ached flax line, although it is not unusual to find an
admixture of tow, and even of cotton in the commoner kinds. When the
cloth comes from the loom, it undergoes a special treatment to prepare
the surface for the paint.

CANVASS (an older spelling of "canvas"), to sift by shaking in a sheet
of canvas, hence to discuss thoroughly; as a political term it means to
examine carefully the chances of the votes in a prospective election,
and to solicit the support of the electors.

CANYNGES, Canynge, WILLIAM (c. 1399-1474), English merchant, was born
at Bristol in 1399 or 1400, a member of a wealthy family of merchants
and cloth-manufacturers in that city. He entered, and in due course
greatly extended, the family business, becoming one of the richest
Englishmen of his day. Canynges was five times mayor of, and twice
member of parliament for, Bristol. He owned a fleet of ten ships, the
largest hitherto known in England, and employed, it is said, 800 seamen.
By special license from the king of Denmark he enjoyed for some time a
monopoly of the fish trade between Iceland, Finland and England, and he
also competed successfully with the Flemish merchants in the Baltic,
obtaining a large share of their business. In 1456 he entertained
Margaret of Anjou at Bristol, and in 1461 Edward IV. Canynges undertook
at his own expense the great work of rebuilding the famous Bristol
church of St Mary, Redcliffe, and for a long time had a hundred workmen
in his regular service for this purpose. In 1467 he himself took holy
orders, and in 1469 was made dean of Westbury. He died in 1474. The
statesman George Canning and the first viscount Stratford de Redcliffe
were descendants of his family.

See Pryce, _Memorials of the Canynges Family and their Times_
(Bristol, 1854).

CANYON (Anglicized form of Span. _canon_, a tube, pipe or cannon; the
Spanish form being also frequently written), a type of valley with huge
precipitous sides, such as the Grand Canyons of the Colorado and the
Yellowstone livers, and the gorge of the Niagara river below the falls,
due to rapid stream erosion in a "young" land. A river saws its channel
vertically downwards, and a swift stream erodes chiefly at the bottom.
In rainy regions the valleys thus formed are widened out by slope-wash
and the resultant valley-slopes are gentle, but in arid regions there is
very little side-extension of the valleys and the river cuts its way
downwards, leaving al