hero and Indian fighter, and his hairbreadth escapes and personal prowess are the subject of innumerable stories.
See Charles Burdett, Life of Kit Carson, the Great Western Hunter and Guide (New York, 1859; new ed., 1877); and De Witt C. Peters, The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself (New York, 1858).
CARSON CITY, the capital of Nevada, U.S.A., and the county seat of Ormsby county, about 120 m. N.E. of Sacramento, California. Pop. (1890) 3950; (1900) 2100; (1910) 2466. It is served by the Virginia and Truckee railway, which has repair shops here, and by stage to Lake Tahoe, 12 m. W. of the city. It is picturesquely situated in Eagle valley, near the east base of the Sierra Nevada, at an elevation of 4720 ft. above the sea. Within 1 m. of the city are Shaws Hot Springs. The city is a distributing point for the neighbouring mining region. Among the public buildings are the capitol, the United States government building, a United States mint, and a state orphans’ home; in the vicinity are the state prison and a United States government school for Indians. The industrial interests of the city are principally in mining, lumbering and agriculture. It has an excellent supply of mountain spring water. Carson City (named in honour of Christopher Carson) was settled in 1851 as a trading post, was laid out as a town in 1858, was made the capital of the state and the county seat of the newly erected county in 1861, and was chartered as a city in 1875.
CARSTARES (or Carstairs), WILLIAM (1649–1715), Scottish clergyman, was born at Cathcart, near Glasgow, on the 11th of February 1649, the son of the Rev. John Carstares, a member of the extreme Covenanting party of Protestors. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and then passed over to Utrecht, where he commenced his lifelong friendship with the prince of Orange, and began to take an active part in the politics of his country. The government disliked Carstares for several reasons. He was the intimate of William; he had been the bearer of messages between the disaffected in Scotland and Holland; and he was believed to be concerned with Sir James Steuart (1635–1715) in the authorship of a pamphlet—An Account of Scotland’s Grievances by reason of the D. of Lauderdale’s Ministrie, humbly tendered to his Sacred Majesty. Accordingly, on his return to England, at the close of 1674, he was committed to the Tower; the following year he was transferred to Edinburgh Castle, and it was not till August 1679 that he was released. After this he visited Ireland, and then became pastor to a Nonconformist congregation at Cheshunt. During 1682 he was in Holland, but in the following year he was again in London, and was implicated in the Rye House Plot. On its discovery he was examined before the Scottish Council; though the torture of the thumb-screw was applied, he refused to utter a word till he was assured that his admissions would not be used in evidence, and in the disclosures he then made he displayed great discretion. On his return to Holland he was rewarded by William’s still warmer friendship, and the post of court chaplain; and after the Revolution he continued to hold this office, under the title of royal chaplain for Scotland. He was the confidential adviser of the king, especially with regard to Scottish affairs, and rendered important service in promoting the Revolution Settlement. On the accession of Anne, Carstares retained his post as royal chaplain, but resided in Edinburgh, having been elected principal of the university. He was also minister of Greyfriars’, and afterwards of St Giles’, and was four times chosen moderator of the general assembly. He took an important part in promoting the Union, and was consulted by Harley and other leading Englishmen concerning it. During Anne’s reign, the chief object of his policy was to frustrate the measures which were planned by Lord Oxford to strengthen the Episcopalian Jacobites—especially a bill for extending the privileges of the Episcopalians and the bill for replacing in the hands of the old patrons the right of patronage, which by the Revolution Settlement had been vested in the elders and the Protestant heritors. On the accession of George I., Carstares was appointed, with five others, to welcome the new dynasty in the name of the Scottish Church. He was received graciously, and the office of royal chaplain was again conferred upon him. A few months after he was struck with apoplexy, and died on the 28th of December 1715.
See State-papers and Letters addressed to William Carstares, to which is prefixed a Life by M’Cormick (1774); Story’s Character and Career of William Carstares (1874); Andrew Lang’s History of Scotland (1907).
CARSTENS, ARMUS JACOB (1754–1798), German painter, was born in Schleswig, and in 1776 went to Copenhagen to study. In 1783 he went to Italy, where he was much impressed by the work of Giulio Romano. He then settled in Lübeck as a portrait painter, but was helped to visit Rome again in 1792, and gradually produced some fine subject and historical paintings, e.g. “Plato’s Symposium” and the “Battle of Rossbach”—which made him famous. He was appointed professor at Berlin, and in 1795 a great exhibition of his works was held in Rome, where he died in 1798. Carstens ranks as the founder of the later school of German historical painting.
CARSULAE, an ancient city of Umbria, on the Via Flaminia, 19 m. N. of Narnia (mod. Narni) and 24 m. S.S.W. of Mevania (mod. Bevagna). It is little mentioned in ancient literature. The town was a municipium. The Via Flaminia is well preserved and enters the north gate of the town, the archway of which still stands. Remains of buildings may also be seen upon the site, and the outline of an amphitheatre is visible. The town of Cesi, 3 m. to the south-east, has polygonal walls, and may perhaps be regarded as an Umbrian city which was destroyed by the Romans, Carsulae being constructed in its stead. The medieval city, as so often happened in Italy, returned to the pre-Roman site.
See G. Gamurrini in Notizie degli Scavi (1884), 149; for the tombs, L. Lanzi, in Notizie degli Scavi (1902), 592.
CART (A.S. crœt, Gaelic cairt; connected with “car”), a general term for various kinds of vehicles (see Carriage), in some cases for carrying people, but more particularly for transporting goods, for agricultural or postal purposes, &c., or for carriers. Though constructed in various ways, the simplest type for goods is two-wheeled, topless and springless; but as a general term “cart” is used in combination with some more specific qualification (dog-cart, donkey-cart, road-cart, polo-cart, &c.), when it is employed for pleasure purposes. The “dog-cart,” so called because originally used to convey sporting dogs, is a more or less elevated two-wheeled carriage, generally with scats back to back, in front and behind; the “governess-cart” (presumably so called from its use for children), a very low two-wheeled pony-carriage, has two side seats facing inwards; the “tax-cart,” a light two-wheeled farmer’s cart, was so called because formerly exempted from taxation as under the value of £21.
CARTAGENA, or Carthagena, a city, seaport, and the capital of the department of Bolívar, Colombia, South America, on the Caribbean coast, in 10° 25′ 48″ N., 75° 34′ W. Pop. (1905, official estimate) 14,000. The population of Cartagena is largely composed of blacks and mixed races, which form the predominant type on the lowland plains of northern Colombia. The well-to-do whites of Cartagena usually have country houses on the Turbaco hills, where the temperature is much lower than on the coast. The mean annual temperature in the city is 82°, and the port is classed as very unhealthful, especially for unacclimatized foreigners. The harbour, which is the best on the north coast of South America, is formed by an indentation of the coast-line shut in by two long islands lying parallel to the mainland. It covers an area of about 62·5 sq. m. and affords deep and secure anchorages and ample facilities for loading and unloading large vessels. The city itself has no modern quays, and large vessels do not approach within a mile of its landing-stages, but the railway pier (lengthened 120 ft. in 1898) on the mainland opposite permits the mooring of vessels alongside. There were formerly two entrances to the harbour—the Boca Grande (large mouth) between the low sandy island or peninsula on which the city stands and the island of Tierra Bomba, and the Boca Chica (small mouth) at the south end of the latter island. The Boca Grande was filled with stone after the city had been captured three times, because of the ease with which an enemy’s ships could pass through it at any time, and the narrow and more
