneath which Prince Nicholas gave audience to his subjects, and administered justice until the closing years of the 19th century. A zigzag highway, regarded as a triumph of engineering, winds through the mountain passes between Cettigne and the Austrian seaport of Cattaro; and other good roads give access to the richest parts of the interior. There is, however, little trade, though mineral waters are manufactured.
Cettigne owes its origin to Ivan the Black, who was forced, towards the end of the 15th century, to withdraw from Zhabliak, his former capital. It has often been taken and sacked by the Turks, but has seldom been occupied by them for long.
CETUS (“The Whale”), in astronomy, a constellation of the southern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.), and fabled by the Greeks to be the monster sent by Neptune to devour Andromeda, but which was slain by Perseus. Ptolemy catalogued 22 stars in this constellation; Tycho Brahe, 21; and Hevelius, 45. The most remarkable star of this constellation is o-(Mira) Ceti, a long-period variable, discovered by the German astronomer Fabricius; its magnitude varies between about 3 to 9, and its period is 331 days. τ-Ceti is an irregular variable, its extreme magnitudes being 5 and 7; γ-Ceti is a beautiful double star, consisting of a yellow star of magnitude 3 and a blue of magnitude 6.8; ν-Ceti is also a double star.
CETYWAYO ( ?-1884), king of the Zulus, was the eldest son of King Umpande or Panda, and a nephew of the two previous kings, Dingaan and Chaka. Cetywayo was a young man when in 1840 his father was placed on the throne by the aid of the Natal Boers; and three years later Natal became a British colony. Cetywayo had inherited much of the military talent of his uncle Chaka, the organizer of the Zulu military system, and chafed under his father’s peaceful policy towards his British and Boer neighbours. Suspecting Panda of favouring a younger son, Umbulazi, as his successor, Cetywayo made war on his brother, whom he defeated and slew at a great battle on the banks of the Tugela in December 1856. In the following year, at an assembly of the Zulus, it was resolved that Panda should retire from the management of the affairs of the nation, which were entrusted to Cetywayo, though the old chief kept the title of king. Cetywayo was, however, suspicious of the Natal government, which afforded protection to two of his brothers. The feeling of distrust was removed in 1861 by a visit from Mr (afterwards Sir) Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native affairs in Natal, who induced Panda to proclaim Cetywayo publicly as the future king. Friendly relations were then maintained between the Zulus and Natal for many years. In 1872 Panda died, and Cetywayo was declared king, August 1873, in the presence of Shepstone, to whom he made solemn promises to live at peace with his neighbours and to govern his people more humanely. These promises were not kept. Not only were numbers of his own people wantonly slain (Cetywayo returning defiant messages to the governor of Natal when remonstrated with), and the military system of Chaka and Dingaan strengthened, but he had a feud with the Transvaal Boers as to the possession of the territory between the Buffalo and Pongola rivers, and encouraged the chief Sikukuni (Secocoeni) in his struggle against the Boers. This feud with the Boers was inherited by the British government on the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. Cetywayo’s attitude became menacing; he allowed a minor chief to make raids into the Transvaal, and seized natives within the Natal border.
Sir Bartle Frere, who became high commissioner of South Africa in March 1877, found evidence which convinced him that the Kaffir revolt of that year on the eastern border of Cape Colony was part of a design or desire “for a general and simultaneous rising of Kaffirdom against white civilization”; and the Kaffirs undoubtedly looked to Cetywayo and the Zulus as the most redoubtable of their champions. In December 1878 Frere sent the Zulu king an ultimatum, which, while awarding him the territory he claimed from the Boers, required him to make reparation for the outrages committed within the British borders, to receive a British resident, to disband his regiments, and to allow his young men to marry without the necessity of having first “washed their spears.” Cetywayo, who had found a defender in Bishop Colenso, vouchsafed no reply, and Lord Chelmsford entered Zululand, at the head of 13,000 troops, on the 11th of January 1879 to enforce the British demands. The disaster of Isandhlwana and the defence of Rorke’s Drift signalized the commencement of the campaign, but on the 4th of July the Zulus were utterly routed at Ulundi. Cetywayo became a fugitive, but was captured on the 28th of August. His kingdom was divided among thirteen chiefs and he himself taken to Cape Town, whence he was brought to London in August 1882. He remained in England less than a month, during which time the government (the second Gladstone administration) announced that they had decided upon his restoration. To his great disappointment, however, restoration proved to refer only to a portion of his old kingdom. Even there one of his kinsmen and chief enemies, Usibepu, was allowed to retain the territory allotted to him in 1879. Cetywayo was reinstalled on the 29th of January 1883 by Shepstone, but his enemies, headed by Usibepu, attacked him within a week, and after a struggle of nearly a year’s duration he was defeated and his kraal destroyed. He then took refuge in the Native Reserve, where he died on the 8th of February 1884. For a quarter of a century he had been the most conspicuous native figure in South Africa, and had been the cause of long and bitter political controversy in Great Britain.
His son Dinizulu afterwards attempted to become king, was exiled (1889) to St Helena, permitted to return (1898), and granted the position of a chief. In December 1907 Dinizulu was imprisoned at Maritzburg, being suspected of complicity in the revolt which had occurred in Zululand the previous year. He was kept many months waiting trial, there being considerable friction between the colonial government and the British government over the incident. He was eventually brought to trial in November 1908 before a special court, his defence (to the cost of which the British government contributed £2000) being undertaken by Mr W.P. Schreiner. The trial was not concluded until March 1909. The charge of high treason was not proved, but Dinizulu was convicted of harbouring rebels and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
The Life of Sir Bartle Frere, by John Martineau, vol. ii. chaps. 18 to 21, contains much information concerning Cetywayo.
CEUTA (Arabic Sebta), a Spanish military and convict station and seaport on the north coast of Morocco, in 35° 54′ N., 5° 18′ W. Pop. about 13,000. It is situated on a promontory connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. This promontory marks the south-eastern end of the straits of Gibraltar, which between Ceuta and Gibraltar have a width of 14 m. The promontory terminates in a bold headland, the Montagne des Singes, with seven distinct peaks. Of these the highest is the Monte del Hacko, the ancient Abyla, one of the “Pillars of Hercules,” which faces Gibraltar and rises 636 ft. above the sea. On the westernmost point—Almina, 476 ft. high—is a lighthouse with a light visible for 23 m. Ceuta consists of two quarters, the old town, covering the low ground of the isthmus, and the modern town, built on the hills forming the north and west faces of the peninsula. Between the old and new quarters and on the north side of the isthmus lies the port. The public buildings in the town, thoroughly Spanish in its character, are not striking: they include the cathedral (formerly a mosque), the governor’s palace, the town hall, barracks, and the convict prison in the old convent of San Francisco. Ceuta has been fortified seaward, the works being furnished with modern artillery intended to command the entrance to the Mediterranean. Landward are three lines of defence, the inner line stretching completely across the isthmus. These fortifications, which date from the time of the Portuguese occupation, have been partly modernized. The citadel, El Hacho, built on the neck of the isthmus, dates from the 15th century. The garrison consists of between 3000 and 4000 men, inclusive of a disciplinary corps of military convicts. Of the rest of the population about 2000 are civilian convicts; and there are colonies of Jews, negroes and Moors, the last including descendants of Moors transferred to Ceuta from Oran when Spain abandoned that city in 1796.
Ceuta occupies in part the site of a Carthaginian colony, which was succeeded by a Roman colony said to have been called Ad Septem Fratres and also Exilissa or Lissa Civitas. From the Romans the town passed to the Vandals and afterwards to Byzantium, the emperor Justinian restoring its fortifications in 535. In 618 the town, then known as Septon, fell into the hands of the Visigoths. It was the last stronghold in North Africa which held out against the Arabs. At that date (A.D. 711) the governor of the town was the Count Julian who, in revenge for the betrayal of his daughter by King Roderick of Toledo, invited the Arabs to cross the straits under Tarik and conquer Spain for Islam. By the Arabs the town was called Cibta or Sebta, hence the Spanish form Ceuta. From the date of its occupation by the Arabs the town had a stormy history, being repeatedly captured by rival Berber and Spanish-Moorish dynasties. It became nevertheless an important commercial and industrial city, being noted for its brass ware, its trade in ivory, gold and slaves. It is said to have been the first place in the West where a paper manufactory was established. In 1415 the town was captured by the Portuguese under John I., among those taking part in the attack being Prince Henry “the Navigator” and two of his brothers, who were knighted on the day following in the mosque (hastily dedicated as a Christian church). Ceuta passed to Spain in 1580 on the subjugation of Portugal by Philip II., and was definitely assigned to the Spanish crown by the treaty of Lisbon in 1688. The town has been several times unsuccessfully besieged by the Moors—one siege, under Mulai Ismail, lasting twenty-six years (1694-1720). In 1810, with the consent of Spain, it was occupied by British troops under General Sir J.F. Fraser. The town was restored to Spain by the British at the close of the Napoleonic Wars. As the result of the war between Spain and Morocco in 1860 the area of Spanish territory around the town was increased. The military governor of the town also commands the troops in the other Spanish stations on the coast of Morocco. For civil purposes Ceuta is attached to the province of Cadiz. It is a free port, but does little trade.
See de Prado, Recuerdos de Africa; historia de la plaza de Ceuta (Madrid, 1859-1860); Budgett Meakin, The Land of the Moors (London, 1901), chap, xix., where many works dealing with Spanish Morocco are cited.
CEVA, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 33 m. E. by rail from the town of Cuneo, 1270 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 2703. In the middle ages it was a strong fortress defending the confines of Piedmont towards Liguria, but the fortifications on the rock above the town were demolished in 1800 by the French, to whom it had been ceded in 1796. Its cheese (caseus cebanus) was famous in Roman times, but it does not seem ever to have been a Roman town. It lay on the road between Augusta Taurinorum and Vada Sabatia. A branch railway runs from Ceva through Garessio, with its marble quarries, to Ormea (2398 ft.), 22 m. to the south through the upper valley of the Tanaro, which in Roman times was under Albingaunum (Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscr. Lat. v. (Berlin, 1877), p. 898). From Ormea a road runs south to (31 m.) Oneglia on the Ligurian coast.
