OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Catskill

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​CATSKILL, a village and the county-seat of Greene county, New York, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Hudson river, 33 m. S. of Albany. Pop. (1890) 4920; (1900) 5484; of whom 657 were foreign-born; (1910) 5206. It is served by the West Shore railway, by several lines of river steamboats, and by the Catskill Mountain railway, connecting it with the popular summer resorts in the Catskill mountains. A ferry connects with Catskill station (Greendale) on the east side of the Hudson. The village is in a farming country, and manufactures woollen goods and bricks, but it is best known as a summer resort, and as the principal gateway to the beautiful Catskill Mountain region. The Recorder, a weekly newspaper, was established here in 1792 as the Packet. The first settler on the present site of Catskill was Derrick Teunis van Vechten, who built a house here in 1680. The village was not incorporated until 1806.
See J. D. Pinckney, Reminiscences of Catskill (Catskill, 1868).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cat’s-Eye

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​CAT’S-EYE, a name given to several distinct minerals, their common characteristic being that when cut with a convex surface they display a luminous band, like that seen by reflection in the eye of a cat. (1) Precious cat’s-eye, oriental cat’s-eye or chrysoberyl cat’s-eye. This, the rarest of all, is a chatoyant variety of chrysoberyl (q.v.), showing in the finest stones a very sharply defined line of light. One of the grandest known specimens was in the Hope collection of precious stones, exhibited for many years at the Victoria and Albert Museum. (2) Quartz cat’s-eye. This is the common form of cat’s-eye, in which the effect is due to the inclusion of parallel fibres of asbestos. Like the chrysoberyl, it is obtained chiefly from Ceylon, but though coming from the East it is often called “occidental cat’s-eye”—a term intended simply to distinguish it from the finer or “oriental” stone. It is readily distinguished by its inferior density, its specific gravity being only 2.65, whilst that of oriental cat’s-eye is as high as 3.7. A greenish fibrous quartz, cut as cat’s-eye, occurs at Hof and some other localities irr Bavaria. (3) Crocidolite cat’s-eye, a beautiful golden brown mineral, with silky fibres, found in Griqualand West, and much used in recent years as an ornamental stone, sometimes under the name of “South African cat’s-eye.” It consists of fibrous quartz, coloured with oxide of iron, and results from the alteration of crocidolite (q.v.). It is often distinguished as “tiger’s-eye” (or more commonly “tiger-eye”), whilst a blue variety, less altered, is known as “hawk’s-eye.” By the action of hydrochloric acid the colour of tiger’s-eye may to a large extent be removed, and a greyish cat’s-eye obtained. (4) Corundum cat’s-eye. In some asteriated corundum (see Asteria) the star is imperfect and may be reduced to a luminous zone, producing an indistinct cat’s-eye effect. According to the colour of the corundum the stone is known as sapphire cat’s-eye, ruby cat’s-eye, topaz cat’s-eye, &c. (F. W. R.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cattermole, George

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​CATTERMOLE, GEORGE (1800–1868), English painter, chiefly in water-colours, was born at Dickleburgh, near Diss, Norfolk, in August 1800. At the age of sixteen he began working as an architectural and topographical draughtsman; afterwards he contributed designs to be engraved in the annuals then so popular; thence he progressed into water-colour painting, becoming an associate of the Water-Colour Society in 1822, and a full member in 1833. In 1850 he withdrew from active connexion with this society, and took to painting in oil. His most fertile period was between 1833 and 1850. At the Paris exhibition of 1855 he received one of the five first-class gold medals awarded to British painters. He also enjoyed professional honours in Amsterdam and in Belgium. He died on the 24th of July 1868. Among his leading works are “The Murder of the Bishop of Liége” (15th century), “The Armourer relating the Story of the Sword,” “The Assassination of the Regent Murray by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh,” and (in oil) “A Terrible Secret.” ​He was largely employed by publishers, illustrating the Waverley Novels and the Historical Annual of his brother the Rev. Richard Cattermole (his scenes from the wars of Cavaliers and Roundheads in this series are among his best engraved works), and many other volumes besides. Cattermole was a painter of no inconsiderable gifts, and of great facility in picturesque resource; he was defective in solidity of form and texture, and in realism or richness of colour. He excelled in rendering scenes of chivalry, of medievalism, and generally of the romantic aspects of the past.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Catskill Mountains

