CRAT^GXJS. 544 CKATINUS. Wasliington thorn (Ciatcegus cordata) , Cratcegiis Douglasi, anii Cratwgus punctata. The wood of most of the species iiiueh resembles that of the hawthorn. It is common to graft the rarer species on llie hawthorn. CRATCH CRADLE (from OF. creche, Ger. Krippe, crib), also called Cat's Cradle and iScKATCii CuADLE. A cliildish game, plaj'ed . by two persons holding an endless string symmetri- cally in the fingers of the two hands, and taking it oil' each other's hands, so as to form a new pattern at once. CRATCH'IT, Bob. The father of Tiny Tim in Dickens's Christmas Carol — a good-hearted little man, the poorly paid clerk of the miserly Scrooge. CEATCHIT, Tim. In Dickens's Christmas Carol, tlic crip])led sou of Bob Cratchit, known as 'Tiny Tim.' CRATER (Lat., from Gk. Kparrip, krater, mix- ing-bowl, from Kcpavvivai, keranni/nai, to mix). The bowl-.shaped ur conical cavity through which materials are ejected during a volcanic eruption. At the bottom the crater coratnunicates by a pipe or chimney with the heated interior of the earth. VIen of small size a volcano usually erupts through a single crater at the summit, but, as the. mountain mass increases by accumulation of material, the lava may find lines of lesser re- sistance tlirough fissures in the sides. In this way subsidiary craters are formed, one of which in the course of time may become the principal crater, or they all nury be buried beneath the renewed outpourings of the primary crater. The Peak of Teneriffe has a number of minor funnels on its sides and siuiunit. In volcanoes of an explosive type, the whole top of the mountain may be blown off during an eruption, forming an "immense crater, within which snbseqtiently new cones may arise in concentric arrangement. This structure, called 'cone-in-cone,' is shown by Vesuvius, whose active crater is partially en- circled by a rampart (Jlonte Somma) many miles in diameter. Volcanello of the Lipari Islands has three craters on the summit. The craters of extinct or dormant volcanoes are sometimes filled with water, and thus are formed crater lakes. ]Many of the beautiful lakes of Italy and the weIl-l<nown Crater Lake of Oregon originated in this way. See Volcano. CRATER, The. A novel by James- Fenimore Cooper (1S47), describing a Utopian settlement on the Pacific Coast. CRATER LAKE. A lake in Klamath County. (~)re., in the Cascade Mountains, lying at an altitude of over 6200 feet above the sea. It is of exceptional interest on account of its loca- tion in the crater of a partly destroyed volcano (Map: Oregon, C 7). It is' about 20 miles in circumference and is completely surrounded by cliffs varying in height from 500 to 2000 feet, fudging ifrom its existing state, the cone once must have extended upward a considerable dis- tance above the present cliffs, the destruction of (he upper portion lieing attributed to explosive activity. CRA'TERTJS (Lat., from Gk. Kparepds. Krn- Irros) . One of the favorite generals of Alexander the Great. He commanded a division of the royal body-guard in the Asiatic campaigns, and was sent back to Macedonia as regent, by the King, in B.C. 323. On the division of the empire after the deatli of ^ilexander, Craterus received, jointly with Antipater, the government of ilace- donia, (Jreece, lllyria, and Epirus, Antipater taking command of the military forces and Craterus attending to civil affairs. He formed an alliance with Antigonus (q.v. ) against Per- diceas and invaded Asia with an army, but was defeated and slain by Eumenes in Cappadocia (n.c. 321). CRATES, kra'tez (Lat., from Gk. KparTji, KraiOs). An Athenian comic poet of the liftli century n.c. He began his career as an actor in Cratinus's plays, and won his first victory in B.C. 44!). Aristotle says that he was the first to give up personal satire in comedy; he like- wise made the innovation of introducing a drvmken character on the stage. We have the titles of fifteen plays and scanty fragments. Consult Kock, Comicorum Xtticorum Frag- mcnla (Leipzig, 1880). CRATES. A cynic philosopher of Thebes, of tile fourth century B.C. Scorning the large prop- erty liich he inherited, he moved to Athens and became an eager disciple of Diogenes and one of the most eminent of the Cynics. He was an excellent orator and skillful poet. Interesting fragments of his poetry have been edited by Bergk, Poct(e L)irici Crmcl (Leipzig, 1882). The thirty-six letters which bear his name are gener- ally thought to be spurious. They are edited by Hercher, Epistolographi Orceci (Paris, 1873). Consult, also. Zeller, Fhilosophie der Griechen, vol. i. (Tubingen, 1892). CRATES. A Greek grammarian and Stoic of the second century B.C. He Avas the head of the Pergamene Library and the chief opponent of Aristarehus. He devoted himself to the inter- pretation of Greek authors, especially of Homer; he likewise defended the grammatical theory of anomaly in opposition to the Alexandrian doc- trine of analog;^'. (See Anomalist.s a?«d Analo- GiSTS. ) He assisted in enlarging and cataloguing the Pergamene Library; and his work on the Attic dialect was much employed by later gram- marians. About 107 B.C. he was sent by King At- tains on an embassy to Eome, where he intro- duced the study of formal grammar. Consult: Wachsniuth, be Cratete Mallota (Leipzig, 1800) ; Susemihl, Oeschichte der f/riech. Littera- tiir in der Alexandriner Zeit, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1802). CRATI'NTJS (Lat., from Gk. KparTvos, Kra- fiiios) ( ? -C.421 B.C.). An Athenian comic poet. He was born in the latter part of the sixth century B.C., and was one of the seven poets of the Old Comedy named in the canon of the Alexandrians. He first presented a comedy in 4.53 ; in all he left twenty-one plays with which he had won nine victories. He is said to have been the first to give comedy a political turn, and by the introduction of a third actor to place it on a level with tragedy. A follower of Cimon and the Conservative Party, he sharply attacked Pericles in two pl.iys; and in his 'Apxi^oxot, Archilochoi, he represented a contest nf poets which may well have been Aristophanes's model in his Froi/s. Aristophanes defeated Cratinus in 42.5 with his Achnrtiintis. and in 424 with the Kiiifjhfs. In the parabasis of the latter play he refers to his elder rival as 'an ancient ruin,' whereupon Cratinus retorted in 423 with his
