The Confederate States was a government formed in 1861, in North America, by seceding States. The second State to secede, Mississippi, at the time of secession, January 9, 1861, proposed a convention to form a Southern Confederacy. This provisional Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, with delegates present from six of the seven States - which had then seceded. It voted by States. On February 8, it adopted a provisional Constitution, and the next day choseJefferson Davis, of Mississippi, provisional President and Alexander H Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.
The permanent Constitution was adopted on March 11. It set forth the doctrines of State sovereignty and recognized slavery, though it forbade the slave trade. It forbade protective tariffs and Federal expenditures for internal improvements. Congress was forbidden to emit bills of credit. It could permit members of the Cabinet to speak before it. The President was empowered to veto single items in appropriation bills. His term was to be six years, and he was not to be re-elected. All the seceding States ratified the Constitution through conventions. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded, and were admitted into the Confederacy. The seat of government was removed to Richmond, and Davis and Stephens were chosen again under the permanent Constitution. They were inaugurated as such on February 22, 1862.
During most of the existence of the Confederate Government, Judah P Benjamin was Secretary of State, Charles G Memminger Secretary of the Treasury, James A Seddon Secretary of War, Stephen R Mallory of the Navy and John H Reagan Postmaster-General. In this government Congress was of little account. Everything was subordinated to the energetic prosecution of the war, for which the President assumed almost dictatorial powers. Extraordinary efforts were made.
Money was obtained by means of the issue of Treasury notes, by cotton loans and by requisitions. Supplies were obtained by any means possible. Troops were obtained, finally, by conscription. The Government, though given belligerent rights by most maritime nations, could not secure any recognition of its independence. As the armies began to be more and more completely destroyed, dissensions broke out. Violent criticism of Davis prevailed. Finally, the surrender of Lee brought the Confederate Government to an end. The Federal Government of the USA never recognized its existence. Research Confederate States
In geography, a geyser (from the Icelandic geysir which in turn deribes from heysa meaning to gush or rush forth) is a term applied to natural springs of hot water of the kind that were first observed in Iceland. The geysers of Iceland, about a hundred in number, lie about 30 miles north west of Mount Hecia, in a plain covered by hot-springs and steaming apertures. The two most remarkable are the Great Geyser and the New Geyser or Strokkur (churn), the former of which throws up at times a column of hot water to the height of from 80 to 200 feet. The basin of the Great Geyser is about 70 feet across at its greatest diameter. The New Geyser, which is only 100 meters away, is much smaller in size. The springs are supposed to be connected with Mount Hecia, and the phenomenon of eruption has been explained by Tyndall as due to the heating of the walls of a fissure, whereby the water is slowly raised to the boiling point under pressure, and explodes into steam, an interval being required for the process to be repeated. The geysers of Iceland, however, were surpassed by those discovered in the Rocky Mountains in the Yellowstone Region of Wyoming Territory, the largest of which throw up jets of water from 90 to 250 feet high. The hot-lake district of Auckland, New Zealand, is also famous in possessing some of the most remarkable geyser scenery in the world. These phenomena are of three kinds: the puias (fire-springs), geysers continually or intermittently active; ngawhas or inactive puias, which emitsteam, but do not throw up columns of water; and waiariki or hot-water cisterns. This region is remarkable for the number of natural terraces containing hot-water pools or cisterns, and its lakes all filled at intervals by the boiling geysers and thermal springs, but the configuration of the country was considerably altered by the disastrous volcanic outbreak of 1886. Ngahapu or Ohopia, a circular rocky basin, 40 feet in diameter, in which a violent geyser is constantly ng up to the height of 10 or 12 feet, emitting dense clouds of steam, is one of the natural wonders of the southern hemisphere. Research Geyser
Ant is the popular name for hymenopterous (or membranous-winged) insects of various genera of the super-family Formicoidea. Ants are found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for their remarkable intelligence and interesting habits. They live in communities regulated by definite laws, each member of the society bearing a well-defined and separate part in the work of the colony. Each community consists of males; of females much larger than the males; and of barren females, otherwise called neuters, workers, or nurses. The neuters are wingless, and the males and females only acquire wings for their Nuptial flight, after which the males perish, and the few females which escape the pursuit of their numerous enemies divest themselves of their wings, and either return to established nests, or become the foundresses of new colonies. The neuters perform all the labours of the ant-hill or abode of the community; they excavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larvae or young ants, which are destitute of organs of motion. In fine weather they carefully convey them to the surface for the benefit of the sun's heat, and as attentively carry them to a place of safety either when bad weather is threatened or the ant-hill is disturbed. In like manner they watch over the safety of the nymphs or pupae about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as 'soldiers,' from the duties that specially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws.
