Carbuncle of Ward Hill (The). A mysterious carbuncle visible enough to those who stand at the foot of the hill in May, June or July; but never beheld by anyone who has succeeded in reaching the hill top.
“I have distinguished, among the dark rocks, that wonderful carbuncle, which gleams ruddy as a furnace to them who view it from beneath, but has ever become invisible to him whose daring foot has scaled the precipice from which it darts its splendour.”- Sir W. Scott: The Pirate, chap. xix.Dr. Wallace thinks it is water trickling from a rock, and reddened by the sun.
Carcanet A small chain of jewels for the neck. (French, carcan, an iron collar.)
“Like captain jewels in a carcanet.”Carcass The shell of a house before the floors are laid and walls plastered; the skeleton of a ship, a wreck, etc. The body of a dead animal, so called from the Latin caro-cassa (lifeless flesh). (French, carcasse.)
Shakespeare: Sonnets.
“The Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried.”- Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iii. 1.