DISH (from the O. Fr. _chaufer_, to make warm), a kind of
portable grate heated with charcoal, and used for cooking or keeping
food warm. In a light form, and heated over a spirit lamp, it is also
used for cooking various dainty dishes at table. The employment of the
chafing-dish for the latter purpose has been largely restored in modern
cookery.

CHAGOS, a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, belonging to Britain,
disposed in circular form round the Chagos bank, in 4 deg. 44' to 7 deg.
39' S., and 70 deg. 55' to 72 deg. 52' E. The atolls on the south and
east side of the bank, which has a circumference of about 270 m., have
disappeared through subsidence; a few--Egmont, Danger, Eagle, and Three
Brothers--still remain on the east side, but most of the population
(about 700) is centred on Diego Garcia, which lies on the south-east
side, and is nearly 13 m. long by 6 m. wide. The lagoon, which is
enclosed by two coral barriers and accessible to the largest vessels on
the north side, forms one of the finest natural harbours in the world.
The group, which has a total land area of 76 sq. m., is dependent for
administrative purposes on Mauritius, and is regularly visited by
vessels from that colony. The only product is cocoa-nut oil, of which
about 106,000 gallons are annually exported. The French occupied the
islands in 1791 from Mauritius, and the oil industry (from which the
group is sometimes called the Oil Islands) came into the hands of French
Creoles.

CHAGRES, a village of the Republic of Panama, on the Atlantic coast of
the Isthmus, at the mouth of the Chagres river, and about 8 m. W. of
Colon. It has a harbour from 10 to 12 ft. deep, which is difficult to
enter, however, on account of bars at its mouth. The port was discovered
by Columbus in 1502, and was opened for traffic with Panama, on the
Pacific coast, by way of the Chagres river, in the 16th century. With
the decline of Porto Bello in the 18th century Chagres became the chief
Atlantic port of the Isthmus, and was at the height of its importance
during the great rush of gold-hunters across the Isthmus to California
in 1849 and the years immediately following. With the completion of the
Panama railway in 1855, however, travel was diverted to Colon, and
Chagres soon became a village of miserable huts, with no evidence of its
former importance. On a high rock at the mouth of the river stands the
castle of Lorenzo, which was destroyed by Sir Henry Mor