There is a very considerable variety in the materials, size, and form of ant-hills, or nests, according to the peculiar nature or instinct of the species. Most of the British ants form nests in woods, fields, or gardens, their abodes being generally in the form of small mounds rising above the surface of the ground and containing numerous galleries and apartments. Some excavate nests in old tree-trunks. One little yellow ant (Myrmica domestica) is common in houses in Britain in some localities. Some ants live on animal food, very quickly picking quite clean the skeleton of any dead animal they may light on. Others live on saccharine matter, being very fond of the sweet substance, called honey-dew, which exudes from the bodies of Aphides, or plant-lice. These they sometimes keep in their nests, and sometimes tend on the plants where they feed; sometimes they even superintend their breeding. By stroking the aphides with their antennae they cause them to emit the sweet fluid, which the ants then greedily sip up. Various other insects are looked after by ants in a similar manner, or are found in their nests. It has been observed that some species, like the European Red Ant (Formica sanguinea), resort to violence to obtain working ants of other species for their own use, plundering the nests of suitable kinds of their larvae and pupae,which they carry off to their own nests to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. Amazon Ants (Polyergus rufescens) often keep between three and five times as many slaves as their own inhabitants in a nest.
In temperate countries male and female ants survive, at most, until autumn, or to the commencement of cool weather, though a very large proportion of them cease to exist long previous to that time. The neuters pass the winter in a state of torpor, and of course require no food. The only time when they require food is during the season of activity, when they have a vast number of young to feed. Some ants of southern Europefeed on grain, and store it up in their nests for use when required. Some species have stings as weapons, others only their powerful mandibles, or an acrid and pungent fluid (formic acid) which they can emit. The name ant is also given to the neuropterous insects otherwise called Termites.
In the 1990's a new species of ant, in appearance the same as any common garden ant, was discovered in Budapest and in 2009 the same species was found in Britain, which has a suicidal attraction to electrical fields - an attraction which overides even the desire to eat. Like American fire-ants, these ants are drawn in vast quantities to electrical switches where they die and can cause failure of the electrical system due to the numbers of ants involved, typically hundreds of thousands. In Texas, fire-ants are a major cause of traffic light failures, being drawn to the switch boxes where they die and short out the circuits. Research Ant
Calamus or Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus) is a perennialherb of the order Araceae native to Europe, Asia and North America. It has narrow sword-shaped leaves and a thick branched rhizome. The flowering stem is also sword-shaped, and ends in a flattened envelope (apathe) from which emerges the flower-spike with hundreds of yellow-green coloured simple flowers. When crushed the leaves emit an odour of tangerine. Research Calamus
Characese is an order of cryptogamous plants, nearly related to the Algae, composed of an axis consisting of parallel tubes, which are either transparent or encrusted with carbonate of lime, inhabiting stagnant water, both fresh and salt, beneath which they are always submersed. They are most common in the temperate zone, and emit an unhealthy fetid odour. Research Characese
Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a poisonous biennialherb of the family Umbelliferae supposed to be identical with the plant koneion of the Greeks.. It is a tall, erect, branching biennial, with a smooth, shining, hollow stem usually marked with purple spots. It has elegant, much divided leaves which when bruised emit a nauseous odour. The flowers are white in compound umbels of ten or more rays surrounded by a general involucre of three to seven leaflets.
Hemlock is found in Britain and throughout Europe and temperate Asia in waste places, banks, and under walls. It is said to be fatal to cows when they eat it, but that horses, goats, and sheep may feed upon it without danger. In the human subject it causes paralysis, convulsions, and death. The poison administered to Socrates is supposed to have been a decoction of it, though others are of opinion that the potion was obtained from water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa).