CÉVENNES (Lat. Cebenna or Gebenna), a mountain range of southern France, forming the southern and eastern fringe of the central plateau and part of the watershed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins. It consists of a narrow ridge some 320 m. long, with numerous lofty plateaus and secondary ranges branching from it. The northern division of the range, which nowhere exceeds 3320 ft. in height, extends, under the name of the mountains of Charolais, Beaujolais and Lyonnais, from the Col de Longpendu (west of Chalon-sur-Saône) in a southerly direction to the Col de Gier. The central Cévennes, comprising the volcanic chain of Vivarais, incline south-east and extend as far as the Lozère group. The northern portion of this chain forms the Boutières range. Farther south it includes the Gerbier des Joncs (5089 ft.), the Mont de Mézenc (5755 ft.), the culminating point of the entire range, and the Tanargue group. South of the Mont Lozère, where the Pic Finiels reaches 5584 ft., lies that portion of the range to which the name Cévennes is most strictly applied. This region, now embraced in the departments of Lozère and Gard, stretches south to include the Aigoual and Espérou groups. Under various local names (the Garrigues, the mountains of Espinouse and Lacaune) and with numerous offshoots the range extends south-east and then east to the Montagne Noire, which runs parallel to the Canal du Midi and comes to an end some 25 m. east of Toulouse. In the south the Cévennes separate the cold and barren table-lands known as the Causses from the sunny region of Languedoc, where the olive, vine and mulberry flourish. Northwards the contrast between the two slopes is less striking.
The Cévennes proper are formed by a folded belt of Palaeozoic rocks which lies along the south-east border of the central plateau of France. Concealed in part by later deposits, this ancient mountain chain extends from Castelnaudary to the neighbourhood of Valence, where it sinks suddenly beneath the Tertiary and recent deposits of the valley of the Rhone. It is in the Montagne Noire rather than in the Cévennes proper that the structure of the chain has been most fully investigated. All the geological systems from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous are included in the folded belt, and J. Bergeron has shown that the gneiss and schist which form so much of the chain consist, in part at least, of metamorphosed Cambrian beds. The direction of the folds is about N. 60° E., and the structure is complicated by overthrusting on an extensive scale. The overthrust came from the south-east, and the Palaeozoic beds were crushed and crumpled against the ancient massif of the central plateau. The principal folding took place at the close of the Carboniferous period, and was contemporaneous with that of the old Hercynian chain of Belgium, &c. The Permian and later beds lie unconformably upon the denuded folds, and in the space between the Montagne Noire and the Cévennes proper the folded belt is buried beneath the horizontal Jurassic strata of the Causses. Although the chain was completed in Palaeozoic times, a second folding took place along its south-east margin at the close of the Eocene period. The Secondary and Tertiary beds of the Languedoc were crushed against the central plateau and were frequently overfolded. But by this time the ancient Palaeozoic chain had become a part of the unyielding massif, and the folding did not extend beyond its foot.
As the division between the basins of the Loire and the Garonne to the west and those of the Saône and Rhone to the east, the Cévennes send many affluents to those rivers. In the south the Orb, the Hérault and the Vidourle are independent rivers flowing to the Golfe du Lion; farther north, the Gard—formed by the union of several streams named Gardon—the Cèze and the Ardèche flow to the Rhone. The Vivarais mountains and the northern Cévennes approach the right banks of the Rhone and Saône closely, and on that side send their waters by way of short torrents to those rivers; on the west side the streams are tributaries of the Loire, which rises at the foot of Mont Mézenc. A short distance to the south on the same side are the sources of the Allier and Lot. The waters of the north-western slope of the southern Cévennes drain into the Tarn either directly or by way of the Aveyron, which rises in the outlying chain of the Lévezou, and, in the extreme south, the Agout. The Tarn itself rises on the southern slope of the Mont Lozère.
In the Lozère group and the southern Cévennes generally, good pasturage is found, and huge flocks spend the summer there. Silkworm-rearing and the cultivation of peaches, chestnuts and other fruits are also carried on. In the Vivarais cattle are reared, while on the slopes of the Beaujolais excellent wines are grown.
The chief historical event in the history of the Cévennes is the revolt of the Camisards in the early years of the 18th century (see [Camisards]).
CEYLON, a large island and British colony in the Indian Ocean, separated on the N.W. from India by the Gulf of Manaar and Palk Strait. It lies between 5° 55′ and 9° 51′ N. and between 79° 41′ and 81° 54′ E. Its extreme length from north to south is 271½ m.; its greatest width is 137½ m.; and its area amounts to 25,481 sq. m., or about five-sixths of that of Ireland. In its general outline the island resembles a pear, the apex of which points towards the north.
The coast is beset on the N.W. with numberless sandbanks, rocks and shoals, and may be said to be almost connected with India by the island of Rameswaram and Adam’s Bridge, a succession of bold rocks reaching almost Coast. across the gulf at its narrowest point. Between the island and the opposite coast there exist two open channels of varying depth and width, beset by rocks and shoals. One of these, the Manaar Passage, is only navigable by very small craft. The other, called the Paumben Passage, lying between Rameswaram and the mainland, has been deepened at considerable outlay, and is used by large vessels in passing from the Malabar to the Coromandel coast, which were formerly compelled in doing so to make the circuit of the island. The west and south coasts, which are uniformly low, are fringed their entire length by coco-nut trees, which grow to the water’s edge in great luxuriance, and give the island a most picturesque appearance. Along these shores there are numerous inlets and backwaters of the sea, some of which are available as harbours for small native craft. The east coast from Point de Galle to Trincomalee is of an entirely opposite character, wanting the ample vegetation of the other, and being at the same time of a bold precipitous character. The largest ships may freely approach this side of the island, provided they take care to avoid a few dangerous rocks, whose localities, however, are well known to navigators.
Seen from a distance at sea this “utmost Indian isle” of the old geographers wears a truly beautiful appearance. The remarkable elevation known as “Adam’s Peak,” the most prominent, though not the loftiest, of the hilly ranges of the interior, towers like a mountain monarch amongst an assemblage of picturesque hills, and is a sure landmark for the navigator when as yet the Colombo lighthouse is hidden from sight amid the green groves of palms that seem to be springing from the waters of the ocean. The low coast-line encircles the mountain zone of the interior on the east, south and west, forming a belt which extends inland to a varying distance of from 30 to 80 m.; but on the north the whole breadth of the island from Kalpitiya to Batticaloa is an almost unbroken plain, containing magnificent forests of great extent.
The mountain zone is towards the south of the island, and covers an area of about 4212 sq. m. The uplifting force seems to have been exerted from south-west to north-east, and although there is much confusion in many of the intersecting Mountains. ridges, and spurs of great size and extent are sent off in many directions, the lower ranges manifest a remarkable tendency to run in parallel ridges in a direction from south-east to north-west. Towards the north the offsets of the mountain system radiate to short distances and speedily sink to the level of the plain. Detached hills are rare; the most celebrated of these are Mihintale (anc. Missïaka), which overlooks the sacred city of Anuradhapura, and Sigiri. The latter is the only example in Ceylon of those solitary acclivities which form so remarkable a feature in the tableland of the Deccan—which, starting abruptly from the plain, with scarped and perpendicular sides, are frequently converted into strongholds accessible only by precipitous pathways or by steps hewn in the solid rock.
For a long period Adam’s Peak was supposed to be the highest mountain in Ceylon, but actual survey makes it only 7353 ft. above sea-level. This elevation is chiefly remarkable as the resort of pilgrims from all parts of the East. The hollow in the lofty rock that crowns the summit is said by the Brahmans to be the footstep of Siva, by the Buddhists of Buddha, by the Mahommedans of Adam, whilst the Portuguese Christians were divided between the conflicting claims of St Thomas and the eunuch of Candace, queen of Ethiopia. The footstep is covered by a handsome roof, and is guarded by the priests of a rich monastery half-way up the mountain, who maintain a shrine on the summit of the peak. The highest mountains in Ceylon are Pidurutalagala, 8296 ft. in altitude; Kirigalpota, 7836 ft.; and Totapelakanda, 7746 ft.
The summits of the highest ridges are clothed with verdure, and along their base, in the beautiful valleys which intersect them in every direction, the slopes were formerly covered with forests of gigantic and valuable trees, which, however, have disappeared under the axe of the planter, who felled and burnt the timber on all the finest slopes at an elevation of 2000 to 4500 ft., and converted the hillsides into highly cultivated coffee and afterwards tea estates.
The plain of Nuwara Eliya, the sanatorium of the island, is at an elevation of 6200 ft., and possesses many of the attributes of an alpine country. The climate of the Horton plains, at an elevation of 7000 ft., is still finer than that of Nuwara Eliya, but they are difficult of access, and are but little known to Europeans. The town of Kandy, in the Central Province, formerly the capital of the native sovereigns of the interior, is situated 1727 ft. above sea-level.
The island, though completely within the influence of oceanic evaporation, and possessing an elevated tableland of considerable extent, does not boast of any rivers of great volume. The rains which usher in each monsoon or change of Rivers. season are indeed heavy, and during their fall swell the streams to torrents and impetuous rivers. But when these cease the water-courses fall back to their original state, and there are few of the rivers which cannot generally be passed on horseback. The largest river, the Mahaweliganga, has a course of 206 m., draining about one-sixth of the area of the island before it reaches the sea at Trincomalee on the east coast. There are twelve other considerable rivers, running to the west, east and south, but none of these exceeds 90 m. in length. The rivers are not favourable for navigation, except near the sea, where they expand into backwaters, which were used by the Dutch for the construction of their system of canals all round the western and southern coasts. Steamers ply between Colombo and Negombo along this narrow canal and lake. A similar service on the Kaluganga did not prove a success. There are no inland lakes except the remains of magnificent artificial lakes in the north and east of the island, and the backwaters on the coast. The lakes which add to the beauty of Colombo, Kandy, Lake Gregory, Nuwara Eliya and Kurunegala are artificial or partly so. Giant’s Tank is said to have an area of 6380 acres, and Minneri and Kalawewa each exceed 4000 acres.
The magnificent basin of Trincomalee, situated on the east coast of Ceylon, is perhaps unsurpassed in extent, security and beauty by any haven in the world. The admiralty had a dockyard here which was closed in 1905.
