94 



CHAMOMILE 



CHAMPAGNE WINE 



up or down precipices which almost no other quad- 

 ruped could attempt. The hunting of the chamois 

 is attended with great hardship and much danger. 

 The hunter sometimes goes out on the adventurous 

 chase alone ; but more frequently several go out 

 together, dividing into parties, of which one drives 

 and the other shoots. The scent, sight, and hearing 

 of the chamois are extremely keen. When a flock 

 is feeding, one is always on the watch, ,and by a 

 sort of whistle, announces apprehended danger. 

 The flesh is highly esteemed. The skin is made 

 into leather, and from it the original shammoy or 

 shammy leather (wash-leather), so much prized for 

 softness and warmth, was obtained, although the 

 name has now become common also to leather pre- 

 pared from the skins of other animals (see LEATHER 

 and BUFF LEATHER). The horns are often used 

 to adorn alpenstocks. Hairy balls or Concretions 

 (q.v.) found in the stomach used to have a medic- 

 inal reputation. When taken young the chamois 

 is easily tamed, and its general disposition is gentle 

 and peaceable. See Keller, Die Gemse ( Klagenf urt, 

 1885). 



Chamomile. See CAMOMILE. 



Chamouni, or CHAMONIX ( Lat. Campus muni- 

 tus, from the shelter of the mountains), a cele- 

 brated valley and village among the French Alps, 

 in the department of Upper Savoy, lying 53 miles 

 ESE. of Geneva, at an elevation of about 3400 

 feet above the level of the sea. The valley, bounded 

 on the E. by the Col de Balme, is about 13 miles 

 long and 2 broad, and is traversed by the Arve. 

 On the north side lies Mont Brevent and the chain 

 of the Aiguilles Rouges, and on the south, the 

 giant group of Mont Blanc, from which enormous 

 glaciers glide down, even in summer, almost to 

 the bottom of the valley. The chief of these are 

 the Glacier des Bossons, des Bois, de 1'Argentiere, 

 and du Tour ; the Glacier des Bois expands in its 

 upper course into a great mountain-lake of ice 

 called the Mer de Glace. The village of Chamouni 

 owes its origin and its alternative name, Le Prieure, 

 to the Benedictine convent founded here before 

 1099. Until 1741, however, the valley was little 

 sought ; the region was known, from the savageness 

 of its inhabitants, by the name of Les Montagnes 

 Maudites, or ' accursed mountains. ' In that year 

 it was visited by two Englishmen, Pococke and 

 Wyndham, who described it in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society, but it was only in 1787 that the 

 attention of travellers was effectually called to it by 

 the Genevese naturalist, De Saussure, and others. 

 Since then the number of visitors has gradually 

 increased ; now over 15,000 tourists are accommo- 

 dated annually in the large hotels that have sprung 

 up in the village, where an English chapel was 

 opened in 1860. Grazing and such farming as the 

 elevation allows are carried on, but most of the 

 people are in some fashion dependent on the 

 strangers for their income. Here the best guides 

 are to be found for the neighbouring Alps, and from 

 this point Mont Blanc is usually ascended. At 

 the article ALPS there is a view of Chamouni, 

 whose beauties have been celebrated by Byron, 

 Coleridge, Shelley, Wordsworth, Lamartine, and 

 Ruskin. Pop. of village, 600. See E. Whymper's ad- 

 mirable Guide to Chamonix and Mont Blanc ( 1896). 



Champac, or CHUMP AK A ( Michelia Champaca ), 

 an Indian tree ( order Magnoliaceae ) possessing great 

 beauty both of foliage and flowers, and venerated 

 both by Brahmanists and Buddhists. Images of 

 Buddha are made of its wood. Its yellow flowers 

 and their sweet oppressive perfume are much cele- 

 brated in the poetry of the Hindus. The timber 

 of this and other species is useful and fragrant, 

 and the bark and root are employed in native 

 medicine. 



Champagne, a district and ancient province 

 of France, surrounded by Luxemburg, Lorraine, 

 Burgundy, He de France, and Orleanais ; now 

 forming the departments of Marne, Haute-Marne, 

 Aube, and Ardennes, and parts of Yonne, Aisne, 

 Seine-et-Marne, and Meuse. It was popularly 

 divided into Upper and Lower Champagne and 

 Brie Champenoise, and was fertile in its western, 

 barren in its eastern part. Its chief towns were 

 Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube, Leon, and Rheims. The 

 province was about 180 miles long by 150 broad, 

 its surface presenting extensive plains with ranges 

 of hills, especially in the north and east. 



In ancient times Champagne was known as a 

 part of Gallia Lugdunensis, was subjugated by 

 Csesar, and afterwards was annexed to the kingdom 

 established by the Franks. After the llth century 

 it had its own dukes, who were vassals of the 

 French kings. By the marriage of Philip IV. with 

 Joanna, heiress to the kingdom of Navarre, Cham- 

 pagne, and Brie, Champagne in 1284 came to the 

 French crown, and was incorporated in 1328. 



Champagne Wine is the produce of vine- 

 yards in the above-mentioned province of Cham- 

 pagne. There are white and red champagnes; 

 the white is either sparkling or still. Sparkling or 

 effervescent (mousseux) champagne is the result 

 of a peculiar treatment during fermentation. 

 In December the wine is racked off, and fined 

 with isinglass, and in March it is bottled and 

 tightly corked. To clear the wine of sediment, the 

 bottles are placed in a sloping position with the 

 necks downward, so that the sediment may be 

 deposited in the necks of the bottles. When this 

 sediment has been poured off, some portion of a 

 liqueur (a solution of sugar-candy in cognac with 

 flavouring essences ) is added to the wine, and every 

 bottle is filled up with bright clarified wine, and 

 securely re-corked. The fermentation being incom- 

 plete when the wine is bottled, the carbonic acid 

 gas generated in a confined space exerts pressure 

 on itself, and it thus remains as a liquid in the 

 wine. When this pressure is removed it expands 

 into gas, and thus communicates the sparkling 

 property to champagne. The effervescence of the 

 wine thus prepared bursts many bottles, in some 

 cases 10 per cent. ; and in seasons of early and 

 sudden heat, as many as 20 and 25 per cent, have 

 been burst. Still or non-effervescent champagne is 

 first racked off in the March after the vintage. 

 Creaming or slightly effervescent champagne (demi- 

 mousseux) has more alcohol, but less carbonic acid 

 gas than sparkling champagne. 



The best varieties of this wine are produced at 

 Rheims and Epernay, and generally on a chalky 

 soil. Among white champagnes of the first class, 

 the best are those of Sillery, which are of a fine 

 amber hue, dry, spirituous, and possessing a superior 

 bouquet ; those of Ay and Mareuil are less spiritu- 

 ous, but are sparkling, with a pleasant bouquet, 

 Other white wines of first class are those of Haut- 

 villiers, Dizy, and Pierry. 



The cellars in which the vintages are stored are 

 cut out of the calcareous rock. The fact that the 

 sale of champagne is very extensive and lucrative, 

 has naturally given rise to adulterations. Spurious 

 champagne is readily manufactured by simply 

 charging other light wines with carbonic acid gas. 

 The popular notions about gooseberry champagne 

 have but small foundation, if any. Gooseberry- 

 juice is far more costly than grape-juice, wherever 

 the grape flourishes, and in this country there are 

 no such great gooseberry plantations as would be 

 required for a flourishing champagne industry, 

 which would demand a few hundred tons of fruit 

 per annum. Recently, the German purveyors 

 nave succeeded in preparing light wines such as 

 Rhenish, Main, Neckar, Meissner, and Naumburg 