Hemlock is a powerful sedative, and is used medicinally. The extract is considered the best preparation. It was formerly used as a substitute for, or as an accompaniment to opium. It has been found very useful in chronic rheumatism and in hooping-cough, in allaying the pain of irritable sores and cancerous ulcers. The virtues of hemlock reside in an alkaline principle termed coma or coniine. Research Hemlock
The Hyena is an African carnivore, of the family Hyaenidae. It has a large head and neck, long, well-developed forelegs, and powerful jaws and premolars adapted for crushing bones. Each foot has four toes with non-retractable claws, well suited for running on the open plains where hyenas feed on hoofed animals. Of the three hyena species, the best known is the spotted, or laughing, hyena (Crocuta crocuta) , the only member of its genus. Ranging south of the Sahara, it is the largest and most robust of the hyenas, with a length of 1.8 m and a height of 90 centimetres at the shoulder. Adults are brown-grey with dark brown or black spots. Named for their cry, which has been compared to hysterical human laughter, they also emit a striking howl that rises in pitch. Spotted hyenas were long thought to be only scavengers (warring African tribes abandoned their dead to the animal). Recently, hyenas have been found to be among the chief predators of herbivores, especially zebra and wildebeest.
The hyenas attack in packs at night, ripping open the flanks of their prey and carrying off the carcasses. Hyenas associate in clans cantered around communal dens occupied by batches of young at varying stages of growth. Females conceive throughout the year, giving birth after 110 days to one or two cubs, which dig their own tunnels. Pair bonding is not evident; the female, larger than the male, selects her mating partners. The female sexual organs have an external resemblance to the male's, a phenomenon probably related to scent identification, which plays a large part when clan members encounter one another.
A clan may consist of ten or twelve females, twenty cubs, and a number of males on the fringe; hyenas are very territorial. Little is known about the genus Hyaena , which comprises the striped hyena, Hyaena Hyaena , and the brown hyena, Hyena brunnea. Both bear manes of coarse, erectile hair and are smaller and far less aggressive than the spotted hyena. The striped hyena, grey-tan with vertical stripes, ranges from East Africa north into Asia. It is largely a scavenger, often eating vulture-picked bones. The brown hyena, found in southern Africa, is dark brown with a grey head and striped legs. It feeds mainly on fish and crabs. Research Hyena
Peripatus is a genus of arthropods which in external appearance resemble millipedes or caterpillars. The colouring is varied, but in life the skin has usually a velvety appearance. The head bears two long antennae, at the base of which the eyes are placed. The mouth is ventral, and contains two roofed jaws. At the sides of the mouth there are a pair of processes known as the oral papillae, from which slime oozes. The animals are equipped with between seventeen and forty-two walking legs, which are imperfectly jointed, and end in two small claws. There are numerous species found in South Africa, Australasia and the MalayArchipelago where they live among decaying wood and under stones feeding at night on insects and spiders caught in the slime they emit. Research Peripatus
The skunk (Mephitis) is a north and central American carnivorous mammal of the family Mustelidae. The skunk is slightly smaller than a domestic cat, and has a handsome black coat with two white stripes running along the back. The tail is long and bushy, measuring about 45 cm when the body is 60 cm long. The skunk's fur was formerly much valued in the furtrade, and at the start of the 20th century skunks were bred at a farm in Northumberland, England to supply the British furtrade. The skunk can emit an offensive odour, when annoyed, from the secretion of a pair of glands near the tail. Research Skunk
Squid (formerly calamary) is the popular name for various a carnivorous marine molluscs of the class Cephalopoda of the order Teuthoidea having two gills, eight arms bearing suckers arranged in a ring around two longer contractile tentacles with spatulate tips around the mouth at the front, an elongated body with two stabilizing fins at the back and a reduced internal horny shell. The long contractile arms are used to seize prey, which is then held by the sucker-bearing arms while the strong jaws which are shaped like a parrot's beak tear it apart.
Squid swim very fast by squirting water out of the mantle cavity by a directable outlet shaped like a funnel. When attacked, squid emit an inky dye which hides them while they swim rapidly away from the predator. Squids have blue blood which is less efficient at carrying oxygen than red blood, and restricts their ability to survive to colder water below ten degrees Celsius.
Squids vary in size, common squid (Loligo vulgaris) being about 40 centimetres long, and the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis) in excess of 18 metres long, though no live specimens of the giant squid have been seen by scientists, their remains have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales. Research Squid
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Confederate States