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​CATSKILL (formerly Kaatskil) MOUNTAINS, a group of moderate elevation pertaining to the Alleghany Plateau, and not properly included in the Appalachian system of North America because they lack the internal structures and the general parallelism of topographic features which characterize the Appalachian ranges. The group contains many summits above 3000 ft. elevation and half a dozen approaching 4000, Slide Mountain (4205 ft.), and Hunter Mountain (4025 ft.), being the only ones exceeding that figure. The bottom lands along the creeks which drain the mountains, together with rolling uplands rising to elevations of from 1500 to 2000 ft., are under cultivation, the mountain slopes being forested or devoted to grazing. The pure and cool atmosphere attracts summer visitors, for whose accommodation many hotels have been built, some of which have become celebrated. Stoney Clove and Kaaterskill Clove are picturesque gorges, the former being traversed by a rail way, and the latter containing three cascades having a total fall of about 300 ft. The growing need of New York City for an increased water-supply has driven her engineers to the Catskills, where several great reservoirs have been projected to supplement those of the Croton watershed.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cattegat

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​CATTEGAT, or Kattegat (Scand. “cat’s-throat”), a strait forming part of the connexion between the Baltic and the North Seas. It lies north and south between Sweden and Denmark, and connects north with the Skagerrack and south through the Sound, the Great Belt and the Little Belt with the Baltic Sea. Its length is about 150 m. and its extreme breadth about 90 m.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amuck, Running

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​AMUCK, RUNNING (or more properly Amok), the native term for the homicidal mania which attacks Malays. A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapon, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed. These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity. It is now, however, certain that the typical amok is the result of circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which render a Malay desperate and weary of his life. It is, in fact, the Malay equivalent of suicide. “The act of running amuck is probably due to causes over which the culprit has some amount of control, as the custom has now died out in the British possessions in the peninsula, the offenders probably objecting to being caught and tried in cold blood” (W. W. Skeat).
Though so intimately associated with the Malay there is some ground for believing the word to have an Indian origin, and the act is certainly far from unknown in Indian history. Some notable cases have occurred among the Rajputs. Thus, in 1634, the eldest son of the raja of Jodhpur ran amuck at the court of Shah Jahan, failing in his attack on the emperor, but killing five of his officials. During the 18th century, again, at Hyderabad (Sind), two envoys, sent by the Jodhpur chief in regard to a quarrel between the two states, stabbed the prince and twenty-six of his suite before they themselves fell.
In Malabar there were certain professional assassins known to old travellers as Amouchi or Amuco. The nearest modern equivalent to these words would seem to be the Malayalim Amar-khan, “a warrior” (from amar, “fight”). The Malayalim term chaver applied to these ruffians meant literally those “who devote themselves to death.” In Malabar was a custom by which the zamorin or king of Calicut had to cut his throat in public when he had reigned twelve years. In the 17th century a variation in his fate was made. He had to take his seat, after a great feast lasting twelve days, at a national assembly, surrounded by his armed suite, and it was lawful for anyone to attack him, and if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself became zamorin (see Alex. Hamilton, “A new Account of the East Indies,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, viii. 374). In 1600 thirty would-be assassins were killed in their attempts. These men were called Amar-khan, and it has been suggested that their action was “running amuck” in the true Malay sense. Another proposed derivation for amouchi is Sanskrit amokshya, “that cannot be loosed,” suggesting that the murderer was bound by a vow, an explanation more than once advanced for the Malay amuck; but amokshya in such a sense is unknown in Malayalim.
See Sir F. A. Swettenham, Malay Sketches (1895); H. Clifford, Studies in Brown Humanity (1898).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amur (River)

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​AMUR (known also as the Sakhalin-ula), a river of eastern Asia, formed by the confluence of the Argun and the Shilka, at Ust-Stryelka, in 53° 19′ N. lat. and 120° 30′ E. long. Both these rivers come from the south-west: the Argun, or Kerulen as it is called above Lake Kulun (Dalai-nor), through which it flows about half way between its source and Ust-Stryelka, rises in 49° N. lat. and 109° E. long.; the Shilka is formed by the union of the Onon and the Ingoda, both of which have their sources a little farther north-east than the Kerulen (Argun). The Amur proper flows at first in a south-easterly direction for about 800 m., as far as long. 132° E., separating Manchuria from the Amur government; it then turns to the north-east, cuts its way through the Little Khingan mountains in a gorge 2000 ft. wide and 140 m. long, and after a total course of over 1700 m. discharges into the Sea of Okhotsk, opposite to the island of Sakhalin. It is estimated to drain an area of 772,000 sq. m. Its principal tributaries from the south are the Sungari, which the Chinese consider to be the true head-river of the Amur, and the Usuri; from the north it receives the Oldoi, Zeya, Bureya, Kur, Gorin and Amgun. As the mouth is choked with sandbanks, goods are disembarked at Mariinsk and carried by train (9 m.) to Alexandrovsk at the head of the Gulf of Tartary. Navigation on the river is open from April to early in November.
See T. W. Atkinson, Travels in the Region of the Amoor (1860); Collins, Exploration of the Amoor (ed. 1864) and Voyage down the Amoor (1866); Andree, Das Amurgebiet (ed. 1876); and Grum-Grshimaylo, Account of the Amur (Russian, 1894).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amulet