Geology.—Ceylon may be said to have been for ages slowly rising from the sea, as appears from the terraces abounding in marine shells, which occur in situations far above high-water mark, and at some miles distance from the sea. A great portion of the north of the island may be regarded as the joint production of the coral polyps and the currents, which for the greater part of the year set impetuously towards the south; coming laden with alluvial matter collected along the coast of Coromandel, and meeting with obstacles south of Point Calimere, they have deposited their burdens on the coral reefs round Point Pedro; and these, raised above the sea-level and covered deeply by sand drifts, have formed the peninsula of Jaffna, and the plains that trend westward till they unite with the narrow causeway of Adam’s Bridge. Tertiary rocks are almost unknown. The great geological feature of the island is the profusion of gneiss, overlaid in many places in the interior by extensive beds of dolomitic limestone. This formation appears to be of great thickness; and when, as is not often the case, the under-surface of the gneiss series is exposed, it is invariably found resting on granite. Veins of pure quartz and felspar of considerable extent have been frequently met with in the gneiss; while in the elevated lands of the interior in the Galle districts may be seen copious deposits of disintegrated felspar, or kaolin, commonly known as porcelain clay. At various elevations the gneiss may be found intersected by veins of trap rock, upheaved whilst in a state of fusion subsequent to the consolidation of the former. In some localities on the seashore these veins assume the character of pitch-stone porphyry highly impregnated with iron. Hornblende and primitive greenstone are found in the vicinity of Adam’s Peak and in the Pussellava district. Laterite, known in Ceylon as kabuk, a product of disintegrated gneiss, exists in vast quantities in many parts, and is quarried for building purposes.
Climate.—The seasons in Ceylon differ very slightly from those prevailing along the coasts of the Indian peninsula. The two distinctive monsoons of the year are called, from the winds which accompany them, the south-west and the north-east. The former is very regular in its approach, and may be looked for along the south-west coast between the 10th and 20th of May; the latter reaches the north-east coast between the end of October and the middle of November. There is a striking contrast in the influence which the south-west monsoon exerts on the one side of the island and on the other. The clouds are driven against the lofty mountains that overhang the western and southern coasts, and their condensed vapours descend there in copious showers. But the rains do not reach the opposite side of the island: while the south-west is deluged, the east and north are sometimes exhausted with dryness; and it not unfrequently happens that different sides of the same mountain present at the same moment the opposite extreme of droughts and moisture. The influence of the north-east monsoon is more general. The mountains which face the north-east are lower and more remote from the sea than those on the south-west; the clouds are carried farther inland, and it rains simultaneously on both sides of the island.
The length of the day, owing to the proximity of the island to the equator, does not vary more than an hour at any season. The mean time of the rising of the sun’s centre at Colombo on February 1st is 6h 23m A.M., and of its setting 6h 5m P.M. On August 15th its rising is at 5h 45m A.M., and its setting at 6h 7m P.M. It is mid-day in Colombo when it is morning in England. Colombo is situated in 79° 50′ 45″ E., and the day is further advanced there than at Greenwich by 5h 19m 23s.
Flora.—The characteristics of the low-growing plants of Ceylon approach nearly to those of the coasts of southern India. The Rhizophoreae are numerous along the low muddy shores of salt lakes and stagnant pools; and the acacias are equally abundant. The list comprises Aegiceras fragrans, Epithinia malayana, Thespesia populnea, Feronia elephantum, Salvadora persica (the true mustard tree of Scripture), Eugenia bracteata, Elaeodendron Roxburghii, Cassia Fistula, Cassia Roxburghii, &c. The herbaceous plants of the low country belong mostly to the natural orders Compositae, Leguminosae, Rubiaceae, Scrophulariaceae and Euphorbiaceae.
Leaving the plains of the maritime country and ascending a height of 4000 ft. in the central districts, we find both herbage and trees assume an altered character. The foliage of the latter is larger and deeper coloured, and they attain a height unknown in the hot low country. The herbaceous vegetation is there made up of ferns, Cyrtandreae, Compositae, Scitamineae and Urticaceae. The dense masses of lofty forest at that altitude are interspersed with large open tracts of coarse wiry grass, called by the natives patanas, and of value to them as affording pasturage for their cattle.
Between the altitudes of 4000 and 8000 ft., many plants are to be met with partaking of European forms, yet blended with tropical characteristics. The guelder rose, St John’s wort, the Nepenthes distillatoria or pitcher plant, violets, geraniums, buttercups, sundews, ladies’ mantles and campanulas thrive by the side of Magnoliaceae, Ranunculaceae, Elaeocarpeae, &c. The most beautiful flowering shrub of this truly alpine region is the rhododendron, which in many instances grows to the height of 70 ft. It is met with in great abundance in the moist plains of the elevated land above Nuwara Eliya, flowering abundantly in June and July. There are two distinct varieties, one similar to the Nilgiri plant, having its leaves broad and cordate, and of a rusty colour on the under side; the other, peculiar to Ceylon, is found only in forests at the loftiest elevations; it has narrow rounded leaves, silvery on the under side, and grows to enormous heights, frequently measuring 3 ft. round the stem. At these altitudes English flowers, herbs and vegetables have been cultivated with perfect success, as also wheat, oats and barley. English fruit-trees grow, but rarely bear. Grapes are grown successfully in the north of the island. The vines were introduced by the Dutch, who overcame the difficulty of perpetual summer by exposing the roots, and thus giving the plants an artificial winter.
The timber trees indigenous to Ceylon are met with at every altitude from the sea-beach to the loftiest mountain peak. They vary much in their hardiness and durability, from the common cashew-nut tree, which when felled decays in a month, to the ebony and satinwood, which for many years resist the attacks of insects and climate. Many of the woods are valuable for furniture, and house and shipbuilding, and are capable of standing long exposure to weather. The most beautiful woods adapted to furniture work are the calamander, ebony, flowered satinwood, tamarind, nedun, dell, kadomberiya, kitul, coco-nut, &c.; the sack-yielding tree (Antiaris saccidora), for a long time confounded with the far-famed upas tree of Java (Antiaris toxicaria), grows in the Kurunegala district of the island. The Cocos nucifera, or coco-nut palm, is a native of the island, and may justly be considered the most valuable of its trees. It grows in vast abundance alone the entire sea-coast of the west and south sides of the island, and furnishes almost all that a Sinhalese villager requires. Its fruit, when green, supplies food and drink; when ripe, it yields oil. The juice of the unopened flower gives him toddy and arrack. The fibrous casing of the fruit when woven makes him ropes, nets, matting. The nut-shells form drinking-vessels, spoons, &c. The plaited leaves serve as plates and dishes, and as thatch for his cottage. The dried leaves are used as torches, the large leaf-stalks as garden fences. The trunk of the tree sawn up is employed for every possible purpose, from knife-handles to door-posts; hollowed out it forms a canoe or a coffin. There are four kinds of this palm—the common, the king, the dwarf and the Maldive. The Palmyra and Areca palms grow luxuriantly and abundantly, the former in the northern, the latter in the western and central districts. The one is valuable chiefly for its timber, of which large quantities are exported to the Indian coasts; the other supplies the betel-nut in common use amongst natives of the eastern tropics as a masticatory. The export trade in the latter to India and eastern ports is very considerable. Next in importance to the coco-nut palm among the indigenous products of Ceylon is the cinnamon plant, yielding the well-known spice of that name.
Fauna.—Foremost among the animals of Ceylon is the elephant, which, though far inferior to those of Africa and the Indian continent, is nevertheless of considerable value when tamed, on account of its strength, sagacity and docility. They are to be met with in greater or less numbers throughout most unfrequented parts of the interior. Occasionally they make inroads in herds upon the cultivated grounds and plantations, committing great damage. In order to protect these lands, and at the same time keep up the government stud of draught elephants, “kraals” or traps on a large scale are erected in the forests, into which the wild herds are driven; and once secured they are soon tamed and fit for service. The oxen are of small size, but hardy, and capable of drawing heavy loads. Buffaloes exist in great numbers throughout the interior, where they are employed in a half-tame state for ploughing rice-fields and treading out the corn. They feed upon any coarse grass, and can therefore be maintained on the village pasture-lands where oxen would not find support. Of deer, Ceylon possesses the spotted kind (Axis maculata), the muntjac (Stylocerus muntjac), a red deer (the Sambur of India), popularly called the Ceylon elk (Musa Aristotelis), and the small musk (Moschus minima). There are five species of monkeys, one the small rilawa (Macacus pileatus), and four known in Ceylon by the name of “wandaru” (Presbytes ursinus, P. Thersites, P. cephalopterus, P. Priamus), and the small quadrumanous animal, the loris (Loris gracilis), known as the “Ceylon sloth.” Of the Cheiroptera sixteen species have been identified; amongst them is the rousette or flying fox (Pteropus Edwardsii). Of the Carnivora the only one dangerous to man is the small black bear (Prochilus labiatus). The tiger is not known in Ceylon, but the true panther (Felis pardus) is common, as is the jackal (Canis aureus) and the mongoose or ichneumon (Herpestes vitticollis). Rats are numerous, as are the squirrel and the porcupine, and the pig-rat or bandicoot (Mus bandicota), while the scaly ant-eater (Manis pentedactyla), locally known by the Malay name of pangolin, is occasionally found. The dugong (Halicore dugong), is frequently seen on various points of the coast. A game preservation society and the judicious action of government have done much to prevent the wanton destruction of Ceylon deer, elephants, &c., by establishing a close season. It is estimated that there must be 5000 wild elephants in the Ceylon forests. A licence to shoot or capture and an export royalty are now levied by government.
Captain V. Legge includes 371 species of birds in Ceylon, and many of them have splendid plumage, but in this respect they are surpassed by the birds of South America and Northern India. The eagles are small and rare, but hawks and owls are numerous; among the latter is a remarkable brown species, the cry of which has earned for it the name of the “devil-bird.” The esculent swift, which furnishes in its edible nest the celebrated Chinese dainty, builds in caves in Ceylon. Crows of various species are numerous, and in the wilder parts pea-fowl are abundant. There are also to be mentioned king-fishers, sun-birds, several beautiful fly-catchers and snatchers, the golden oriole, parroquets and numerous pigeons, of which there are at least a dozen species. The Ceylon jungle-fowl (Gallus Lafayetti) is distinct from the Indian species. Ceylon is singularly rich in wading and water birds—ibises, storks, egrets, spoonbills and herons being frequently seen on the wet sands, while flamingoes line the beach in long files, and on the deeper waters inland are found teal and a countless variety of ducks and smaller fowl. Of the birds familiar to European sportsmen there are partridge, quail and snipe in abundance, and the woodcock has been seen.
