CHE 



[45] 



C H L 



of membranes which serve as wings ; be- 

 longing to the family Chieroptera. 

 CHEI/IFEROUS. (from %>jX.^, Gr. a claw, 

 and fero, Lat.) Furnished with claws ; 

 armed with claws. 



CHELO'NIA. (from xeXwi/j/, testudo.) The 

 tortoise tribe. In the arrangement of 

 Cuvier, chelonia forms the first order of 

 Reptilia. Linneeus includes chelonia in 

 the genus testudo, but the order has 

 been, by subsequent writers, divided into 

 five genera, namely, testudo, or land- 

 lortoise ; emys, or fresh-water tortoise ; 

 chelonia, or sea- tortoise ; chelys ; and 

 tryonyx, or soft- shelled tortoise. 

 CHELO'NIAN. Having the form or charac- 

 ters of the tortoise. 



CHE'LONITE. A name given to some fossil 

 echinites, from their resemblance, in 

 their sutures, to the shells of the tor- 

 toise. The chelonite belongs to the 

 family Cidaris, class Anocysti. 

 CHEROPO'TAMUS. An extinct genus in 

 the order Pachydermata ; or animals 

 having thick skins. The cheropotamus 

 was an animal most nearly allied to the 

 hog; forming a link between the Ana- 

 plotherium and the Peccary. Buckland. 

 CHERT. (Dr. Johnson deduces chert from 

 quartz.) A kind of flint. Chert is also, 

 by some, called horn-stone. A siliceous 

 stone, resembling flint, but less splintery 

 in the fracture, and fusible ; which latter 

 property is probably owing to some 

 admixture of calcareous matter. A gra- 

 dual passage from chert to limestone is 

 not uncommon. 

 CHE'RTY. Containing chert ; resembling 



chert. 



CHIA'STOLITE. (from ^la^rdc, decussa- 

 tionis formam habens, and Ai0of.) A 

 mineral whose crystals are arranged in 

 four-sided nearly rectangular prisms. Its 

 constituent parts are, silica 68'49, alu- 

 mina 30' 17, magnesia 4' 12, oxide of iron 

 2-7, water 0-27. It is the Holspath of 

 Werner, and the Made of Haiiy. It is 

 found in Cumberland and Argyleshire, 

 occurring in clay -slate. 

 CHIASTOLI'TIC. Composed of chiastolite 

 containing chiastolite. A mass of chias- 

 tolitic and hornblendic slates forms the 

 base of the clay- slate system of Cumber- 

 land, 



CHIMJS'RA. (from %i^aipa,Gr.) A genus 

 of animals, placed in Cuvier 's arrange- 

 ment in the order Sturiones, or Chon- 

 dropterygii Branchiis Liberis, class Pisces 

 Professor Buckland observes, "The Chi- 

 msera is one of the most remarkabh 

 among living fishes, as a link in the 

 family of Choridropterygians ; and thi 

 discovery of a similar link, in the geolo 

 gical epochs of the oolitic and creta 

 ceous formations, shows that the dura 



tion of this curious genus has extended 

 through a greater range of geological 

 epochs, than that of any other genus of 

 fishes yet ascertained by Professor Agas- 

 siz. The jaws of four extinct species 

 of fossil fishes of the genus Chimaera have 

 been discovered, and Dr. Mantell states 

 that the jaw, or mandible of a Chimsera, 

 has been found in the Kentish Rag. The 

 only known species is the Chimsera mon- 

 strosa, or Arctic chimsera, two or three feet 

 in length, of a silvery colour, and spotted 

 with brown. This species has the first 

 ray of the dorsal fin enlarged into a 

 strong bony spine, armed with sharp 

 hooks, and placed over the pectorals ; like 

 the Ichthyodorulite of the earliest fossil 

 sharks. It produces large coriaceous eggs 

 with flattened and hairy borders. 



CHINE. A narrow ravine with vertical 

 sides. These are numerous in the Isle of 

 Wight, and are objects of curiosity and 

 admiration, being sometimes of great 

 depth. 



CHIROTHE'RIUM. A name proposed to be 

 given by Professor Kaup to the great 

 unknown animal whose footsteps have 

 been discovered in beds of red sandstone. 

 These footsteps are beautifully figured 

 in Professor Buckland' s Bridgewater 

 Treatise. The name proposed by Kaup 

 is on account of a distant resemblance, 

 both of the fore and hind feet, to the im- 

 pression of a human hand. 



These impressions of feet are partly 

 hollow, and partly in relief ; all the de- 

 pressions are upon the upper surfaces of 

 slabs or sandstone, while the reliefs are 

 only upon the lower surfaces, covering- 

 those which bear the depressions. These 

 footsteps follow one another in pairs, at 

 intervals of fourteen inches, from pair to 

 pair, each pair being in the same line. 

 Both large and small steps have the 

 great-toes alternately on the left and 

 right side ; each has the print of five 

 toes, and the first, or great-toe, is bent 

 inwards like a thumb. The fore and hind 

 foot resemble each other in form, though 

 they differ greatly in size. 



CHI'TON. (from %<rwv, Gr.) An oval, 

 convex, multivalved shell, having eight 

 arcuated valves, partly lying over each 

 other, in a row across the back of the 

 animal. The chiton is found both fossil 

 and recent ; recent, attached to rocks in 

 the southern seas ; fossil, at Grignon. 

 The animal inhabiting the shell, a Doris. 

 In Turton's Linne, twenty-eight species 

 of chitons are described, seven of which 

 have been found in the seas of our 

 coasts. 



CHLAMY'PHORUS. (from chlamys, Lat. %\a- 

 jwuc, Gr. andy<?ro.) The name it possesses 

 has been given to this animal from its 



