CAT

CAT, is also a sort of strong tackle, or combination of pulleys, to hook and draw the anchor perpendicularly up to the cat-head. See CAT-Heads.

CAT'S EYE, or Sun-stone of the Turks, a kind of gem found chiefly in Siberia. Cat's eye is by the Latins called oculus cati, and sometimes onycopalus, as having white zones or rings like the onyx, and its colours variable like OPAL, from which last it differs chiefly by its superior hardness. It is very hard, and semitransparent, and has different points, from whence the light is reflected with a kind of yellowish radiation somewhat similar to the eyes of cats, from whence it had its name. The belt of them are very scarce, and jewellers cut them round to the greatest advantage. One of these stones, an inch in diameter, was in the possession of the duke of Tuscany.