Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/573

 CALATAGIRONE CALCAREOUS SPEINGS 567 test was near Vita, four miles from the town ; but the Neapolitans after their defeat fled to Calatafimi. CALiTAGIRONE. See CALTAGIEONE. CALATAYl'D, a town of Aragon, Spain, in the province and 45 m. S. W. of Saragossa, on the Jalon, near its junction with the Jiloca ; pop. in 1867, 9,823. It was built by the Moors from the ruins of Bilbilis, the birthplace of Martial, which was about two miles E. of the present town. It has a castle, a theatre, and other public buildings. There are two collegiate churches, Santo Sepulcro, built in 1141, and originally belonging to the templars, and Santa Maria, formerly a mosque, having a fine en- trance and lofty bell tower. The Dominican convent is an imposing structure. The en- virons are picturesque and fertile, producing good wine and the best hemp of Spain. In the neighborhood are mineral springs, and caverns with curious stalactites. CALATRAVA LA VIEJA (Old Calatrava), an ancient city of La Mancha, Spain, now in ruins, on the Guadiana, 12 m. N. E. of Ciudad Real. The city was in the middle ages one of the keys of the Sierra Morena, and was strongly fortified. In 1158, being menaced by the Moors, it was abandoned by the templars, who had held it for 10 years, and the king, Sancho III., promised it to any one who would hold it. Raymond, abbot of Fitero, and Diego Ve- lasquez undertook the task. A crusade was pro- claimed, and plenary indulgences were prom- ised to all who should take part in its defence. The Moors abandoned the siege, and Velasquez made inroads into their territories. The order of Calatrava was then founded, consisting of two classes, one for the field, the other for the choir. The knights subsequently separated from the monks, and chose a grand master, while the monks returned to their abbey at Fitero. The knights acquired renown and riches in their contests with the Moors, but in the end quarrelled among themselves, and the pope in 1523 adjudged the grand-mastership to the crown in perpetuity. In 1808 the great possessions of the order were confiscated, and it became simply an order of merit. CALAVERAS, a N. central county of Califor- nia, watered by Mokelumne, Calaveras, and Stanislaus rivers ; area, 936 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,895, of whom 1,441 were Chinese. The Sierra Nevada is on the E. border. Gold mining is extensively pursued ; there is also a copper mine at Copperopolis. The famous big tree grove is in this county. The Stockton and Copperopolis railroad has its terminus in the county. There are 30 quartz mills for the production of gold, with 438 stamps and 5 arastras. The chief productions in 1870 were 8,341 bushels of wheat, 37,395 of barley, 6,213 tons of hay, 129,025 Ibs. of wool, and 99,860 gallons of wine. There were 1,781 horses, 1,995 milch cows, 4,744 other cattle, 35,214 sheep, and 8,173 swine. Capital, San Andreas. CALAVERAS, a river of California, rises among the hills at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, in Calaveras county, and after a nearly V. course joins the San Joaquin on the border of Sacra- mento and San Joaquin counties. CALCAR, Jan Stephan van, a Flemish painter of the Venetian school, born at Calcar in the duchy of Cleves in 1499 or 1500, died in Naples in 1546. He studied art in his native country, and afterward at Venice under Titian, and finally practised his art at Naples. At Padua he designed the illustrations to Vesali's ana- tomical work, which for a long time were as- cribed to Titian. Rubens possessed a " Nativi- ty" by him, which he valued highly, and which at his death was purchased by Sandrart, who subsequently sold it to the emperor Ferdinand. One of his most celebrated pictures was the Mater Dolorosa. The portrait of a man with red beard, executed by him in 1540, is in the Louvre. CALCAREOUS SPAR, or Cale Spar, crystallized carbonate of lime, a very common mineral. It is remarkable for the great variety of its crys- talline forms derived from its primary obtuse rhomboid, no less than 600 modifications hav- ing been described and figured. It is seen in a pure state in the transparent rhomboidal crystals of Iceland spar, so called because the finest were originally brought from Iceland. These exhibit the property of double refraction most perfectly. Calcareous spar is white or transparent, except when mixed with some for- eign ingredients, which impart to it various shades. It is so soft as to be easily cut with a knife, its hardness being rated at 2'5 to 3'5. Its specific gravity is 2'5 to 2'77. Acids dis- solve it readily, causing a strong effervescence as the carbonic acid is expelled. This is also expelled by heat, the mineral being then con- verted into quicklime, or the protoxide of cal- cium. The proportion of this in calcareous spar is 56 per cent., and of carbonic acid 44 per cent. Some of the finest specimens of this mineral are from the Rossie lead mine of St. Lawrence co., N. Y., where a single crystal was found weighing 165 Ibs. It is a common gangue in metallic veins, and often forms veins in rock formations of almost all ages, even when no ores are present. It possesses no value dif- ferent from that of ordinary limestones ; and these are from their great abundance much more cheaply obtained for the manufacture of quicklime, or for fluxes of ores, than the crys- tallized mineral could be. CALCAREOUS SPRINGS. Rain water, contain- ing carbonic acid gas, and other waters also more highly charged with this gas, have the property of dissolving the carbonate of lime with which they come in contact, as they per- colate through the strata of rock beneath the surface. When the water rises in springs, it comes charged with calcareous matter ; and as it evaporates, this load is deposited in the form of calcareous incrustations. Such springs some- times rise through granitic rocks and other