The poisonous snakes of Ceylon are not numerous. Four species have been enumerated—the ticpolonga (Daboia elegans), the cobra di capello (Naja tripudians), the carawilla (Trigonocephalus hypnale), and the Trigonocephalus nigromarginatus, which is so rare that it has no popular name. The largest snake in Ceylon is the “boa,” or “anaconda” of Eastern story (Python reticulatus); it is from 20 to 30 ft. in length, and preys on hog-deer and other smaller animals. Crocodiles infest the rivers and estuaries, and the large fresh-water reservoirs which supply the rice-fields; there are two species (C. biporcatus and C. palustris). Of lizards the most noteworthy are the iguana, several bloodsuckers, the chameleon and the familiar geckoes, which are furnished with pads to each toe, by which they are enabled to ascend perpendicular walls and adhere to glass and ceilings.
Insects exist in great numbers. The leaf and stick insects are of great variety and beauty. Ceylon has four species of the ant-lion, renowned for the predaceous ingenuity of its larvae; and the white ants or termites, the ravages of which are most destructive, are at once ubiquitous and innumerable in every place where the climate is not too chilly or the soil too sandy for them to construct their domed dwellings. They make their way through walls and floors, and in a few hours destroy every vegetable substance within their reach. Of all the insect pests that beset an unseasoned European the most annoying are the mosquitoes. Ticks are also an intolerable nuisance; they are exceedingly minute, and burrow under the skin. In the lower ranges of the hill country land leeches are found in tormenting profusion. But insects and reptiles do not trouble European residents so much as in early years—at any rate in the towns, while in the higher planting districts there is almost complete exemption from their unwelcome attentions. Bungalows are more carefully built to resist white ants, drainage and cleanliness prevent mosquitoes and ticks from multiplying, while snakes and leeches avoid cultivated, occupied ground.
Of the fish in ordinary use for the table the finest is the seir, a species of scomber (Cybium guttatum). Mackerel, dories, carp, whitings, mullet (red and striped), soles and sardines are abundant. Sharks appear on all parts of the coast, and the huge saw fish (Pristis antiquorum) infests the eastern coast of the island, where it attains a length of 12 to 15 ft. There are also several fishes remarkable for the brilliancy of their colouring; e.g. the Red Sea perch (Holocentrum rubrum), of the deepest scarlet, and the great fire fish (Scorpaena miles), of a brilliant red. Some are purple, others yellow, and numbers with scales of a lustrous green are called “parrots” by the natives; of these one (Sparus Hardwickii) is called the “flower parrot,” from its exquisite colouring—irregular bands of blue, crimson and purple, green, yellow and grey, crossed by perpendicular stripes of black. The pearl fishery, as indicated below, is of great importance.
Population.—The total population of Ceylon in 1901, inclusive of military, shipping and 4914 prisoners of war, was 3,578,333, showing an increase of 18.8% in the decade. The population of Colombo was 158,228.
The population and area of the nine provinces was as follows:—
| District. | Population. | Area in sq. m. |
| Western Province | 925,342 | 1,432 |
| Central Province | 623,011 | 2,299½ |
| Northern Province | 341,985 | 3,363¼ |
| Southern Province | 566,925 | 2,146¼ |
| Eastern Province | 174,288 | 4,036½ |
| North-Western Province | 353,845 | 2,9967⁄8 |
| North Central Province | 79,110 | 4,002¼ |
| Province of Uva | 192,072 | 3,154½ |
| Province of Sabaragamuwa | 321,755 | 1,9011⁄8 |
| 3,578,333 | 25,332 |
The table of nationality gives the principal groups as follows:—
| Europeans | 9,509 |
| Burghers and Eurasians | 23,539 |
| Low-country Sinhalese | 1,458,320 |
| Kandyan Sinhalese | 872,487 |
| Tamils | 953,535 |
| Moors (Mahommedan) | 228,706 |
| Malays | 11,963 |
| Veddahs (Aborigines) | 3,971 |
Altogether there are representatives of some seventy races in Ceylon. The Veddahs, who run wild in the woods, are the aborigines of the island.
Language.—The language of nearly 70% of the population is Sinhalese, which is nearly allied to Pali (q.v.); of the remaining 30%, with the exception of Europeans, the language is Tamil. A corrupt form of Portuguese is spoken by some natives of European descent. The Veddahs, a small forest tribe, speak a distinct language, and the Rodiyas, an outcast tribe, possess a large vocabulary of their own. The Sinhalese possess several original poems of some merit, and an extensive and most interesting series of native chronicles, but their most valuable literature is written in Pali, though the greater portion of it has been translated into Sinhalese, and is best known to the people through these Sinhalese translations.
Religion.—The principal religions may be distributed as follows:—Christians, 349,239; Buddhists, 2,141,404; Hindus, 826,826; Mahommedans, 246,118. Of the Christians, 287,419 are Roman Catholics, and 61,820 are Protestants of various denominations; and of these Christians 319,001 are natives, and 30,238 Europeans. The Mahommedans are the descendants of Arabs (locally termed Moormen) and the Malays. The Tamils, both the inhabitants of the island and the immigrants from India, are Hindus, with the exception of 93,000 Christians. The Sinhalese, numbering 70% of the whole population, are, with the exception of 180,000 Christians, Buddhists. Ceylon may properly be called a Buddhist country, and it is here that Buddhism is found almost in its pristine purity. Ceylon was converted to Buddhism in the 3rd century B.C. by the great Augustine of Buddhism, Mahinda, son of the Indian king Asoka; and the extensive ruins throughout Ceylon, especially in the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, bear witness to the sacrifices which kings and people joined in making to create lasting monuments of their faith. The Buddhist temples in the Kandyan country possess valuable lands, the greater portion of which is held by hereditary tenants on the tenure of service. These lands were given out with much care to provide for all that was necessary to maintain the temple and its connected monastery. Some tenants had to do the blacksmiths’ work, others the carpenters’, while another set of tenants had to cultivate the land reserved for supplying the monastery; others again had to attend at the festivals, and prepare decorations, and carry lamps and banners. In course of time difficulties arose; the English courts were averse to a system under which the rent of lands was paid by hereditary service, and a commission was issued by Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord Rosmead) when governor, to deal with the whole question, to define the services and to enable the tenants to commute these for a money payment. The result of the inquiry was to show that the services, except in a few instances, were not onerous, and that almost without an exception the tenants were willing to continue the system. The anomaly of an ecclesiastical establishment of Anglican and Presbyterian chaplains with a bishop of Colombo paid out of the general revenues has now been abolished in Ceylon, and only the bishop and two or three incumbents remain on the list for life, or till they retire on pension.
Education.—There has been a great advance in public instruction since 1875, through the multiplication of vernacular, Anglo-vernacular and English schools by government, by the different Christian missions and by the Buddhists and Hindus who have come forward to claim the government grant. The government has also started a technical college, and an agricultural school has been reorganized. An agricultural department, recommended by a commission, should profit by the services of the entomologist, mycologist and chemical analyst added by the governor to the staff of the royal botanic gardens at Peradeniya. There are industrial and reformatory schools, which are partially supported by government. In spite of the great advance that has been made, however, at the census of 1901 no fewer than 2,790,235 of the total population were entered as unable to read or write their own tongue. Of this number 1,553,078 were females, showing a very unsatisfactory state of things.
Agriculture.—The natural soils of Ceylon are composed of quartzose gravel, felspathic clay and sand often of a pure white, blended with or overlaid by brown and red loams, resulting; from the decay of vegetable matter, or the disintegration of the Soil. gneiss and hornblende formations. The whole of the great northern extremity of the island consists of a sandy and calcareous admixture, made to yield productive crops of grain, tobacco, cotton and vegetables by the careful industry of the Tamil population, who spare no pains in irrigating and manuring their lands. Between the northern districts and the elevated mountain ranges which overlook the Bintenne and Uva countries are extensive plains of alluvial soil washed down from the table-lands above, where once a teeming population produced large quantities of grain. The remains of ancient works of irrigation bear testimony to the bygone agriculture of these extensive regions now covered by swamps or dense jungle.
The general character of the soil in the maritime provinces to the east, south and west is sandy. Large tracts of quartzose sand spread along the whole line of sea-coast, some of which, of a pure white, and very deficient in vegetable matter, is admirably adapted to the growth of the cinnamon plant. In the light sandy districts where the soil is perfectly free, and contains a portion of vegetable and mineral loam, the coco-nut palm flourishes in great luxuriance. This is the case along the entire coast line from Kalpitiya to Point de Galle, and farther eastward and northward to Matara, stretching to a distance inland varying from 100 yds. to 3 m. From this light sandy belt as far as the mountain-zone of the Kandyan country the land is mainly composed of low hilly undulations of sandstone and ferruginous clay, incapable of almost any cultivation, but intersected in every direction with extensive valleys and wide plains of a more generous soil, not highly fertile, but still capable, with a little industry, of yielding ample crops of rice.
The soil of the central province, although frequently containing great quantities of quartzose sand and ferruginous clay, is in many of the more elevated districts of a fine loamy character. Sand sufficiently vegetable and light for rice culture may be seen at all elevations in the hill districts; but the fine chocolate and brown loams overlying gneiss or limestone formations, so admirably adapted for coffee cultivation, are only to be found on the steep sides or along the base of mountain ranges at an elevation varying from 2000 to 4000 ft. Such land, well-timbered, contains in its elements the decomposed particles of the rocks above, blended with the decayed vegetable matter of forests that have for centuries scattered beneath them the germs of fertility. The quantity of really rich coffee land in these districts is but small as compared with the extent of country—vast tracts of open valleys consisting of an indifferent yellow tenacious soil interspersed with many low ranges of quartz rock, but tea is a much hardier plant than coffee, and grows on poorer soil.
