and
erroneously to describe any display of fancy riding. It is also used for
a spiral staircase in a tower.

CARACTACUS, strictly CARATACUS, the Latin form of a Celtic name, which
survives in Caradoc and other proper names. The most famous bearer of
the name was the British chieftain who led the native resistance to the
Roman invaders in A.D. 48-51, and was finally captured and sent to Rome
(Tac. _Ann._ xii. 33, Dio. lx.). Two old camps on the Welsh border are
now called Caer Caradoc, but the names seem to be the invention of
antiquaries and not genuinely ancient memorials of the Celtic hero.

CARADOC SERIES, in geology, the name introduced by R.I. Murchison in
1839 for the sandstone series of Caer Caradoc in Shropshire, England.
The limits of Murchison's Caradoc series have since been somewhat
modified, and through the labours of C. Lapworth the several members of
the series have been precisely defined by means of graptolitic zones.
These zones are identical with those found in the rocks of the same age
in North Wales, the Bala series (q.v.), and the terms Bala or Caradoc
series are used indifferently by geologists when referring to the
uppermost substage of the Ordovician System. The Ordovician rocks of the
Caradoc district have been subdivided into the following beds, in
descending order: the _Trinucleus_ shales, Acton Scott beds, Longville
flags, Chatwell and Soudley sandstones, Harnage shales and Hoar Edge
grits and limestone. In the Corndon district in the same county the
Caradoc series is represented by the Harrington group of ashes and
shales and the Spy Wood group beneath them; these two groups of strata
are sometimes spoken of as the Chirbury series. In the Breidden district
are the barren Criggeon shales with ashes and flows of andesite.

In the Lake district the Coniston limestone series represents the
Upper Caradocian, the lower portion being taken up by part of the
great Borrowdale volcanic series of rocks. The Coniston limestone
series contains the following subdivisions:--

Ashgill group (Ashgill shales and _Staurocephalus_ limestone).

Kiesley limestone.

Sleddale group (Applethwaite beds = Upper Coniston limestone
conglomerate; Yarlside rhyolite; stye end beds = Lower Coniston
limestone).

Roman Fell group (Corona beds).

The Dufton shales and Drygill shales are equivalents of the Sleddale
group.

Rocks of Caradoc age are well developed in southern Scotl