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​AMULET (Late Lat. amuletum, origin unknown; falsely connected with the Arab. ḥimālah, a cord used to suspend a small Koran from the neck), a charm, generally, but not invariably, hung from the neck, to protect the wearer against witchcraft, sickness, accidents, &c. Amulets have been of many different kinds, and formed of different substances,—stones, metals, and strips of parchment being the most common, with or without characters or legends engraved or written on them. Gems have often been employed and greatly prized, serving for ornaments as well as for charms. Certain herbs, too, and animal preparations have been used in the same way. In setting them apart to their use as amulets, great precautions have been taken that fitting times be selected, stellar and other magic influences propitious, and everything avoided that might be supposed to destroy or weaken the force of the charm. From the earliest ages the Oriental races have had a firm belief in the prevalence of occult evil influences, and a superstitious trust in amulets and similar preservatives against them. There are references to, and apparently correctives of, these customs in the Mosaic injunctions to bind portions of the law upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, as well as write them upon the door-posts and the gates; but, among the later Jews especially, the original design and meaning of these usages were lost sight of; and though it has been said that the phylacteries were not strictly amulets, there is no doubt that they were held in superstitious regard. Amulets were much used by the ancient Egyptians, and also among the Greeks and Romans. We find traces of them too in the early Christian church, in the emphatic protests of Chrysostom, Augustine and others against them. The fish was a favourite symbol on these charms, from the word ἰχθύς being the initials of Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ υἱὸς σωτήρ. A firm faith in amulets still prevails widely among Asiatic nations. Talisman, also from the Arabic, is a word of similar meaning and use, but some distinguish it as importing a more powerful charm. A talisman, whose “virtues are still applied to for stopping blood and in cases of canine madness,” figures prominently in, and gives name to, one of Sir Walter Scott’s novels.
See also Arpe, De Prodigiis Naturae et Artis Operibus Talismanes et Amuleta dictis (Hamburg, 1717); Ewele, Ueber Amulete (1827); and Koop’s Palaeographica Critica, vols. iii. and iv. (1829).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amsterdam (New York)

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​AMSTERDAM, a city of Montgomery county, New York, U.S.A., on the north bank of the Mohawk river, about 33 m. N.W. of Albany. Pop. (1890) 17,336; (1900) 20,929, of whom 5575 were foreign-born; (1910) 31,267. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River and the West Shore railways, and by the Erie Canal. Hills on both sides of the river command fine views of the Mohawk Valley. Amsterdam has two hospitals, a free public library and St Mary’s Institute (Roman Catholic). Manufacturing is the most important industry, and carpets and rugs, hosiery and knit goods are the most important products. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $15,007,276 (an increase of 41 % over their value in 1900); carpets and rugs being valued at $5,667,742, and hosiery and knit goods (in the manufacture of which Amsterdam ranked third among the cities of the country) at $4,667,022, or 3.4 % of the total product of the United States. Among the other manufactures are brushes, brooms, buttons, silk gloves, paper boxes, electrical supplies, dyeing machines, cigars, and wagon and carriage springs. Amsterdam was settled about 1775, and was called Veedersburg ​until 1804, when its present name was adopted. It was incorporated as a village in 1830, and was chartered as a city in 1885.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amsterdam (Island)

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​AMSTERDAM (New Amsterdam), an uninhabited and almost inaccessible island in the Indian Ocean, in 37° 47′ S., and 77° 34′ E., about 60 m. N. of St Paul Island, and nearly midway between the Cape of Good Hope and Tasmania. It is an extinct volcano, rising 2989 ft. from the sea. It was discovered by Anthony van Diemen in 1633, and annexed by France in 1893. It may have been sighted by the companions of Magellan returning to Europe in 1522, and by a Dutch vessel, the “Zeewolf,” in 1617. In 1871 the British frigate “Megaera” was wrecked here, and most of the 400 persons on board had to remain upwards of three months on the island. The Mémoires of a Frenchman, Captain Francois Péron (Paris, 1824), who was marooned three years on the island (1792–1795), are of much interest.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amrum

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​AMRUM, or Amrom, a German island in the North Sea, off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein to the south of Sylt. Pop. (1900) 900. It is 6 m. long and 3 m. broad, with an area of 101/2 sq. m., and is reached from the mainland by a regular steamboat service to Wittdün, a favourite sea-bathing resort; or at low water by carriage from Föhr. The larger part of Amrum consists of a treeless sandy expanse, but a fringe of rich marshes affords good pasture-land. The principal place is Nebel, connected by a light railway with Wittdiin. (See also Frisian Islands.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amsler, Samuel

