Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/255

CARIBAN STOCK. modern Caribs differ from the ancient Caribs of the Antilles in their more peaceful mode of life, the absence of cannibalism, and a less highly de- veloped system of social relations. In place of the communal dwelling which formerly pre- vailed among them, each family at present occu- pies a separate house, sometimes built on piles as a safeguard against Hood. They have a cere- monial religion and practice the couvade (q.v.). Their favorite weapon is a battle-axe of polished stone.

CARIBBE'AN SEA. A portion of the North Atlantic, bordered on the south by Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela, on the west by Central America and Yucatan, and partially inclosed from the ocean on the north and east by the island loop of the Greater and Lesser An- tilles. It communicates at its northwestern ex- tremity with the Gulf of ^Mexico by the Yucatan Channel — a passage 120 miles wide between Cuba and the Peninsula of Yucatan. The South American coast of the Caribbean Sea is diversi- fied by the gulfs of Paria, Cariaco, Triste, Vene- zuela, and Darien, while on the western coast there are the larcer embavments of the ilosquito Gulf and the Gulf of Honduras. The Gulf of Venezuela, between the Goajira Peninsula in Colombia and the Paraguana Peninsula in Vene- zuela, connects by means of a shallow channel with the lake of iMaracaibo, the basin of which is the most prominent indentation on the northern coast of South America. Although the Caribbean is a partially inclosed sea, and lies on the bor- der of a great land mass, it occupies a very deep depression. With the exception of a narrow shelf along the Venezuelan coast and a bank that reaches from Jamaica to Hondiiras and Xica- ragua, the entire basin exceeds 6000 feet in depth and a large portion is more than 12,000 feet. Extreme depths exceeding 16,000 feet have been found off the south coast of Cuba, and between Haiti and Venezuela. The waters of the Carib- bean Sea are influenced in their circulation by oceanic currents, and particularly by the north equatorial current, which enters the sea from the southeast. There is also a marked current in the northern part, which passes through the Y'ucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico. The Caribbean Sea receives the drainage of a great portion of Central America, but only an incon- siderable portion of South America, as the An- dean Cordillera of Colombia and Venezuela turns the drainage of these countries toward the Ori- noco, which enters the Atlantic. The islands of the Caribbean are grouped along the South American coast and along the bank from .Tamaica to TlnnihiVa-. Tlii y are small and unimportant.

CAR1BBEE BARK. See Exo.stemma.

CARIBBEE ISLANDS. A name sometimes giviM t" till' Leaser Antilles. See Antilles.

CARIBE, kii-re'ba (Sp., Portug., from West Indian cfirib, valiant man). . y of several voracious serrasalnionine fresh-water fishes of South America, often of strange form and dis- tinguished by having the bellv serrated with sharp spines. The best known is the piraya (Serrasalmo pirnt/a). Guntber (Introduction to the Htudij of Fis/ics, Edinburgh, 1880) says that though most are of small size, their voracit.v, fearlessness, and nmnber render them a perfect pest in many rivers of tropical America. "In all the teeth are strong, short, sharp, sometimes lobed incisors, arranged in one or more series; by means of them they cut off a mouthful of llesh as with a pair of scissors, and any animal falling into the water where these fishes abound is immediately attacked and cut to pieces in an incredibly short time. They assail persons en- tering the water, inflicting dangerous wounds be- fore the victims are able to make their escape. In some localities it is scarcely possible to catch fishes with the hook and line, as the fish hooked is . . . torn to pieces before it can be with- drawn from the water. The caribes themselves are rarely hooked, as they snap the hook or cut the line. The smell of blood is said to attract at once thousands of these fishes to the spot."

CARIBOTT, ka'ri-boo. A lake in Maine. See Chesuxcook L..kes.

CARIBOTT, karlboo (Canadian Fr., Amer. Indian ). A French-Canadian name for the Ameri- can forms of the reindeer, regarded by most zo- ologists as varieties of the European Rangifer tarandus. (See Relxdeeb.) Two pretty distinct forms exist, the common woodland variety {Rangifer caribou) and the barren-ground va- riety (Rangifer Groenlandicus) . The former is found throughout the forested region of northern America, where it formerly extended as far south as Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, but since the middle of the Xincteenth Century ex- tends south of Canada only in Maine, Michigan, and the Rocky Mountains. (See Plate Deer of XoBTU America.) It ranges the woods and swamps, is especially numerous in Newfoundland, Labrador, and British Columbia ; and in w inter gathers into herds of several hundred, which are able to traverse the snow upon their broad and hairy hoofs, and find an abundance of food in leaves and berries (especially cranberries), lichens, etc. In the summer they move about a great deal to escape the flies and at all seasons are the prin- cipal dependence of many Indians. Three local varieties of this caribou arc noted, so variable is it in size and color ; but it presents little distinction from the Old World reindeer except in the ant- lers, where the brow-tines are very unequally developed.

The barren-ground caribou is a smaller and paler form, with disproportionately large ant- lers, which occupies the open coimtry north of the tree-growth and the coastal valleys of Green- land, to an extreme distance north. It is named Rangifer (Jrocnlandicus, and is regarded as liav- ing a better claim to independent specific rank than any other .American form. It is to be found in vast herds in the desolate plains between Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay, where it subsists upon lichens, and migrates southward in fall to the margin of the forest, returning northward each spring. The Indians and Eskimo gather about these migrations and obtain a winter's supply of meat and skins. Consult: Shields. Big Game of orth America (Chicago, 1800) ; Roose- velt (et al.), The Deer Family (New York, 1002).

CARICA. See Papaw.

CARICATURE (Fr., It. caricatura, from Jled. l.at. riiricarc, to overload, exaggerate, from Lat. carrus, car). A representation, descriptive or pictorial, in which the peculiarities or natural characteristics of an individual or class are c.xag-