Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/687

Rh CHINCHA ISLANDS, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 12 from the coast of Peru, opposite the town of Pisco, and 106 distant from Callao, in 13° 38′S. lat. and 76° 28′W. long. The largest of the group, known as the North Island or Isla del Norte is only four-fifths of a in length, and about a third in breadth; and their whole importance is due to their immense deposits of guano. They are of granitic formation, and rise from the sea in precipitous cliffs, worn out into countless caves and hollows, which furnish convenient resting-places for the sea-fowl. Their highest points attain an elevation of 113, which was increased about 90 by the guano-bed. The name of the islands, and of the town and valley of Chincha on the mainland, is derived from an ancient Indian race which has left some interesting relics of its sojourn. A stone idol and two water-pots of grotesque construction were discovered under 62 of guano; and a number of wooden idols, two regal emblems, and a curious stone slab have also been found. That these must be of very great antiquity is obvious; but the rate of increase in the guano deposits is too much a matter of conjecture to furnish even an approximate date. MrGeorge Peacock, of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, calculated the quantity of guano in the islands in 1846 at 18,250,000 tons; and, according to the survey of the Peruvian Government in 1853, they then still contained 12,376,100. The supply is now practically exhausted; and the foreign export which had begun in 1841 was brought to a close in 1872. Between 1853 and 1872, 8,000,000 tons were obtained from the North and Middle Islands. The former was still visited by 35 Peruvian vessels in 1873, and furnished 11,634 tons. Its population in 1874 was only 105 persons, and the other islands were quite deserted; whereas in 1868 the total population amounted to 6000, who consisted partly of Peruvians, partly of Chinese coolies, and partly of Peruvian convicts. In 1853–4 the Chincha Islands were the chief object in the contest known as the Guano War between President Echenique and General Castilla; and in 1864 they were taken possession of by the Spanish rear-admiral Pinzon in order to bring the Peruvian Government to apologize for its treatment of the immigrants from Biscay.  CHINCHEW or, is the name usually given in to an ancient and famous  of  in the  of, of which the  name is Chwanchow-foo, or Tswanchow-foo (by  scholars written Thsíouan-chéou-fou). It stands in 24°57′N. . and 118°35′E. . It is described by Martini (in the ) as pleasantly situated on a tongue of land between two branches of the which forms the, and these so deep that the largest  s could come up to the. The, though now occasionally visited by and others, is not one of the -s, and modern information about it is not abundant. But large s still come close to the. The have a  of 7 or 8 s, but embrace much vacant ground. The chief are  and, , , s, &c. There are still to be seen the remains of a fine, founded by the rs who resorted thither. The   has had a  in the  since about. Beyond the northern branch of the (which is several miles from the ) there is a  called Loyang, which is approached by the most celebrated  in. Chwanchow was in the the great of Western  with, and was known to the  and to ans as Zaitûn or Zayton, the name under which it appears in Abulfeda's Geography, and in the Mongol history of Rashîduddîn, as well as in Ibn Batuta, Marco Polo, and other  travellers (see, ). Marco Polo calls it &ldquo;one of the two greatest havens in the ;&rdquo; Ibn Batuta, &ldquo;the greatest  in the .&rdquo; Some argument has of late been alleged against the identity of Zayton with Chwanchow, and in favour of its being rather (a great 60s W.S.W. of Chwanchow), or a  on the  of undefined near. It is possible that the name &ldquo; of Zayton&rdquo; covered a good deal, and may have embraced the great basin called, the chief part of which lies within the Foo or department of Chwanchow; but there is hardly room for doubt that the Zayton of and  was the Chwanchow of. Ibn Batuta informs us that a rich texture made here was called Zaitûniya; and there can be little doubt that this is the real origin of our word ,—Zettani in, Aceytuni in. With the question already indicated is connected a singular ambiguity. The name Chinchew is now applied as we have defined; but the Chincheo or Chinchew of old, and of the and  to this day, is, as MrG. Phillips has lately pointed out, not Chwanchow but undefined. The of  is often called Chincheo by the  of the  and. , and its dependencies seem to have constituted the of  with which  and  chiefly  at that period, and where the  had at one time a ; and hence they seem to have applied the same name to the  and, though  has never been the official capital of. How  and  came to transfer the name to Chwanchow is obscure. (See Journal R. Geog. Soc., vol. xliv.; Yule's Marco Polo, 2d ed.,, vol. ii., &c.) (undefined)  CHINCHILLA, a city of Spain, in the province of Murcia, picturesquely situated on an abrupt hill ten south-east of Albacete, in the immediate neighbourhood of the junction of the railway lines from Cartagena and Valencia to the capital. It is surrounded by walls rebuilt in 1837, and defended by a citadel; and in the principal church there are reservoirs capable of furnishing the city with water for several months. Earthenware and crucibles, coarse linen, and woollen cloths are manufactured. Population, 3500.  CHINCHILLA (Chinchilla lanigera), a small Mammal belonging to the order Rodentia, inhabits the eastern slopes of the Andes in Chili, Bolivia, and Peru, where it has a vertical range of from 8000 to 12,000 feet. It is very similar in size to the common squirrel, being about 10 inches long exclusive of the tail, and in the form of its head it resembles a rabbit. It is covered with a dense soft fur three-fourths of an inch long on the back, and upwards of an inch in length on the sides, of a slate-grey colour, darkly mottled on the upper surface, and of a dusky white beneath; its ears are long and broad and thinly covered with hair. It lives in burrows, and these subterranean dwellings undermine some parts of the Chilian Andes to such an extent as to cause considerable inconvenience and even danger to travellers on horseback. Chinchillas live in communities, forming their burrows among loose rocks, and coming out to feed only in the early morning and towards sunset. They feed chiefly on roots and grasses, in search of which they often travel a considerable distance from their homes ; and when eating they sit on their haunches, holding their food in their fore paws. The Indians in hunting them employ a weasel (Galictis vittata), which is trained to enter the crevices of the rocks, where the chinchillas often lie concealed during the day in order to avoid the sunshine, and drive them out, when they are readily killed. The fur of this rodent was prized by the ancient Peruvians, who made coverlets and other articles with the skin, and at the present day 