CHALFONT ST GILES 



CHALLENGER EXPEDITION 85 



< halfoiif SI <ih'S, a village of Buckingham- 



lire. 1U miles SK. of A\ lesliiirs. M ikon's cot tage 

 .i> |iiirrhaMed by the- nation in 1SS7. 



>. a village 13 miles SE. of Oxford, 

 tin- -cene uf a skirmish in the Civil War between 

 Rupert's cavalry and a parliamentary force 

 under llampdcn, in which that patriot received his 

 death \voiini I, .lime 18, 1643. 



Chalice (Lat. calix, 'a cup'). The name has 

 long Keen applied only to the cups used for the 

 iulminist ration of the wine in the holy communion. 

 made of glass, precious stone, horn, and 

 other substances, 

 chalices have for 

 many* centuries 

 l>een formed of 

 silver, or some- 

 times gold, occa- 

 sionally enriched 

 with jewels. 

 Their fashion has 

 followed the art 

 of the times, 

 the hemispherical 

 bowl ana plain 

 circular foot of 

 Romanesque or 

 Norman days 

 giving way to a 

 conical bowl and 

 hexagonal foot in 

 the Perpendicu- 

 lar period, and 

 these in turn to 

 more modern 

 shapes, seldom of 

 such beauty and excellence as those of Gothic 

 design. Before the Reformation a crucifix or 

 other sacred device always occupied one side of 

 the foot. The chalice was usually accompanied 

 by a paten, which might serve as a cover to the 

 bowl, as well as for carrying the wafer or bread. 

 In medieval times a chalice of tin or pewter, if not 

 of -liver, was placed in the coffin of ecclesiastics at 

 l'ii rial. The chalice is the emblem of St John the 

 Evangelist. Old chalices are much sought after by 

 collectors. The glass ' Luck of EdenhalT,' preserved 

 in the family of Musgrave, near Penrith, is 

 apparently an old chalice. The use of the mixed 

 chalice, the mingling of water with the wine used 

 in the Lord's Supper, and in the Roman rite, has 

 been matter of controversy in the Church of Eng- 

 land. The chalice veil or corporale was a covering 

 for the chalice. 



Chalice (1459) at Nettlecombe, 



County Somerset. 

 (Prom Cripps's Old English Plate.) 



a soft earthy variety of limestone or 

 rbonate of lime, forming great strata, and claim- 

 the attention of the geologist even more than of 

 mineralogist (see CRETACEOUS SYSTEM). It is 

 generally of a yellowish-white colour, but some- 

 times snow-white. It is easily broken, and has an 

 earthy fracture, is rougji and very meagre to the 

 touch, and adheres slightly to the tongue. It 

 ! ally contains a little silica, alumina, or mag- 

 nesia, sometimes all of these. Although often vrr\ 

 soft and earthy, it is sometimes so compact that it 

 caii \v* used as a building-stone ; and it is used for 

 this purpose either in a rough state, or sawn into 

 blocks of proper shape and size. It is burned into 

 quicklime, and nearly all the houses in London are 

 cemented with mortar so procured. The siliceous 

 particles being separated by pounding and diffusing 

 in water, it becomes whiting, of which the domestic 

 uses are familiar to every one. Carpenters and 

 others use it for making marks, which are easily 

 effaced : the blackboard and piece of chalk are now 

 common equally in the lecture-rooms of universities 

 and in the humblest village-schools. Chalk, per- 



fectly purified, is mixed with vegetable colouring 

 matters, such an turmeric, litmus, Hall'ron, and sap- 

 green, to form pastel colours or coloured chalk- ; 

 Imt vegetable colours which contain an acid in 

 .handed by it (see CRAYON ). The Vienna white 

 of artists is simply purified chalk. In a perfectly 

 purified state it is administered as a medicine to 

 correct acidity in the stomach. Chalk is also 

 extensively used as a manure. See Li M E, M A M i : i . 

 BLACK CHALK is a mineral quite different from 

 common chalk, and apparently receives it name 

 from resembling it in meagreness to the touch, in 

 soiling the fingers, and in being used for drawing, 

 writing, &c. It is also called Drawing-slate. It i> 

 of a slaty structure, of a bluish or grayish-black 

 colour, easily cut and broken, and makes a per- 

 fectly black mark on paper. It is used for draw- 

 ing^ and as a black colour in painting. It becomes 

 reel by exposure to heat. It is essentially a kind of 

 Clay (q.v.), and derives its colour from carbon, 

 which it contains. It is found associated with 

 schists, &c. in Spain, France, Italy, &c., also in the 

 coal formation in Scotland. BRIAN<JON CHALK and 

 FRENCH CHALK are popular names for Soapstone 

 (q.v. ). RED CHALK is ochry red clay-iron ore, 

 consisting of clay and much peroxide of iron. It is 

 of a brownish-red colour, and a somewhat slaty 

 structure, the cross fracture earthy. The coarser 

 varieties are used chiefly by carpenters for making 

 marks on wood ; the finer, by painters. It occurs 

 in thin beds in clay-slate and graywacke-slate in 

 some parts of Germany. 



Chalking the Door, a mode of warning 

 tenants to remove from burghal tenements, long 

 known and still in use in Scotland. It is thus 

 described by Hunter in his work on Landlord 

 and Tenant : ' A burgh-officer, in presence of 

 witnesses, chalks the most patent door forty 

 days before Whitsunday, having made out an exe- 

 cution of 'chalking,' in which nis name must b6 

 inserted, and which must be subscribed by himself 

 and two witnesses. This ceremony now proceeds 

 simply on the verbal order of the proprietor. The 

 execution of chalking is a warrant under which 

 decree of removal will be pronounced by the burgh 

 court, in virtue of which the tenant may be ejected 

 on the expiration of a charge of six days. See 

 EJECTMENT. 



Challenger Expedition, a circumnavigat- 

 ing scientific exploration of the open sea sent out 

 by the British government in 1872-76 earlier 

 expeditions being those of the Lightning ( 1868) and 

 Porcupine (1870). In 1872 the Challenger, a cor- 

 vette of 2306 tons, was completely fitted out and 

 furnished with every scientific appliance for ex- 

 amining the sea from surface to oottom natural 

 history work-room, chemical laboratory, aquarium, 

 &c. The ship was given in charge to a naval 

 surveying staff under Captain Nares ; anil to a 

 scientific stall', with Professor (afterwards Sir) 

 Wyville Thomson at their head, for the purpose of 

 sounding the depths, mapping the basins, and 

 determining the physical and biological conditions 

 of the Atlantic, the Southern and the Pacific 

 Oceans. With this new commission, the Challenger 

 weighed anchor at Sheerness on the 7th December 

 1872, and on the evening of the 24th Mav 1876 she 

 dropped anchor at Spithead, having in these three 

 and a half years cruised over 68,900 nautical miles, 

 and made investigations at 362 stations, at each of 

 which were determined the depth of channel; the 

 bottom, surface, and intermediate temperature-, 

 currents, and fauna ; and the atmospheric ami 

 meteorological conditions. The route was by 

 Madeira, the Canaries, the West Indies, Nova 

 Scotia, Bermudas, Azores, Cape Verd, Fernando 

 Noronha, Bahia, Tristan d'Acunha, Cape of 