Irrigation.—The native rulers covered the whole face of the country with a network of irrigation reservoirs, by which Ceylon was enabled in ancient times to be the great granary of southern Asia. Wars, and the want of a strong hand to guide the agriculture of the country, led to the decay of these ancient works, and large tracts of land, which were formerly highly productive, became swampy wastes or dense forests. The remains of some of the larger irrigation works are amongst the most interesting of the memorials of Ceylon’s former greatness. Some of the artificial lakes were of great size. Minneri, formed by damming across the valleys between the low hills which surround it with an embankment 60 ft. wide at the top, is at this day 20 m. in circumference. It has recently been restored by government, and is capable of irrigating 15,000 acres; while the Giant’s Tank, which has also been restored, irrigates 20,000 acres. Another lake, with an embankment several miles in length, the Kalawewa, was formed by damming back the waters of the Kalaoya, but they have forced their way through the embankment, and in the ancient bed of the lake, or tank, are now many small villages. In connexion with these large tanks were numerous canals and channels for supplying smaller tanks, or for irrigating large tracts of fields. Throughout the district of Nuwarakalawiya every village has its tank. The embankments have been formed with great skill, and advantage has been taken to the utmost of the slightest fall in the land; but they in common with the larger works had been allowed to fall into decay, and were being brought to destruction by the evil practice of cutting them every year to irrigate the fields. The work of restoring these embankments was undertaken by the government, and 100 village tanks were repaired every year, besides eighteen larger works. In 1900 a sum of five million rupees was set apart for these larger undertakings.
Cultivation and Products.—The area of uncultivated land is little over 3½ million acres, whereas fully four times that amount is capable of cultivation. A great deal is waste, besides lagoons, tanks, backwaters, &c. Thick forest land does not cover more than 5000 sq. m. Scrub, or chena, and patana grass cover a very great area. Tea, cacao, cardamoms, cinchona, coffee and indiarubber are the products cultivated by European and an increasing number of native planters in the hill country and part of the low country of Ceylon. A great change has been effected in the appearance of the country by the introduction of the tea plant in place of the coffee plant, after the total failure of the latter owing to disease. For some time coffee had been the most important crop. In the old days it grew wild like cinnamon, and was exported so far back as the time of the Portuguese, but was lightly esteemed as an article of European commerce, as the berry was gathered unripe, was imperfectly cured and had little flavour. In 1824 the governor, Sir E. Barnes, introduced coffee cultivation on the West Indian plan; in 1834 the falling off of other sources of supply drew general attention to Ceylon, and by 1841 the Ceylon output had become considerable, and grew steadily (with an interval in 1847 due to a commercial crisis) till 1877 when 272,000 acres were under coffee cultivation, the total export amounting to 103,000,000 ℔ Then owing to disease came a crisis, and a rapid decline, and now only a few thousand acres are left. On the failure of the coffee crops planters began extensively to grow the tea plant, which had already been known in the island for several years. By 1882 over 20,000 acres had been planted with tea, but the export that year was under 700,000 ℔ Five years later the area planted was 170,000 acres, while the export had risen to nearly 14,000,000 ℔ By 1892 there were 262,000 acres covered with tea, and 71,000,000 ℔ were that year exported. In 1897, 350,000 acres were planted, and the export was 116,000,000 ℔ By the beginning of the 20th century, the total area cultivated with tea was not under 390,000 acres, while the estimate of shipments was put at 146,000,000 ℔ annually. Nearly every plantation has its factory, with the machinery necessary to prepare the leaf as brought in from the bushes until it becomes the tea of commerce. The total amount of capital now invested in the tea industry in Ceylon cannot be less than £10,000,000. The tea-planting industry more than anything else has raised Ceylon from the depressed state to which it fell in 1882.
Before tea was proved a success, however, cinchona cultivation was found a useful bridge from coffee to the Ceylon planter, who, however, grew it so freely that in one year 15,000,000 ℔ bark was shipped, bringing the price of quinine down from 16s. to 1s. 6d. an ounce.
In a few places, where the rainfall is abundant, rice cultivation is allowed to depend on the natural supply of water, but in most parts the cultivation is not attempted unless there is secured beforehand a certain and sufficient supply, by means of canals or reservoirs. In the hill country every valley and open plain capable of tillage is made to yield its crops of grain, and the steep sides of the hills are cut into terraces, on which are seen waving patches of green rice watered by mountain streams, which are conducted by means of channels ingeniously carried round the spurs of the hills and along the face of acclivities, by earthen water-courses and bamboo aqueducts, so as to fertilize the fields below. These works bear witness to the patience, industry and skill of the Kandyan villagers. In the low country to the north and east and north-west of the hills, irrigation works of a more expensive kind are necessary. In January 1892, the immemorial rent or tax on fields of paddy (rice in the husk) was removed, but not the customs duty on imported rice. But even with the advantage of protection to the extent of 10% in the local markets, there has been no extension of paddy cultivation; on the contrary, the import of grain from India has grown larger year by year. Through the multiplication of irrigation works and the northern railway, rice culture may be sufficiently extended to save some of the large imports (8,000,000 to 9,000,000 bushels annually) now required from India.
Tobacco is extensively cultivated in various parts of the island, and the growth of particular places, such as Dumbara and Uva, is much prized for local consumption. The tobacco of export is grown in the peninsula of Jaffna. The exports of this article in 1850 were 22,176 cwts., valued at £20,698. The cultivation of the plant has not greatly increased of recent years, and is almost entirely in the hands of natives in the northern and parts of the central Province.
Ceylon has been celebrated since the middle of the 14th century for its cinnamon, and during the period of the Dutch occupation this spice was the principal article of commerce; under their rule and up to 1832 its cultivation was a government monopoly. With the abolition of the monopoly the quantity exported increased, but the value declined.
Unlike the coffee plant, the hardy tea plant grows from sea-level to 7000 ft. altitude; but crown forest-lands above 5000 ft. are no longer sold, so that a very large area on the highest mountain ranges and plateaus is still under forest. Moreover, on the tea plantations arboriculture is attended to in a way unknown in 1875; the Australian eucalypts, acacias and grevilleas, Indian and Japanese conifers, and other trees of different lands, are now freely planted for ornament, for protection from wind, for firewood or for timber. A great advance has been made at Hakgalla and Nuwara Eliya, in Upper Uva, and other high districts, in naturalizing English fruits and vegetables. The calamander tree is nearly extinct, and ebony and other fine cabinet woods are getting scarce; but the conservation of forests after the Indian system has been taken in hand under a director and trained officers, and much good has been done. The cinnamon tree (wild in the jungles, cultivated as a shrub in plantations) is almost the only one yielding a trade product which is indigenous to the island. The coco-nut and nearly all other palms have been introduced.
Among other agricultural products mention must be made of cacao, the growth and export of which have steadily extended since coffee failed. Important also is the spice or aromatic product of cardamoms.
The culture of indiarubber was begun on low-country plantations, and Ceylon rubber is of the best quality in the market. The area of cultivation of the coco-nut palm has been greatly extended since 1875 by natives as well as by Europeans. The products of this palm that are exported, apart from those so extensively used in the island itself, exceed in a good year £1,000,000 sterling in value. Viticulture and cotton cultivation, as well as tobacco growing, are being developed along the course of the new northern railway.
Taking the trade in the products mentioned as a whole, no country can compete with the United Kingdom as a customer of Ceylon. But there is a considerable trade in nearly all products with Germany and America; in cardamoms with India; in cinnamon with Spain, Italy, Belgium, Australia, Austria and France; and in one or other of the products of the coco-nut palm (coco-nuts, coco-nut oil, copra, desiccated coco-nut, poonac, coir) with Belgium, Russia, France, Austria, Australia and Holland.
Pearl Fishery.—Pearl oysters are found in the Tambalagam bay, near Trincomalee, but the great banks on which these oysters are usually found lie near Arippu, off the northern part of the west coast of Ceylon, at a distance of from 16 to 20 m. from the shore. They extend for many miles north and south, varying considerably in their size and productiveness. It is generally believed that the oyster arrives at maturity in its seventh year, that the pearl is then of full size and perfect lustre, and that if the oyster be not then secured it will shortly die, and the pearl be lost. It is certain that from some unexplained cause the oysters disappear from their known beds for years together. The Dutch had no fishery from 1732 to 1746, and it failed them again for twenty-seven years from 1768 to 1796. The fishery was again interrupted between 1820 and 1828, also from 1833 to 1854, from 1864 to 1873, and again from 1892 to 1900. The fishery of 1903 was the first since 1891, and produced a revenue of Rs. 829,348, being the third largest on record. In 1797 and 1798 the government sold the privilege of fishing the oyster-beds for £123,982 and £142,780 respectively. From that time the fishery was conducted by the government itself until 1906, when it was leased to the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries Company for twenty years at a rent of £20,000 a year. Professor Herdman, F.R.S., was appointed to inquire and report on the conservation and cultivation of the Ceylon pearl-oyster, and visited Ceylon in January 1902. In consequence of his report, a marine laboratory for the culture of the pearl oysters was established in Galle harbour under the care of Mr Hornell.
Mineral Industries.—Commercially there are two established mineral industries:—(1) that of digging for precious stones; and (2) the much more important industry of digging for plumbago or graphite, the one mineral of commercial importance found. Further developments may result in the shipment of the exceptionally pure iron ore found in different parts of Ceylon, though still no coal has been found to be utilized with it. Several places, too—Ruanwella, Rangalla, Rangbodde, &c.—indicate where gold was found in the time of the Kandyan kings; and geologists might possibly indicate a paying quartz reef, as in Mysore. Owing to the greatly increased demand in Europe and America, plumbago in 1899 more than doubled in price, rising from £40 to £80, and even £100 a ton for the finest. Latterly there has been a considerable fall, but the permanent demand is likely to continue keen in consequence mainly of the Ceylon kind being the best for making crucibles. The trade with Great Britain and the United States has slightly decreased, but there has been a rapid expansion in the exports to Belgium and Holland, Russia, Japan and Victoria; and the industry seems to be established on a sound basis. One consequence of its development has been to bring European and American capitalists and Cornish and Italian miners into a field hitherto almost entirely worked by Sinhalese. Though some of the mines were carried to a depth of 1000 ft., the work was generally very primitive in character, and Western methods of working are sure to lead to greater safety and economy. Besides a royalty or customs duty of 5 rupees (about 6s. 8d.) per ton on all plumbago exported, the government issue licenses at moderate rates for the digging of plumbago on crown lands, a certain share of the resulting mineral also going to government. The plumbago industry, in all its departments of mining, carting, preparing, packing and shipping, gives employment to fully 100,000 men and women, still almost entirely Sinhalese. The wealthiest mine-owners, too, are Sinhalese land-owners or merchants.
