CHAMELEON 



CHAMOIS 



93 



lamoleon. See CH A M i 1 1 < > v 

 < liainlVr. I" Architecture, an angle which is 



il\ pared oil i- .saiil tn Iw rliiiinfered ; a lar^e 



i- in ;i \v;ill ill tin- window opening, in 



I'fni/. The chamfer is sometimes made 

 >liu r lii!y concave, in which case it is called a holloa- 

 chamfer. ( 'liamfcrs, in Gothic architecture, have 

 in-. | neat ly nrnamental terminations of various 

 kimls. The term cliumfer is applied to wood- 

 well us stone. 



li.'iiilforl. NICOLAS, a famous writer of maxims 

 anecdotes, wjis horn in Auvergne in 1741. He 

 i' illegitimate hirth, and was educated atone 

 i t lie 1'ans colleges, where he obtained a scholar- 

 -hip. Having distinguished himself in the prize 

 competitions of the Academy, he gained an entrance 

 into the highest literary circles in Paris, and for 

 Mime years lived literally ' by his wit, if not by his 

 \\its.' At one time Madame Helvetius gave him 

 lice lodgings at Sevres, and he was afterwards 

 maile independent by a pension bestowed on him 

 li\ a now forgotten man of letters named Chabanon. 

 At the Revolution he espoused the popular side, 

 and was hailed in the clubs as ' La Rochefoucauld- 

 riiamfort. ' After a time, however, certain incisive 

 witticisms such as, 'Be my brother or 1 will kill 



ion,' drew down on him the anger of the Jacobin 

 T8. Threatened with arrest, he tried to commit 

 suicide, wounded himself horribly, and died after 

 several days' suffering, 13th April 1794. His writings 

 inclutle tales, dramas, and eloges on Moliere and 

 Li Fontaine all of little or no worth a brilliant 

 Collection of maxims, and an even more admirable 

 collection of anecdotes. Many of his sayings are 

 an iong the sharpest and bitterest ever penned 

 the utterances of a reluctant but sincere cynic, 

 whose insight into human weakness was unusually 

 keen. He has never been excelled as a writer of 

 anecdotes ; his work under this head contains a 

 .-cries of portraits in miniature, drawn with the 

 hand of a master, of the Parisian society of his 



, Auguis edited his works (5 vols. 1824-25). 

 haulier, FREDERIC, an English novelist, born 

 796, entered the navy in 1809, and retiring in 

 !*:>.'{, was promoted to be captain in 1856. He 

 had settled near Waltham Abbey, and turned his 

 attention to literary pursuits. Marryat's success 

 in depicting sea-life led Chamier to try the same 

 lield, in which he was not without success, though 

 in invention and humour he falls short of his model. 

 His best romances, now almost forgotten, are Life 

 of a Sailor ( 1832), Ben Brace ( 1836), The Arethusa 

 (1837), Jack Adams (1838), and Tom Bowline 

 ( 1841 ). He also wrote a continuation of James's 

 Naval History (1837), and a somewhat prejudiced 

 <" <>f the French Revolution of 1848 (1849). 

 He .lied 1st November 1870. 



C'liainisso. ADELBERT VON, one of the most 

 celebrated of German lyric poets, was born in 1781, 

 .11 the chateau of Boncourt, in Champagne. The 

 r'reneh Revolution driving his parents to settle in 

 I'i'i-sia in 1790, he became in 1796 a page of the 

 < I neon, and two years later entered the Prussian 

 -i vice. But when the campaign of 1806 broke out 

 lie returned to France, for though no admirer of 

 Napoleon, he would not tight against his native 

 land. At this time he was thrown into the circle 

 of Madame de Stael at Coppet, and there legan 

 i hat study of natural science which he afterwards 

 pursued at Berlin. In 1815-18 he accompanied a 

 Russian exploring expedition round the world as 

 naturalist (see CORAL); and on his return was 

 appointed custodian of the Botanical Garden of 

 Berlin. In 1835 he was elected to the Academy of 

 Science ; and, after a happy domestic life, he died 

 at Berlin, 21st August 1838, universally loved and 

 honoured. He wrote several works on natural 



hi-tory, lint hin fame rent* partly on lib* poetical 

 productions, -nil more on hi.- quaint arid humoroux 

 fiction called 1'iter tichlemiht ( IH13), tin- story of the 

 man who lost his shadow, which ha- been 1 1 an-lati-ii 

 into almost all the language** of Kurope. The char- 

 acter of his poetry in wild arid gloomv, and he i- 

 fond of rugged and horrible subject*, fti hi* politi- 

 cal HongH he succeeds well in humour and irony ; 

 nor is he deficient in deep and genuine feeling. 

 Indeed, several of his ballads and romance** are 

 masterpieces in their way. HU collected work** 

 have been edited by Hitzig (6th ed. 1874). See 

 lives by Fulda (1881) and Lentzner (Lond. 1893). 



Chamois (Antilope or Rupicapra, Ger. Genue), 

 a goat-like species or genus of Antelope (q.v.). 

 It inhabits the Alps and other high mountains of 

 Central and Southern Europe, such as the Pyrenees, 



Chamois. 



the Carpathians, and the mountains of Greece ; it is 

 also found on some of the Mediterranean islands, 

 and on the Caucasus, Taurus, and other mountains 

 of the west of Asia. In Europe it is now most 

 numerous on the Bavarian and Styrian Alps. The 

 chamois is about the size of a large goat, but the 

 neck is longer in proportion, and the body shorter ; 

 the horns on both sexes are seldom more than six 

 or seven inches long, black, rising nearly straight up 

 from the forehead, and so bent back at the tip as to 

 form a hook. A peculiar gland opens at the base 

 of each horn. The summer colour is reddish brown, 

 with a darker dorsal band, and a yellowish ventral 

 surface ; the winter colour is a darker brown, but 

 white below. A dark brown band runs from the 

 eye along each cheek. The rest of the head is pale 

 yellow. The short tail is black. 



The usual summer-resort of the chamois is in the 

 higher regions of the mountains, not far from the 

 snow-line, and it is often to be seen lying on the 

 snow. In winter it descends to the higher forests. 

 The aromatic and bitter plants of the mountain- 

 pastures are its favourite food. Young twigs of 

 rhododendron, willow, juniper, &c. are greedily 

 devoured. It is like the ruminants generally 

 very fond of salt, and often licks stones for tin- 

 saltpetre which forms on them. The chamois is 

 gregarious : flocks of one hundred used sometimes 

 to be seen ; but in the Swiss Alps, where the num- 

 bers have been much reduced by hunting, the flocks 

 generally consist only of a few (4 to 20) individuals. 

 Old mates often live solitarily. The female bean* 

 one or rarely two young at a birth, in the month of 

 March or April. *The general cry of the chamois 

 is a goat-like bleat. 



It is an animal of extraordinary agility, and flocks 

 may often be observed sporting in a remarkable 

 manner among the rocky heights. It can leap over 

 ravines 16 to 18 feet broad ; a wall 14 feet high 

 presents no hindrance to it ; and it passes readily 



