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
Captain James Cook was an English sailor and explorer. He was born in 1728 and died in 1779, killed by the natives of Hawaii. The son of Yorkshire peasants, he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper, but acquiring a love of the sea became a sailor, joining the Royal Navy in 1755 and in 1759 becoming the sailing-master of the ship 'Mercury' which surveyed the St Lawrence River and the coast of Newfoundland.
Some observations on a solar eclipse, communicated to the Royal Society, brought him into notice, and he was appointed commander of a scientific expedition to the Pacific, with the rank of lieutenant in the navy. During this expedition he successively visited Tahiti, New Zealand, discovered New South Wales, and returned by the Cape of Good Hope to Britain in 1771. In 1772 CaptainCook, now raised to the rank of a commander in the navy, commanded a second expedition to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, which resulted like the former in many interesting observations and discoveries. He returned to Britain in 1774.
Two years later he again set out on an expedition to ascertain the possibility of a north-west passage. On this voyage he explored the western coast of North America, and discovered the Sandwich Islands, on one of which, Hawaii, he was killed by the natives, on February the 14th, 1779. CaptainCook wrote and published a complete account of his second voyage of discovery, and an unfinished one of the third voyage, afterwards completed and published by Captain James King. Research Captain James Cook
David Douglas was a Scottish botanist. He was born in 1798 and died in 1834 in an accident. In 1828, as botanical collector to the Horticultural Society of London, he went to the United States, and in 1824 to California, collecting many rare plants and trees. In 1827 he returned to England, and some years later sailed on another expedition to the Sandwich Islands, where he met his death by an accident in 1834. Research David Douglas
Ethelwulf was king of Wessex and Kent. He was a son of Egbert and was at first successful against the Northmen, but suffered defeat at Charmouth around 842. he avenged that defeat with a naval victory off Sandwich in 851 and in a land fight at Ockley in 852. He eventually resigned to Athelbald the kingship of Wessex, retaining only that of Kent and died in 858. Research Ethelwulf
John Montagu was the fourth earl of Sandwich. He was born in 1718 and died in 1792. He gave his name to the food preparation we call a sandwich, but he didn't invent it, rather the sandwich owes its origins to the Romans. Research John Montagu
Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was an American writer. He was born in 1835 at Hannibal or possibly Florida, Missouri, and died in 1910. He started life as a compositor, in 1851 became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river, later taking his pseudonym from the call of the leadsman when reporting the soundings. After being a reporter on a newspaper in Virgina City, Nevada, he tried mining and journalism in San Francisco and in 1866 visited the Sandwich Islands.
He wrote several books based on the Mississippi river, including 'The Adventures of TomSawyer', in 1876 which explored the lawless side of vagrant boyhood and in 1883 'The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn'. His first story, however was 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' which appeared in The Californian in 1867. His first book, 'Innocents Abroad' was published in 1869 and was based upon his first visit to Europe, and established his reputation as a humorist. Research Mark Twain
Viagra is the trade name of sildenafil citrate, sold as an anti-impotency drug. It was invented in 1998 by Peter Dunn and Albert Wood, working at the Pfizer company in Sandwich, Kent. They built upon work done in 1991 by other scientists as Pfizer who found that compounds of the pyrazolopyrimidinone class could be used for treating heart complaints. Research Viagra
The Battle Of Dover occurred on August the 24th 1217 off Sandwich between the French and defending English, ruled then by Richard III. The English destroyed the French fleet which was carrying reinforcements to an invasion force which had landed previously to exploit the civil war which had broken out between the barons and King John following the signing of the Magna Carta. The French had, by the time of the battle, occupied London and most of south-east England, but not the port of Dover and as such had no supply route from France to England. The destruction of the French fleet by the English and holding of Dover resulted in the French withdrawing. Research Battle Of Dover
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