As regards gems, there are perhaps 500 gem pits or quarries worked in the island during the dry season from November to June in the Ratnapura, Rakwane and Matara districts. Some of these are on a small scale; but altogether several thousands of Sinhalese find a precarious existence in digging for gems. Rich finds of a valuable ruby, sapphire, cat’s-eye, amethyst, alexandrite or star stone, are comparatively rare; it is only of the commoner gems, such as moonstone, garnet, spinels, that a steady supply is obtained. The cat’s-eye in its finer qualities is peculiar to Ceylon, and is occasionally in great demand, according to the fashion. The obstacle to the investment of European capital in “gemming” has always been the difficulty of preventing the native labourers in the pits—-even if practically naked—from concealing and stealing gems. A Chamber of Mines, with a suitable library, was established in Colombo during 1899.
Manufactures.—Little is done save in the preparation in factories and stores, in Colombo or on the plantations, of the several products exported. The manufacture of jewellery and preparation of precious stones, and, among native women and children, of pillow lace, give employment to several thousands. Iron and engineering works are numerous in Colombo and in the planting districts. The Sinhalese are skilful cabinetmakers and carpenters. The Moormen and Tamils furnish good masons and builders.
Commerce.—There has been rapid development since 1882, and the returns for 1903 showed a total value of 22½ millions sterling. The principal imports were articles of food and drink (chiefly rice from India) manufactured metals (with specie), coal, cotton yarns and piece goods from Manchester, machinery and millwork and apparel. The Ceylon customs tariff for imports is one of 6½% ad valorem, save in the case of intoxicating drinks, arms, ammunition, opium, &c. The chief export is tea.
Roads.—The policy of the Sinhalese rulers of the interior was to exclude strangers from the hill country. Prior to the British occupation of the Kandyan territory in 1815, the only means of access from one district to another was by footpaths through the forests. The Portuguese do not appear to have attempted to open up the country below the hills, and the Dutch confined themselves to the improvement of the inland water-communications. The British government saw from the first the necessity of making roads into the interior for military purposes, and, more recently, for developing the resources of the country. The credit of opening up the country is due mainly to the governor, Sir Edward Barnes, by whose direction the great military road from Colombo to Kandy was made. Gradually all the military stations were connected by broad tracks, which by degrees were bridged and converted into good carriage roads. The governors Sir Henry Ward and Sir Hercules Robinson recognized the importance of giving the coffee planters every assistance in opening up the country, and the result of their policy is that the whole of the hill country is now intersected by a vast number of splendid roads, made at a cost of upwards of £2000 per mile. In 1848 an ordinance was passed to levy from every adult male in the colony (except Buddhist priests and British soldiers) six days’ labour on the roads, or an equivalent in money. The labour and money obtained by this wise measure have enabled the local authorities to connect the government highways by minor roads, which bring every village of importance into communication with the principal towns.
Railways.—After repeated vain attempts by successive governors to connect Colombo with the interior by railways, Sir Charles MacCarthy successfully set on foot a railway of 75 m. in length from Colombo to Kandy. The railway mileage had developed to 563 m. in 1908, including one of the finest mountain lines in the world—over 160 m. long, rising to 6200 ft. above sea-level, and falling at the terminus to 4000 ft. The towns of Kandy, Matale, Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Hatton and Haputale (and practically Nuwara Eliya) in the hills, are thus connected by rail, and in the low country the towns of Kurunegala, Galle, Matara, Kalutara, &c. Most of the debt on the railways (all government lines) is paid off, and the traffic receipts now make up nearly one-third of the general revenue. An Indo-Ceylon railway to connect the Indian and Ceylon systems has been the subject of separate reports and estimates by engineers serving the Ceylon and Indian governments, who have pronounced the work across the coral reef between Manaar and Rameswaram quite feasible. A commission sat in 1903 to consider the gauge of an Indo-Ceylon railway. Such a line promised to serve strategic as well as commercial purposes, and to make Colombo more than ever the port for southern India. The headquarters of the mail steamers have been removed from Galle to Colombo, where the colonial government have constructed a magnificent breakwater, and undertaken other harbour works which have greatly augmented both the external trade and the coasting trade of the island.
Government.—Ceylon is a crown colony, that is, a possession of the British crown acquired by conquest or cession, the affairs of which are administered by a governor, who receives his appointment from the crown, generally for a term of six years. He is assisted by an executive and a legislative council. The executive council acts as the cabinet of the governor, and consists of the attorney-general, the three principal officers of the colony (namely, the colonial secretary, the treasurer and the auditor-general), and the general in command of the forces. The legislative council includes, besides the governor as president and nine official members, eight unofficial members—one for the Kandyan Sinhalese (or Highlanders) and one for the “Moormen” having been added in 1890. The term of office for the unofficial members is limited to five years, though the governor may reappoint if he choose. The king’s advocate, the deputy-advocate, and the surveyor-general are now respectively styled attorney-general, solicitor-general, and director of public works. The civil service has been reconstituted into five classes, not including the colonial secretary as a staff appointment, nor ten cadets; these five classes number seventy officers. The district judges can punish up to two years’ imprisonment, and impose fines up to Rs.1000. The police magistrates can pass sentences up to six months’ imprisonment, and impose fines of Rs.150. The criminal law has since 1890 been codified on the model of the Indian penal code; criminal and civil procedure have also been the subject of codification. There are twenty-three prisons in the island, mostly small; but convict establishments in and near the capital take all long-sentence prisoners.
Banks and Currency.—Ceylon has agencies of the National Bank of India, Bank of Madras, Mercantile Bank of India, Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and of the Hong-kong and Shanghai Bank, besides mercantile agencies of other banks, also a government savings bank at Colombo, and post-office savings banks all over the island. In 1884, on the failure of the Oriental Bank, the notes in currency were guaranteed by government, and a government note currency was started in supersession of bank notes. The coin currency of Ceylon is in rupees and decimals of a rupee, the value of the standard following that fixed for the Indian rupee, about 1s. 4d. per rupee.
Finance.—With the disease of the coffee plant the general revenue fell from Rs.1,70,00,000 in 1877 to Rs.1,20,00,000 in 1882, when trade was in a very depressed state, and the general prosperity of the island was seriously affected. Since then, however, the revenue has steadily risen with the growing export of tea, cocoa-nut produce, plumbago, &c., and in 1902 it reached a total of 28 millions of rupees.
(J. F. D.; C. L.)
History.—The island of Ceylon was known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of Taprobane, and in later times Serendib, Sirinduil and Zeylan have been employed to designate it by writers of the Western and Eastern worlds. Serendib is a corruption of the Sanskrit Sinhaladvïpa. Like most oriental countries, Ceylon possesses a great mass of ancient records, in which fact is so confused with fable that they are difficult to distinguish. The labours of George Turnour (1799-1843), however, helped to dissipate much of this obscurity, and his admirable edition (1836) of the Mahavamsa first made it possible to trace the main lines of Sinhalese history.
The Sinhalese inscriptional records, to which George Turnour first called attention, and which, through the activity of Sir William Gregory in 1874, began to be accurately transcribed and translated, extend from the 2nd century B.C. onwards. Among the oldest inscriptions discovered are those on the rock cells of the Vessagiri Vihara of Anuradhapura, cut in the old Brahma-lipi character. The inscriptions show how powerful was the Buddhist hierarchy which dominated the government and national life. The royal decrees of successive rulers are mainly concerned with the safeguarding of the rights of the hierarchy, but a few contain references to executive acts of the kings, as in a slab inscription of Kassapa V. (c. A.D. 929-939). In an edict ascribed to Mahinda IV. (c. A.D. 975-991) reference is made to the Sinhalese palladium, the famous tooth-relic of Buddha, now enshrined at Kandy, and the decree confirms tradition as to the identity of the fine stone temple, east of the Thuparama at Anuradhapura, with the shrine in which the tooth was first deposited when brought from Kalinga in the reign of Kirti Sri Meghavarna (A.D. 304-324).
The earliest inhabitants of Ceylon were probably the ancestors of the modern Veddahs, a small tribe of primitive hunters who inhabit the eastern jungles; and the discovery of palaeolithic stone implements buried in some of their caves points to the fact that they represent a race which has been in the island for untold ages. As to subsequent immigrations, the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, tells the story of the conquest of part of the island by the hero Rama and his followers, who took the capital of its king Rawana. Whatever element of truth there may be in this fable, it certainly represents no permanent occupation. The authentic history of Ceylon, so far as it can be traced, begins with the landing in 543 B.C. of Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalese dynasty, with a small band of Aryan-speaking followers from the mainland of India. Vijaya married the daughter of a native chief, with whose aid he proceeded to master the whole island, which he parcelled out among his followers, some of whom formed petty kingdoms. The Sinhalese introduced from the mainland a comparatively high type of civilization, notably agriculture. The earliest of the great irrigation tanks, near Anuradhapura, was opened about 504 B.C. by the successor of Vijaya; and about this time was established that system of village communities which still obtains over a large part of Ceylon.
