CARPACCIO CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS 17 1 to 18 Ibs. ; they are in season from October to April, and are generally considered excel- lent for the table. The common carp of Eu- rope has been introduced from France into the Hudson and other waters of New York. The gold fish, or golden carp, is the C. auratw (Linn.). The crucian carp (C. gibelio, Bloch) is of smaller size, and is considered by some the same as the C. carassius (Bloch). In this country the name of carp is erroneously ap- plied to some species of catastotmi* and luxilus, belonging to the same family of fishes. CARPACCIO, Vittore, a Venetian painter, born probably in Istria, died subsequently to 1519. Ho was a pupil and follower of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini of Venice, and in several of his efforts even surpassed the latter master. His best works belong to the period immedi- ately succeeding 1490, when he painted for the school of Sant' Ursula in Venice nine pictures illustrating scenes in the life of St. Ursula, which are now in the academy of Venice. An- other fine work was a " Presentation of Christ in the Temple," painted for the church of San Giobbe. He was an industrious and successful painter till 1515, when, owing to age or de- bility, his powers began rapidly to decline. He was fertile in invention, a master of per- spective, and earnestly impulsive in the con- ception and rendering of movement. Hence he preferred scenes of life and action, into which he could introduce ordinary objects and incidents, to purely religious subjects. He was an indifferent colorist. Such of his pictures as remain in Venice are more or less injured by damp and efforts to repair them. Fine speci- mens by him are in the galleries of Milan and Berlin and the Louvre. CARPJJA, among the ancient Greeks, a kind of mimetic dance peculiar to the ^Enianes and Magnetes, in Thessaly. It was performed by two armed men, one representing a plough- man and the other a robber, in the following manner : The laborer, laying aside his arms, begins to plough with a yoke of oxen, fre- quently looking around as if in alarm. When the robber at length appears, the ploughman snatches up his arms, and a fight begins for the oxen. The movements are rhythmical, and accompanied by the flute, and at last the victor takes away the oxen and plough for his reward. CARPANI, Giuseppe, an Italian dramatist and writer on music, born at Villalbese, near Milan, Jan. 28, 1752, died in Vienna, Jan. 22, 1825. Educated for the law, he devoted him- self to literary pursuits, and produced a great number of plays and operas, partly translations and partly original. In 1792 he was editor of the Gazzetta di Milano, and wrote violent ar- ticles against the French revolution. He was obliged to leave the city after the invasion of the French, and went to Vienna, where he was appointed censor and director of the thea- tre. In 1809 he accompanied the archduke John in the expedition against Napoleon. Under the title of Haydine^ he published a series of curious and interesting letters on the life and works of Haydn the composer. These letters, published in a French translation as an original work, under the name of L. A. C. Bombet, by Beyle (Stendhal), gave rise to a great literary controversy, in which Carpani successfully vindicated his authorship. CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS, a mountain system in central Europe, encircling Transleithan Aus- tria on the N. W., N. E., and S., and separa- ting it from Moravia, Austrian Silesia, Galicia, Bukowina, and Roumania. The entire range forms a semicircle about 800 m. long, com- mencing at New Orsova, on the Turkish fron- tier, where it is separated from the N. offshoots of the Balkan range only by the Danube, and terminating on the same river in the lofty rock on which the castle of Presburg is situated. Its breadth, including branches on both sides of the Hungarian and Transylvanian frontiers, varies from 100 to 200 m. The highest emi- nences rise 8,000 or 9,000 ft. above the sea level. The loftiest peaks were formerly thought to be in the Transylvanian section, but recent meas- urements show that the Gerlsdorf and Lomnitz peaks of the Tatra range, in the Hungarian sec- tion, have a greater altitude. The highest parts of the whole Carpathian system consist of gran- ite. Sandstone and limestone are found at a low- er level, and basalt, porphyry, jasper, petrosilex, lava, obsidian, and numerous other, substances, the result of volcanic and aqueous action, are scattered among the lower ranges. No traces exist of recent volcanic eruption, though there is unquestionable evidence of the extensive agency of fire and water at some time. The Carpathians stand preeminent among the mountains of Europe in respect to mineral wealth. Nearly every metal is produced abun- dantly from their sides. There are rich mines of silver and gold at Kremnitz and at Schem- nitz in Hungary, and a gold mine at Nagy Ag in Transylvania, which is esteemed one of the richest in Europe. Iron, copper, lead, and mercury are also found in large quantities, and rock salt lies in immense deposits throughout both sections of the chain. The Carpathians present four zones of vegetation, rising suc- cessively. There is first the woody region, where the oak, beech, and chestnut thrive, which reaches to a height of more than 4,000 ft. above the sea. Then the pinus abies, or Scotch fir, appears, and occupies a zone of 1,000 ft. Tim is succeeded by the moss pine, which diminishes in size as the elevation in- creases, and at the height of 6,000 ft. appears only as a small shrub and in scattered patches. The open places of this region produce a few blue-bells and other small flowers. From the termination of the moss pine to the summit the mountains have a barren and dreary look, their conical peaks being of naked rock, or covered only with lichens ; yet even at these heights a straggling blue-bell or gentian may sometimes be found. None of the Carpathians
