CRADOCK

cradock, a town of south africa, capital of a division of the cape province, in the upper valley of the great fish river, 181 m. by rail n. by e. of port elizabeth. pop. (1904) 7762. it is one of the chief centres of the wool industry of the cape, and does also a large trade in ostrich feathers, mohair, &c. the town enjoys a reputation as one of the best health resorts in the province. it stands at an altitude of 2856 ft.; the climate is very dry, the average annual rainfall being 14.50 in. the mean maximum temperature is 77.6 deg. f. three miles n. of the town are sulphur baths (temp. 100 deg. f.) used for the treatment of rheumatism. in the neighbouring district survive a few herds of zebras, now protected by the game laws. the town dates from the beginning of the 19th century and is named after sir john cradock, governor of the cape 1811-1813. the division has an area of 3048 sq. m. and a pop. (1904) of 18,803, of whom 41% are white. craft (a word common to teutonic languages for strength, or power; cf. ger. _kraft_), a word confined in english only, of the teutonic languages in which it occurs, to intellectual power, and used as a synonym of "art." it then means skill or ingenuity, especially in the manual arts, hence its use in the expression "arts and crafts" (q.v.), and it is thus applied to the trade or profession in which such skill is displayed, to an association of workmen of a particular trade, a trade gild, and in particular to freemasons, "the craft"; the word appears also in words such as "handicraft" or "craftsman." skill applied to outwit or deceive gives the common sense of cunning or trickery, and it is this meaning which is implied in such combined words as "priestcraft," "witchcraft" and the like. a more particular use of the word is in the nautical sense of vessels of transport by water; this is probably a colloquially shortened form either of "vessels of a fisherman's, lighterman's &c., craft," i.e. "art," or of "vessels of a heavier or lighter craft," i.e. burden or capacity; in both cases the qualifying words are dropped and the word comes to be used of vessels in general. crag (a celtic word, cf. gael. _creag_, manx _creg_, and welsh and modern scots _craig_), a steep rock. the word appears in many place-names in the north of england and in scotland, and is also connected with "carrick," a word of similar meaning, also found in place-names. in geology, the term is applied to the strata in which a shelly sand deposit is found, and, in the expression "crag and tail," to a formation of hills, in which one side is precipitous and lofty and the other slopes or "tails" gradually away, as in the castle rock in edinburgh.