The island was converted to Buddhism at the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. by the preaching of Mahinda, a son of the great Buddhist emperor Asoka; a conversion that was followed by an immense multiplication of daghobas, curious bell-shaped reliquaries of solid stone, and of Buddhist monasteries. For the rest, the history of ancient Ceylon is largely a monotonous record of Malabar or Tamil invasions, conquests and usurpations. Of these latter the first was in 237 B.C. when two officers in the cavalry and fleet revolted, overthrew the Sinhalese ruler with the aid of his own Tamil mercenaries, and reigned jointly, as Sena I. and Guptika, until 215. The Sinhalese Asela then ruled till 205, when he was overthrown by a Tamil from Tanjore, Elala, who held the reins of power for 44 years. In 161 B.C. Elala was defeated and slain by Dutegemunu, still remembered as one of the great Sinhalese heroes of Ceylon. The ruins of the great monastery, known as the Brazen Palace, at Anuradhapura, remain a memorial of King Dutegemunu’s splendour and religious zeal. He died in 137 B.C., and thenceforth the history of Ceylon is mainly that of further Tamil invasions, of the construction of irrigation tanks, and of the immense development of the Buddhist monastic system. A tragic episode in the royal family in the 5th century A.D. is, however, worthy of notice as connected with one of Ceylon’s most interesting remains, the Sīgiri rock and tank (see [Sīgiri]). In A.D. 477 King Datu Sen was murdered by his son, who mounted the throne as Kasyapa I., and when he was driven from the capital by the inhabitants, infuriated by his crime, built himself a stronghold on the inaccessible Sīgiri rock, whence he ruled the country until in 495 he was overthrown and slain by his brother Mugallana (495-513), who at the time of his father’s murder had escaped to India.
Towards the close of the 10th century Ceylon was invaded by Rajaraja the Great, the Chola king, and after a series of protracted campaigns was annexed to his empire in 1005. The island, did not, however, remain long under Tamil domination. In 1071 Vijaya Bahu succeeded in re-establishing the Sinhalese dynasty, and for a while Ceylon was freed from foreign intervention. The most notable of the successors of Vijaya Bahu, and indeed of all the long line of Sinhalese rulers, was Parakrama Bahu I. (1155-1180), whose colossal statue still stands near Polonnaruwa. He not only took advantage of the unaccustomed tranquillity of the country to restore the irrigation tanks and the monasteries, but he availed himself of a disputed succession to the Pandya throne of Madura to turn the tables on his Tamil enemies by invading India. According to the Mahavamsa his generals met with immediate and unbroken success; according to the more probable account preserved in a long Chola inscription at Arpakkam near Kanchi, they were, though at first successful, ultimately driven out by a coalition of the southern princes (V.A. Smith, Early History of India, ed. 1908, p. 411). In any case, within thirty years of Parakrama Bahu’s death his work was undone; the Malabar invaders were once more able to effect a settlement in the island, and the Sinhalese capital was moved farther and farther south, till in 1410 it had become established at Kotta, now a suburb of Colombo. In 1408 a new misfortune had befallen the Sinhalese dynasty; in revenge for an insult offered to a Chinese envoy, a Chinese army invaded the island and carried away King Vijaya Bahu IV. into captivity. For thirty years from this date the Sinhalese kings of Ceylon were tributary to China.
When, in 1505, the Portuguese Francisco de Almeida landed in Ceylon, he found the island divided into seven kingdoms. Twelve years later the viceroy of Goa ordered the erection of a fort at Colombo, for which permission was obtained from the king of Kotta; and from this time until the advent of the Dutch in the 17th century the Portuguese endeavoured, amid perpetual wars with the native kings, who were assisted by Arab and other traders jealous of European rivalry, to establish their control over the island. They ultimately succeeded so far as the coast was concerned, though their dominion scarcely penetrated inland. Materially their gain was but small, for the trade of Ceylon was quite insignificant; but they had the spiritual satisfaction of prosecuting a vigorous propaganda of Catholicism, St Francis Xavier being the most notable of the missionaries who at this time laboured in the island.
The fanatical zeal and the masterful attitude of the Portuguese were a constant source of dissension with the native rulers, and when the Dutch, under Admiral Spilberg, landed on the east coast in 1602 and sought the alliance of the king of Kandy in the interior of the island, every inducement was held out to them to aid in expelling the Portuguese. Nothing seems to have come of this until 1638-1639, when a Dutch expedition attacked and razed the Portuguese forts on the east coast. In the following year they landed at Negombo, without however establishing themselves in any strong post. In 1644 Negombo was captured and fortified by the Dutch, while in 1656 they took Colombo, and in 1658 they drove the Portuguese from Jaffna, their last stronghold in Ceylon.
Pursuing a wiser policy than their predecessors, the Dutch lost no opportunity of improving that portion of the country which owned their supremacy, and of opening a trade with the interior. More tolerant and less disposed to stand upon their dignity than the Portuguese, they subordinated political to commercial ends, flattered the native rulers by a show of deference, and so far succeeded in their object as to render their trade between the island and Holland a source of great profit. Many new branches of industry were developed. Public works were undertaken on a large scale, and education, if not universally placed within the reach of the inhabitants of the maritime provinces, was at least well cared for on a broad plan of government supervision. That which they had so much improved by policy, they were, however, unable to defend by force when the British turned their arms against them. A century and a half had wrought great changes in the physical and mental status of the Dutch colonists. The territory which in 1658 they had slowly gained by undaunted and obstinate bravery, they as rapidly lost in 1796 by imbecility and cowardice.
The first intercourse of the English with Ceylon was as far back as 1763, when an embassy was despatched from Madras to the king of Kandy, without, however, leading to any result. On the rupture between Great Britain and Holland in 1795, a force was sent against the Dutch possessions in Ceylon, where the opposition offered was so slight that by the following year the whole of their forts were in the hands of the English commander.
The abiding results of the occupation of Ceylon by the Portuguese and Dutch is described by Sir Emerson Tennent (Ceylon) as follows:
“The dominion of the Netherlands in Ceylon was nearly equal in duration with that of Portugal, about 140 years; but the policies of the two countries have left a very different impress on the character and institutions of the people amongst whom they lived. The most important bequest left by the utilitarian genius of Holland is the code of Roman Dutch law, which still prevails in the supreme courts of justice, whilst the fanatical propagandism of the Portuguese has reared for itself a monument in the abiding and expanding influence of the Roman Catholic faith. This flourishes in every hamlet and province where it was implanted by the Franciscans, whilst the doctrines of the reformed church of Holland, never preached beyond the walls of the fortresses, are already almost forgotten throughout the island, with the exception of an expiring community at Colombo. Already the language of the Dutch, which they sought to extend by penal enactments, has ceased to be spoken even by their direct descendants, whilst a corrupted Portuguese is to the present day the vernacular of the lower classes in every town of importance. As the practical and sordid government of the Netherlands only recognized the interest of the native population in so far as they were essential to uphold their trading monopolies, their memory was recalled by no agreeable associations: whilst the Portuguese, who, in spite of their cruelties, were identified with the people by the bond of a common faith, excited a feeling of admiration by the boldness of their conflicts with the Kandyans, and the chivalrous though ineffectual defence of their beleaguered fortresses. The Dutch and their proceedings have almost ceased to be remembered by the lowland Sinhalese; but the chiefs of the south and west perpetuate with pride the honorific title Don, accorded to them by their first European conquerors, and still prefix to their ancient patronymics the sonorous Christian names of the Portuguese.”
The British forces by which the island had been conquered were those of the East India Company, and Ceylon was therefore at first placed under its jurisdiction and administered from Madras. The introduction of the Madras revenue system, however, together with a host of Malabar collectors, led to much discontent, which culminated in rebellion; and in 1798 the colony was placed directly under the crown. By the treaty of Amiens, in 1803, this situation was regularized, from the international point of view, by the formal cession to Great Britain of the former Dutch possessions in the island. For a while the British dominion was confined to the coast. The central tract of hilly country, hedged in by impenetrable forests and precipitous mountain ranges, remained in possession of Sri Vikrama Raja Sinha, the last of the Sinhalese dynasty, who showed no signs of encouraging communication with his European neighbours.
Minor differences led in 1803 to an invasion of the Kandyan territory; but sickness, desertion and fatigue proved more formidable adversaries to the British forces than the troops of the Sinhalese monarch, and peace was eventually concluded upon terms by no means favourable to the English. The cruelty and oppression of the king now became so intolerable to his subjects that disaffection spread rapidly amongst them. Punishments of the most horrible kinds were inflicted, but failed to repress the popular indignation; and in 1815 the British, at the urgent request of many of the Adigars and other native chiefs, proceeded against the tyrant, who was captured near Kandy, and subsequently ended his days in exile. With him ended a long line of sovereigns, whose pedigree may be traced through upwards of two thousand years.
By a convention entered into with the Kandyan chiefs on the 2nd of March 1815, the entire sovereignty of the island passed into the hands of the British, who in return guaranteed to the inhabitants civil and religious liberty. The religion of Buddha was declared inviolable, and its rights, ministers and places of worship were to be maintained and protected; the laws of the country were to be preserved and administered according to established forms; and the royal dues and revenues were to be levied as before for the support of government.
With the exception of a serious outbreak in some parts of the interior in 1817, which lasted for upwards of a year, and of two minor attempts at rebellion easily put down, in 1843 and 1848, the political atmosphere of Ceylon has remained undisturbed since the deportation of the last king of Kandy.
Authorities.—Major Thomas Skinner, Fifty Years in Ceylon, edited by his son, A. Skinner (London, 1891); Constance F. Gordon Gumming, Two Happy Years in Ceylon (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1892); H.W. Cave, The Ruined Cities of Ceylon (London, 1897), and The Book of Ceylon (London, 1908); Sir Emerson Tennent, Ceylon (2 vols. 4th ed., 1860); J. Ferguson, Ceylon in 1903 (Colombo); J.C. Willis, Ceylon (Colombo, 1907). See also E. Müller, Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, published for the government (1883-1884), and the important archaeological survey in Epigraphia Zeylonica, part i., 1904, ii., 1907, iii., 1907, by Don Martino de Silva Wickremasinghe, who in 1899 was appointed epigraphist to the Ceylon government. Among other works on special subjects may be mentioned H. Trimen, F.R.S., director of Ceylon Botanic Gardens, Ceylon Flora, in 5 vols., completed by Sir Joseph Hooker; Captain V. Legge, F.Z.S., History of the Birds of Ceylon (London, 1870); Dr Copleston, bishop of Colombo, Buddhism, Primitive and Present, in Magadha and in Ceylon (London, 1892); review by Sir West Ridgeway, Administration of Ceylon, 1896-1903; Professor W.A. Herdman, Report on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries, 1903-1904.
