The abyssal zone is the lower depths of the ocean below approximately 2000 metres, where there is effectively no light penetration. Abyssal organisms are adapted for living under high pressures in cold dark conditions. Research Abyssal Zone
The Challenger Expedition was a scientific and exploring expedition carried out at the expense of the British Government by means of the ship Challenger, a frigate-built vessel of about 2000 tons, fully equipped with all the most improved scientific appliances for ascertaining the depth, temperature, currents, etc, of the ocean, and the character of the ocean bottom, and for amassing natural history specimens. The ship set sail on December the 7th, 1872, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir) George Nares, Professor (afterwards Sir) Wyville Thomson being at the head of the scientific staff attached to the ship. In the course of the expedition the ship called at Madeira, Teneriffe, the Bermudas, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cape Verde Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Islands, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Japan, Valparaiso, etc, returning home by way of the Strait of Magellan, and arriving on May the 24th, 1876. During the three and a half years of the cruise the ship traversed about 70,000 nautical miles, and a vast amount of highly useful information was accumulated, the results being published at government expense in a great many volumes. Several popular works on the expedition were also published. Research Challenger Expedition
The ISO (International Standards Organisation) assigns a two character code to each country name. These codes are used by Internet 'whois' databases (these two character abbreviations are the whois country codes) and also other applications.
The term fur is sometimes distinctively applied to hairy animal skins when prepared for being made into articles of dress, etc, while the name of peltry is given to them in an unprepared state or when merely dried. The animals chiefly sought after for the sake of their furs were the beaver, raccoon, musk-rat, squirrel, hare, rabbit, the chinchilla, bear (black, grey, and brown), otter, sea-otter, seal, wolf, wolverine or glutton, marten, ermine, lynx, coypou (nutria), polecat (fitch), opossum, fox, etc. All the preparation that skins require before being sent to the market is to make them perfectly dry, so as to prevent them from putrefying. This is done by exposing them to the heat of the sun or a fire. The small skins are sometimes previously steeped in a solution of alum. When stored in large quantities they must be carefully preserved from dampness, as well as from moths. The fur-dresser, on receiving the skins, first subjects them to a softening process. He next cleans them from loose pieces of the integument by scraping them with a metalblade. Finally, the fur is cleaned and combed, after which it is handed over to the cutter, who cuts the furs out into the various shapes required to make different articles.
In Europe the furtrade was fed chiefly by Russia, which yielded great quantities of furs, especially in the Asiatic portion of her dominions. Austria, Turkey, Scandinavia, etc, also yielded a certain quantity.
The furtrade of America has long been highly important, and several great trading companies were engaged in it, of which the Dutch East India Company was first. The French early took up the furtrade in Canada, and their chain of forts and trading posts at one time extended from Hudson's Bay to New Orleans. Quebec and Montreal were at first trading posts. In 1670 Charles II granted to Prince Rupert and others a charter empowering them to trade exclusively with the aborigines of the Hudson's Bay region. A company, then and after called the Hudson's Bay Company, was formed, which for a period of nearly two centuries possessed a monopoly of the furtrade in the vast tract of country known as the Hudson's Bay Territory. In the winter of 1783-1784 another company was formed at Montreal, called, the North-west fur Company, which disputed the right of the Hudson's Bay Company, and actively opposed it. After a long and bitter rivalry the two companies united in 1821, retaining the name of Hudson's Bay Company. The monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the original company about Hudson's Bay was much extended; but in 1868 an act of parliament was passed to make provision for the surrender, upon certain terms, of all the territories belonging to the company, and for their incorporation with the Dominion of Canada. In 1869 the surrender was carried out, Canada paying 300,000 pounds to the company by way of compensation. The company still possessed large stretches of valuable land, and many houses, forts, and posts in the region formerly belonging to it. Its operations even extended beyond British America into the United States and to the Sandwich Islands and Alaska. It employed a large staff of agents, traders, Indian hunters, etc. Some of its posts were situated far north, almost approaching the Arctic Ocean.
In the United States, the fur-trade, especially that trade in beaverfur, was an important element in the economic life of all the colonies in the seventeenth century, and in the struggle between England and France for the possession of North America, also in all negotiations respecting the northwest boundary of the United States. In 1809 John Jacob Astor secured the incorporation of the American Fur Company. He founded Astoria in Oregon, and attempted to connect it with Mackinaw by a line of posts and consolidate the whole north-western fur-trade. After the War of 1812 he renewed his attempt. In 1816 the American Congress passed an act excluding foreign fur-traders. Research Fur-Trade
Guano (from the Peruvian huano meaning dung) is the partially decomposed and dry excrement of sea-birds. Since the 19th century it has been highly prized as a manure, and led to the claims and disputes of the many tiny islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean (such as the Gilbert Islands, Line Islands etc) as the western countries sought to lay sole claim to the collection of the vast tons of guano deposited on these islands by their bird populations.
