Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/393

Rh with a the information that could be obtained as to the circumstances of their composition. In connection with the work on Ancient Sea Margins, it may be mentioned that its author ranked high as a scientific geologist, and that he had availed himself of tours iu Scandinavia and Canada for the purpose of geological exploration. His knowledge of geology was one of the principal grounds on which the authorship of the celebrated anonymous work, The Vestiges of the Creation, was very generally attributed to him. As, however, neither he himself nor any one entitled to speak for him ever acknowledged the work, its authorship remains a mystery. The Book of Days was his last publication, and perhaps his most elaborate. Help on which he had de pended having failed him, he was left to do the work almost alone, and it is supposed that his excessive labour in connec tion with it hastened his end. He died at St Andrews, where he had built a pleasant residence for himself several years previously, on the 17th March 1871. Two years before his death the university of St Andrews had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, in consideration of his dis tinguished literary merit, and he was a fellow of several learned societies. As a writer Chambers possessed in very harmonious combination most of the qualities which form the basis of a sound and lasting popularity. Few even of popular authors ever possessed in a higher degree the faculty of interesting without resorting to sensation, of amusing without stooping to frivolity, and of instructing without assuming superiority. Few have done more than he for the illustration of Scottish life and character, and for the preservation of what was curious in Scottish tradition and antiquities. But it will always be his highest claim to distinction that he did as much as, if not more than, any other single man to give a healthy tone and a pure moral influence to the cheap popular litera ture which has become so important a factor in modern civilization. An interesting account of the life of Robert Chambers by his brother appeared in 1872, under the title, Memoir of Robert Chambers: With Autobiographic Reminiscences of William Chambers.  CHAMBERSBURG, a town of the United States, the capital of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, is situated about 135 miles west of Philadelphia, in a populous district in the great limestone valley that extends along the east side of the Blue Mountains. It has a court-house, a national bank, ten churches, and a Presbyterian college for young ladies ; and it manufactures cotton, wool, paper, and iron. In 1864 a large part of the town was burned by the Confederates / under Early. Population in 1870, 6308.  CHAMBÉRY (in Italian ), a city of France, capital of the department of Savoy, pleasantly situated in a fertile district, between two hills, on the rivers Laisse and Albana, 46 miles S.S.W. of Geneva. The town, how ever, is irregularly and ill built, and has only two good streets the Place Saint-Le ger and the Rue de Boigne, of which the latter is named after a General Boigne who left a fortune of 3,400,000 francs to the town. The principal edifices are the cathedral, dating from the 14th and loth centuries; the Hotel-Dieu, founded in 1647; the castle, a modern building serving as a prefecture, and preserving only a great square tower belonging to the original struc ture ; ths palace of justice, the theatre, the barracks, and the covered market, which dates from 1863. Several of the squares are adorned with fountains ; the old ramparts of the city, destroyed during the French Revolution, have been converted into public walks ; and various promenades and gardens have been constructed. Chambe ry is the seat of an archbishop, and of a superior tribunal ; and has also a Jesuit college, a royal academical society, a society of agriculture and commerce, a public library, with 20,000 vols., a museum, a botanic garden, and many charitable institutions. It manufactures silk-gauze, lace, leather, and hats, and has a considerable trade in liqueurs, wine, lead, copper, and other articles. Overlooking the town ia the Rock of Lemenc, which derives its name from the Lemincum of the Romans; and in the vicinity is Char- mettes, for some time the residence of Rousseau.

1em  CHAMBORD, a magnificent Gothic chateau of France, in the department of Loire-et-Cher, 10 miles east of Blois, on the left bank of the Cosson. It was commenced by Francis I. in 1532, carried on by Henry II., and at length finished by Louis XIV. It is built of black stone, with a profusion of towers, turrets, and minarets, and the inte rior is fitted up with great magnificence. The park is enclosed by walls seven leagues in circumference. The castle is famous as the residence of Diana of Poitiers, and of Stanislaus, king of Poland, whose son-in-law, Louis XV., bestowed it upon Marshal Saxe. It was given by Napoleon to Marshal Berthier, from whose widow it was purchased by subscription in 1821, and presented to the duke of Bordeaux, the representative of the older branch of the Bourbons, who has assumed from it the title of Count de Ohambord.  CHAMELEON, the common name of a well-defined family of Lizards, forming the tribe Dendrosaura, and con taining the single genus Cham&lo, which includes about twenty known species, bearing a close family resemblance to each other, and differing very widely from all other lizards. They are small creatures, not usually exceeding 7 inches in length exclusive of the tail, which in general is as long as the body. The body is greatly compressed, often with a crest toothed or otherwise along the back and belly, and the skin is covered with granular specks, giving it the appearance of shagreen. The large pyramidal head is sup ported by a short neck composed of five vertebra, instead of eight, as in the majority of saurians ; and there is no true sternum, although the anterior ribs are joined to the mesial line, which thus takes the place of a breast-bone, while the ribs which follow are so connected together as to form a bony circle for the protection of the abdominal region. L nlike other lizards, the chameleon has the body raised high on its legs, and the toes, which are five in number on both posterior and anterior limbs, are divided into two opposable groups or bundles, closely resembling those of a parrot, and equally serving the purpose of pre hension. The tail, by the greater thickness of which at the base the male is distinguishable from the female, is also prehensile, and is of ths greatest service in giving support and security to the climbing chameleon. The lungs are large, and are connected with air-vessels distributed through out the body, by the inflation of which a certain trans parency is given to the body, as well as a plumpness which at once disappears on their collapse, and this, together with the fact that the chameleon can live apparently in a thriving condition for weeks without food, seems to have given rise to the ancient belief that this singular creature lived on air. The eyes of the chameleon are large, globular, and covered with a circular disk formed by the junction cf the two lids and having a central aperture which acts as an external pupil, being capable of dilatation or contraction 