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​AMSLER, SAMUEL (1791–1849), Swiss engraver, was born at Schinznach, in the canton of Aargau. He studied his art under Johan Heinrich Lips (1758–1817) and Karl Ernst Hess, at Munich, and from 1816 pursued it in Italy, and chiefly at Rome, till in 1829 he succeeded his former master Hess as professor of copper engraving in the Munich academy. The works he designed and engraved are remarkable for the grace of the figures, and for the wonderful skill with which he retains and expresses the characteristics of the original paintings and statues. He was a passionate admirer of Raphael, and had great success in reproducing his works. Amsler’s principal engravings are: “The Triumphal March of Alexander the Great,” and a full-length “Christ,” after the sculptures of Thorwaldsen and Dannecker; the “Entombment of Christ,” and two “Madonnas” after Raphael; and the “Union between Religion and the Arts,” after Overbeck, his last work, on which he spent six years.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Churchill

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​CHURCHILL (Missinnippi or English), the name of a river of the province of Saskatchewan and district of Keewatin, Canada. It rises in La Loche (or Methy) lake, a small lake in 56° 30′ N. and 109° 30′ W., at an altitude of 1577 ft. above the sea, and flows E.N.E. to Hudson’s Bay, passing through a number of lake expansions. Its principal tributaries are the Beaver (350 m. long), Sandy and Reindeer rivers. Between Frog and Methy portages (480 m.) it formed part of the old voyageur route to the Peace, Athabasca, and Mackenzie. It is still navigated by canoes, but has many rapids. Its principal affluent, the Reindeer, discharges the waters of Reindeer Lake (1150 ft. above the sea, with an area of 2490 sq. m.) and Wollaston Lake (altitude, 1300 ft). The Churchill is 925 m. long. Fort Churchill, at its mouth, is the best harbour in the southern portion of Hudson’s Bay. The portage of La Loche (or Methy), 121/2 m. in length, connects its head waters with the Clearwater river, a tributary of the Athabasca, draining into the Arctic Ocean.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Church Congress

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​CHURCH CONGRESS, an annual meeting of members of the Church of England, lay and clerical, to discuss matters religious, moral or social, in which the church is interested. It has no legislative authority, and there is no voting on the questions discussed. The first congress was held in 1861 in the hall of King’s College, Cambridge, and was the outcome of the revival of convocation in 1852. The congress is under the presidency of the bishop in whose diocese it happens to be held. Recent places of meeting are Brighton (1901), Northampton (1902), Bristol (1903), Liverpool (1904), Weymouth (1905), Barrow-in-Furness (1906), Great Yarmouth (1907), Manchester (1908), Swansea (1909). The meetings of the congress have been mainly remarkable as illustrating the wide divergences of opinion and practice in the Church of England, no less than the broad spirit of tolerance which has made this possible and honourably differentiates these meetings from so many ecclesiastical assemblies of the past. The congress of 1908 was especially distinguished, not only for the expression of diametrically opposed views on such questions as the sacrifice of the mass or the “higher criticism,” but for the very large proportion of time given to the discussion of the attitude of the Church towards Socialism and kindred subjects.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Church, George Earl

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​CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910), American geographer, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on the 7th of December 1835. He was educated as a civil engineer, and was early engaged on the Hoosac Tunnel. In 1858 he joined an exploring expedition to South America. During the American Civil War he ​served (1862–1865) in the Army of the Potomac, rising to the command of a brigade and the rank of colonel; and in 1866–1867 he was war correspondent of the New York Herald in Mexico. He explored the Amazon (1868–1879), and gradually became the leading authority on that region of South America, being appointed United States commissioner to report on Ecuador in 1880, and visiting Costa Rica in 1895 to report on its debt and railways. He wrote extensively on South and Central American geography, and became a vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society (London), and in 1898 president of the geographical section of the British Association.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Church Rate

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​CHURCH RATE, the name of a tax formerly levied in each parish in England and Ireland for the benefit of the parish church. Out of these rates were defrayed the expenses of carrying on divine service, repairing the fabric of the church, and paying the salaries of the officials connected with it. The church rates were made by the churchwardens, together with the parishioners duly assembled after proper notice in the vestry or the church. The rates thus made were recoverable in the ecclesiastical court, or, if the arrears did not exceed £10 and no questions were raised as to the legal liability, before two justices of the peace. Any payment not strictly recognized by law made out of the rate destroyed its validity. The church rate was a personal charge imposed on the occupier of land or of a house in the parish, and, though it was compulsory, much difficulty was found in effectually applying the compulsion. This was especially so in the case of Nonconformists, who had conscientious objections to supporting the Established Church; and in Ireland, where the population was preponderatingly Roman Catholic, the grievance was specially felt and resented. The agitation against church rates led in 1868 to the passing of the Compulsory Church Rates Abolition Act. By this act church rates are no longer compulsory on the person rated, but are merely voluntary, and those who are not willing to pay them are excluded from inquiring into, objecting to, or voting in respect of their expenditure (s. 8).