Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/133

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CATOOSA CATSKILL . MOUNTAINS 125 harshness of his ancestor the Censor, yet he possessed unusual firmness. In politics, how- ever, he had little skill, and his expedients to defeat his opponents, though never corrupt, were almost always clumsy and ill-advised. As a general he exhibited little ability. He was twice married : first to Attilia, a daughter of Serranus, who bore him two children, but was divorced for adultery ; second to Marcia, by whom he had three children. Singularly enough, he is recorded to have lent or yielded his second wife to his friend Quintus Horten- sius, about 56 B. 0., with her father's consent ; taking her back after his friend's death, and living with her as before. CATOOSA, a N. W. county of Georgia, border- ing on Tennessee, and watered by affluents of the Tennessee river ; area, 175 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 4,409, of whom 616 were colored. It is traversed by the Western and Atlantic rail- road. The surface is hilly and partly covered with forests. The chief productions in 1870 were 43,366 bushels of wheat, 90,855 of Indian corn, 19,909 of oats, 40,879 Ibs. of butter, and 96 bales of cotton. There were 542 horses, 834 milch cows, 1,225 other cattle, 2,447 sheep, and 4,399 swine. Capital, Ringgold. CATRON, John, an American jurist, born in Wythe co., Va., in 1778, died in Nashville, Tenn., May 30, 1865. He received a common school education, removed to Tennessee in 1812, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1815. In the New Orleans campaign he served in the army under Jackson, and was afterward elected state's attorney. He settled in Nashville in 1818, and was one of the su- preme judges of Tennessee from 1824 to 1836. In 1837 President Jackson appointed him as- sociate justice of the United States supreme court. He opposed secession, and was con- sequently obliged to leave the state. His de- cisions on the state bank are contained in " Yerger's Tennessee Reports," and his federal decisions in the later volumes of Peters, the 20 vols. of Howard, and the 2 vols. of Black. CATS, Jakob, a Dutch statesman and poet, born at Brouwershaven in Zealand, Nov. 10, 1577, died at Zorgvliet, near the Hague, Sept. 12, 1660. He studied law at Ley den, Orleans, and Paris, and on his return to his native land practised his profession for a while, and also published some successful poems. In 1627 he was ambassador to England, from 1636 to 1651 grand pensioner of Holland, and in 1652 again ambassador to England. He wrote a poem en- titled " Country Life " (Buitenleveri), and nu- merous "Moral Emblems," fables, and songs. A new edition of his works, in 19 vols., ap- peared in Amsterdam in 1790-1800. A Ger- man translation of part of them was published at Hamburg in 1710-'17. His "Emblems" have been translated into English. A monu- ment was dedicated to him at Ghent in 1829. CAT'S EYE, a semi-transparent variety of quartz penetrated by fibres of asbestus. It is commonly of a greenish gray color, though sometimes yellow, red, or brown. "When pol- ished, it reflects a pearly light resembling the pupil in the eye of a cat. CATSKILL, a village and the capital of Greene co., New York, situated on the W. side of the Hudson river, about 110 m. abov.e New York; pop. in 1870, 3,791. There are several churches, a court house, jail, and some manu- factories. It is the landing place for visitors to the Catskill mountains, and a ferry here crosses the Hudson, connecting with the rail- road on the eastern bank. CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, a group of the Appa- lachian chain, on the W. side of the Hudson river, lying mostly in Greene co., N. Y. Their E. base is 7 or 8 m. distant from the village of Catskill. These mountains range parallel with the river only for about 12 m., spurs from their N. and S. terminations turning respectively N. "W. and W., and giving to the group a very different form from that of the parallel ranges of the Appalachians, as seen in Pennsylvania. It differs from these also in assuming more of the Alpine character of peaks considerably elevated above the general summits. It re- sembles them in the precipitous slopes toward the east, and the gentler declivities, which are lost in the high lands on the W. side. Its geo- logical structure is almost a repetition of that of the main Alleghany ridge throughout Penn- sylvania, the same formations succeeding in the same order from the E. base to the summit, and giving to it, even in a more marked degree than is there witnessed, the terraced outline due to the alternation of groups of strata, some of which are easily worn away, and others pow- erfully resist denuding forces. Along its E. base the strata of the old red sandstone forma- tion are seen dipping in toward the central axis. These are succeeded by the gray slaty sandstones of hard texture, which make up the most precipitous slopes, except those of the highest summits, which are capped by the con- glomerate of white quartz pebbles. This is the floor of the coal formation. Upon the Al- leghany mountain it forms the highest knobs, which present their vertical fronts to the east and slope away to the west. The dip in this direction being there steeper than the declivity of the mountain, the coal beds find a place above the conglomerate; but upon the high peaks of the Catskills this rock lies too hori- zontally for higher strata to appear, and a descent to lower levels in a "W. direction only brings to view again the same formations met with on the E. side. Thus, for want of 100 ft. perhaps of greater elevation, the Catskills miss the lowest coal beds. Even in the midst of the strata of the conglomerate its carboniferous character is seen by the black shales here ano there pinched among its massive blocks, and by seams of anthracite of a few inches in thick- ness contorted into strange forms. These, be- fore their real relations were understood, led to futile explorations to discover workable beds of coal in the hard sandstones of these sum-