CHABAZITE, a mineral species belonging to the group of zeolites. It occurs as white to flesh-red crystals which vary from transparent to translucent and have a vitreous lustre. The crystals are rhombohedral, and the predominating form is often a rhombohedron (r) with interfacial angles of 85° 14′; they therefore closely resemble cubes in appearance, and the mineral was in fact early (in 1772) described as a cubic zeolite. A characteristic feature is the twinning, the crystals being frequently interpenetration twins with the principal axis as twin-axis (figs, 1, 2). The appearance shown in fig. 1, with the corners of small crystals in twinned position projecting from the faces r of the main crystal, is especially characteristic of chabazite. Such groups resemble the interpenetrating twinned cubes of fluorspar, but the two minerals are readily distinguished by their cleavage, fluorspar having a perfect octahedral cleavage truncating the corners of the cube, whilst in chabazite there are less distinct cleavages parallel to the rhombohedral (cube-like) faces. Another type of twinned crystal is represented in fig. 2, in which the predominating form is an obtuse hexagonal pyramid (t); the faces of these flatter crystals are often rounded, giving rise to lenticular shapes, hence the name phacolite (from φακός, a lentil) for this variety of chabazite.
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| Fig. 1. | Fig. 2. |
| Twinned Crystals of Chabazite. | |
The hardness of chabazite is 4½, and the specific gravity 2.08-2.16. As first noticed by Sir David Brewster in 1830, the crystals often exhibit anomalous optical characters: instead of being uniaxial, a basal section may be divided into sharply-defined biaxial sectors. Heating of the crystals is attended by a loss of water and a change in their optical characters; it is probable therefore that the anomalous optical characters are dependent on the amount of water present.
Besides phacolite, mentioned above, other varieties of chabazite are distinguished. Herschelite and seebachite are essentially the same as phacolite. Haydenite is the name given to small yellowish crystals, twinned on a rhombohedron plane r, from Jones’s Falls near Baltimore in Maryland. Acadialite is a reddish chabazite from Nova Scotia (the old French name of which is Acadie).
Chemically, chabazite is a complex hydrated calcium and sodium silicate, with a small proportion of the sodium replaced by potassium, and sometimes a small amount of the calcium replaced by barium and strontium. The composition is however variable, and is best expressed as an isomorphous mixture of the molecules (Ca, Na2) Al2(SiO4)2 + 4H2O and (Ca, Na2) Al2(Si3O8)2 + 8H2O, which are analogous to the felspars. Most analyses correspond with a formula midway between these extremes, namely, (Ca, Na2)Al2(SiO3)4 + 6H2O.
Chabazite occurs with other zeolites in the amygdaloidal cavities of basaltic rocks; occasionally it has been found in gneisses and schists. Well-formed crystals are known from many localities; for example, Kilmalcolm in Renfrewshire, the Giant’s Causeway in Co. Antrim, and Oberstein in Germany. Beautiful, clear glassy crystals of the phacolite (“seebachite”) variety occur with phillipsite and radiating bundles of brown calcite in cavities in compact basalt near Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria. Small crystals have been observed lining the cavities of fossil shells from Iceland, and in the recent deposits of the hot springs of Plombières and Bourbonne-les-Bains in France.
Gmelinite and levynite are other species of zeolites which may be mentioned here, since they are closely related to chabazite, and like it are rhombohedral and frequently twinned. Gmelinite forms large flesh-red crystals usually of hexagonal habit, and was early known as soda-chabazite, it having the composition of chabazite but with sodium predominating over calcium (Na2, Ca)Al2(SiO3)46H2O. The formula of levynite is CaAl2Si3O10 + 5H2O.
(L. J. S.)
CHABLIS, a town of north-central France, in the department of Yonne, on the left bank of the Serein, 14 m. E. by N. of Auxerre by road. Pop. (1906) 2227. Its church of St Martin belongs to the end of the 12th century. The town gives its name to a well-known white wine produced in the neighbouring vineyards, of which the most esteemed are Clos, Bouguerots, Moutonne, Grenouille, Montmaires, Lys and Vaux-Désirs. There are manufactures of biscuits.
CHABOT, FRANÇOIS (1757-1794), French revolutionist, had been a Franciscan friar before the Revolution, and after the civil constitution of the clergy continued to act as “constitutional” priest, becoming grand vicar of Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois. Then he was elected to the Legislative Assembly, sitting at the extreme left, and forming with C. Bazire and Merlin de Thionville the “Cordelier trio.” Re-elected to the Convention he voted for the death of Louis XVI., and opposed the proposal to prosecute the authors of the massacre of September, “because among them there are heroes of Jemmapes.” Some of his sayings are well known, such as that Christ was the first “sans-culotte.” Compromised in the falsification of a decree suppressing the India Company and in a plot to bribe certain members of the Convention, especially Fabre d’Eglantine and C. Bazire, he was arrested, brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and was condemned and executed at the same time as the Dantonists, who protested against being associated with such a “fripon.”
CHABOT, GEORGES ANTOINE, known as Chabot de l’Allier (1758-1819), French jurist and statesman, was president of the tribunal of Montluçon when he was elected as a deputy suppléant to the National Convention. A member of the council of the Ancients, then of the Tribunate, he was president of the latter when the peace of Amiens was signed. He had a resolution adopted, tending to give Napoleon Bonaparte the consulship for life; and in 1804 supported the proposal to establish a hereditary monarchy. Napoleon named him inspector-general of the law schools, then judge of the court of cassation. He published various legal works, e.g. Tableau de la législation ancienne sur les successions et de la législation nouvelle établie par le code civil (Paris, 1804), and Questions fransitoires sur le code Napoléon (Paris, 1809).
CHABOT, PHILIPPE DE, Seigneur de Brion, Count of Charny and Buzançais (c. 1492-1543), admiral of France. The Chabot family was one of the oldest and most powerful in Poitou. Philippe was a cadet of the Jarnac branch. He was a companion of Francis I. as a child, and on that king’s accession was loaded with honours and estates. After the battle of Pavia he was made admiral of France and governor of Burgundy (1526), and shared with Anne de Montmorency the direction of affairs. He was at the height of his power in 1535, and commanded the army for the invasion of the states of the duke of Savoy; but in the campaigns of 1536 and 1537 he was eclipsed by Montmorency, and from that moment his influence began to wane. He was accused by his enemies of peculation, and condemned on the 10th of February 1541 to a fine of 1,500,000 livres, to banishment, and to the confiscation of his estates. Through the good offices of Madam d’Étampes, however, he obtained the king’s pardon almost immediately (March 1541), was reinstated in his posts, and regained his estates and even his influence, while Montmorency in his turn was disgraced. But his health was affected by these troubles, and he died soon afterwards on the 1st of June 1543. His tomb in the Louvre, by an unknown sculptor, is a fine example of French Renaissance work. It was his nephew, Guy Chabot, seigneur de Jarnac, who fought the famous duel with François de Vivonne, seigneur de la Châtaigneraie, in 1547, at the beginning of the reign of Henry II.
The main authorities for Chabot’s life are his MS. correspondence in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and contemporary memoirs. See also E de Barthélemy, “Chabot de Brion,” in the Revue des questions historiques (vol. xx. 1876); Martineau, “L’Amiral Chabot,” in the Positions des thèses de l’École des Chartes (1883).
CHABRIAS (4th century B.C.), a celebrated Athenian general. In 388 B.C. he defeated the Spartans at Aegina and commanded the fleet sent to assist Evagoras, king of Cyprus, against the Persians. In 378, when Athens entered into an alliance with, Thebes against Sparta, he defeated Agesilaus near Thebes. On this occasion he invented a manoeuvre, which consisted in receiving a charge on the left knee, with shields resting on the ground and spears pointed against the enemy. In 376 he gained a decisive victory over the Spartan fleet off Naxos, but, when he might have destroyed the Spartan fleet, remembering the fate of the generals at Arginusae, he delayed to pick up the bodies of his dead. Later, when the Athenians changed sides and joined the Spartans, he repulsed Epaminondas before the walls of Corinth. In 366, together with Callistratus, he was accused of treachery in advising the surrender of Oropus to the Thebans. He was acquitted, and soon after he accepted a command under Tachos, king of Egypt, who had revolted against Persia. But on the outbreak of the Social War (357) he joined Chares in the command of the Athenian fleet. He lost his life in an attack on the island of Chios.
See Cornelius Nepos, Chabrias; Xenophon, Hellenica, v. 1-4; Diod. Sic. xv. 29-34; and C. Rehdantz, Vitae Iphicratis, Chabriae, et Timothei (1845); art. [Delian League], section B, and authorities there quoted.
CHABRIER, ALEXIS EMMANUEL (1841-1894), French composer, was born at Ambert, Puy de Dôme, on the 18th of January 1841. At first he only cultivated music as an amateur, and it was not until 1879 that he threw up an administration appointment in order to devote himself entirely to the art. He had two years previously written an opéra bouffe entitled L’Étoile, which was performed at the Bouffes Parisiens. In 1881 he was appointed chorus-master of the concerts then recently established by Lamoureux. In 1883 he composed the brilliant orchestral rhapsody entitled España, the themes of which he had jotted down when travelling in Spain. His opera Gwendoline was brought out with considerable success at Brussels on the 10th of April 1886, and was given later at the Paris Grand Opéra. The following year 1887, Le Roi malgré lui, an opera of a lighter description, was produced in Paris at the Opéra Comique, its run being interrupted by the terrible fire by which this theatre was destroyed. His last opera, Briseis, was left unfinished, and performed in a fragmentary condition at the Paris Opéra, after the composer’s death in Paris on the 13th of September 1894. Chabrier was also the author of a set of piano pieces entitled Pièces pittoresques, Valses romantiques, for two pianos, a fantasia for horn and piano, &c. His great admiration for Wagner asserted itself in Gwendoline, a work which, in spite of inequalities due to want of experience, is animated by a high artistic ideal, is poetically conceived, and shows considerable harmonic originality, besides a thorough mastery over the treatment of the orchestra. The characteristics of Le Roi malgré lui have been well summed up by M. Joncières when he alludes to “cette verve inépuisable, ces rythmes endiablés, cette exubérance de gaieté et de vigueur, à laquelle venait se joindre la note mélancolique et émue.” Chabrier’s premature death prevented him from giving the full measure of his worth.