The name guano has also been extended to accumulations of a similar kind from land birds, and even from bats in caverns. Owing to the fact that rain washes such deposits away, great accumulations of guano exist principally in hot and dry tropical regions. The most important of all were the deposits on the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru, which yielded a considerable revenue to the country, but were quite exhausted by 1900. From 1853 to 1872 about 8,000,000 tons were obtained from these islands. The guano which was found there was from 60 to 80 or 100 feet (as much as 30 meters) in thickness, and was entirely due to the droppings, accumulated for many ages, of the innumerable sea-birds which make these islands their resting-place and breeding-ground. Other deposits of less extent have from time to time been found, and Peru remained the chief source of supply, its deposits being worked under the Chilian government.
Guano varies extremely in composition, but it may be roughly divided into nitrogenous and phosphatic. The first of these contains about 21 per cent of ammonia. This is the case with the Peruvian variety, which contains almost all the inorganic matter required by a plant, and that in a highly available form, so that it is looked upon as one of the best of all fertilizing agents for different crops. Its use as a manure was known to the native Peruvians centuries ago, but no attention was paid to the accounts by modern travellers of its wonderful efficacy until Von Humboldt brought some to Europe and had it analysed. It began to be brought to Europe about 1846. It was used raw or in its natural state, but most of the phosphatic guanos (some of which hardly deserve the name of guano) required to be dissolved by sulphuric acid before using. There were also manures known fish guano, prepared from fish or fish refuse, flesh guano, blood guano, etcc. Large quantities of fish guano were made in the United States from the menhaden, the oil being first extracted. Research Guano
The Gulf Stream is a well-known oceanic current, so called because it issues from the Gulf of Mexico. It owes its origin to the fact that the westward moving waters of the tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean, encountering the eastward projection of South America, become divided into two currents, one setting southwards along the Brazilian coast, and the other northward past the mouths of the Amazon and Orinoco, into the Caribbean Sea. It then enters the Gulf of Mexico, and thence emerges through the Channel of Florida as the Gulf Stream. Its course is next to the north and eastwards, in a direction parallel to the coast of the United States, past Cape Hatteras, along the southern edge of the 'great banks' of Nantucket and Newfoundland (between the meridians of 48 and 60 degrees west), after which its course as a distinct current is less obvious.
In the earlier part of its course, especially when rounding the extremity of Florida, the Gulf Stream forms a well-defined current, distinguished by its high temperature and its deep blue or indigo colour. On account of the descent of the Polar or Baffin Bay current along the coast in a direction opposite to that of the Gulf Stream, the water on its inland side is colder than that to the eastward of it. The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and this cold current sometimes amounts to 20 or even 30 degrees Fahrenheit
The velocity of the Gulf Stream varies with its course. Within the Florida Channel it attains a mean of 65 miles per day, this sinks to 56 miles off Charleston, becomes 36 miles to 46 off Nautucket, and 28 miles to the south of the Newfoundland Banks; 300 miles to the eastward of Newfoundland its movement is hardly perceptible. At the bottom of the Florida Channel the observed temperature is 34 degrees that of the surface from 80 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Research Gulf Stream
The Massachusetts Company was an English colony in North America. On March the 19th, 1628, there was granted to six patentees, of whom John Humphrey and John Endicott were destined to be most prominent, territory in America extending from the Atlantic to the Western Ocean, and in width from a line running three miles north of the Merrimac to one running three miles south of the Charles. This was the Massachusetts Bay Company. John Endicott was sent over the same year and effected a settlement at Naumkeag, or Salem, on September the 6th. On March the 4th, 1629, a charter was granted to the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, and under this instrument Massachusetts conducted her affairs for fifty-five years. The colony was ruled by the Governor and thirteen councillors. The charter was transferred from England to America with Winthrop. Research Massachusetts Company
A monsoon is a seasonal wind of the Indian Ocean and nearby lands blowing from the north-east in October to March, and from the south-west in April to September, occasioned by the deflection of permanent winds from their normal path through the heating of a neighbouring land mass. Research Monsoon
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Abyssal Zone
