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.
Gum is a substance of various properties which exudes spontaneously from the bark of certain trees, such as the plum, the peach, etc; or from incisions made in the bark to facilitate the flow. Gums form non-crystalline rounded drops or tears, the purest varieties being transparent or translucent, of a pale yellow but sometimes of a dark colour.
When dissolved in water gum forms a thick, smooth fluid, with considerable viscosity. Some gums, such as gum-arabic, dissolve in water; others, like tragacanth, are only partially soluble; they are insoluble in alcohol. By being insoluble in alcoholgums are distinguished from resins. They have no odour, and only a very faint taste. The different kinds of gum receive their names from the countries from which they are imported - such as gum-arabic, gum-senegal, Barbary gum, East India gum, etc, and from individual features, as cherry-tree gum, tragacanth, etc. Gum-resins require water and alcohol to dissolve them. Research Gum
The Atlantic Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) is a fish of the family Rhinopteridae with wide and falcate pectoral fins about 210 cm wide from edge to edge, a bulbous head with a concave leading edge resembling a cow's nose, a single dorsal finpresent at the base of the tail which is long and whipl-ike. The dorsum is generally a mid to dark brown colour, the ventrum pale with dusky pectoral fin tips. Atlantic cownosed rays are to be found in the eastern AtlanticOcean from Mauritania, Senegal, and Guinea to the western AtlanticOcean from New England to Brazil, where they swim singulary or in schools using their pectoral fins to stir-up the sediment and find ,olluscs and crustaceans to eat. Research Atlantic Cownose Ray
The Guinean N'Dama (also known as the Fouta Djallon, Fouta Jallon, Fouta Malinke, Fouta Longhorn, Futa and Malinke) is a dwarf to miniature breed of dairy and beef cattle spread over most of Guinea, over south- western Mali, Kedougou and south SenegalOriental, Senegal. It is also found in SierraLeone - representing the only indigenous breed, across northern Liberia, and in the north-west corner of Ivory Coast.
N'Dama cows weigh about 250 kg and bulls about 300 kg. The head is rather short and heavy but much finer in the cows. The body is deep and cylindrical and the legs are short and fine, with strong hooves. They stand about one metre in height and have crescent-shaped horns in the bulls and lyre-shaped horns in the cows, of varied length, although there are also a few polled individuals. N'Dama are two-thirds fawn to brown in colour; the rest vary from black to white or are pied. In High Guinea the size increases and the brown colour darkens, although one in ten of forest N'Dama are pied. Research N'Dama
Henry the Navigator (Don Henrique el Navegador), was a Portuguese prince. He was born in 1394 and died in 1458. The fourth .son of King John I of Portugal, in his youth he gave brilliant proofs of courage.
When the Portuguese conquered Ceuta in 1415 Henry distinguished himself by his bravery, and was knighted by his father, after whose death he chose for his residence the city of Sagres, in Algarve, near CapeSt Vincent, and vigorously prosecuted the war against the Moors in Africa. He erected at Sagres an observatory and a school of navigation.
From time to time he sent vessels on voyages to the coasts of Barbary and Guinea; resulting in the discovery of the islands of Puerto Santo and Madeira, and some years later of the Azores.
In 1433 Gilianez, one of his navigators, safely doubled Cape Bojador, and other adventurers, pushing still further south, discovered Cape Blanco in 1441 and Cape Verd in 1445. A profitable commerce with the natives of West Africa was soon developed, and the Senegal and Gambia partially explored.
After acting as general against the Moors in 1458 Henry died at Sagres on the 18th of November, 1458. His efforts not only laid the foundations of the commerce and colonial possessions of Portugal, but gave a new direction to navigation and commercial enterprise. Research Henry The Navigator
Louis Leon Cesar Faidherbe was a French soldier. He was born in 1818 and died in 1889. He entered the army in 1840, served in Africa and the West Indies, was appointed governor of Senegal in 1854, and afterwards of a district in Algiers from 1867 to 1870. After the fall of Napoleon III he was summoned by the government of the National Defence to France and appointed commander of the army of the north. He fought some bloody but indecisive battles with the Germans under Manteuffel and Goeben. After the war he was elected to the Assembly by Lille, his native place, but on the triumph of Thiers retired from politics to private life. He wrote valuable monographs on Senegal, the Soudan, and other parts of Africa. Research Louis Faidherbe
Michel Adanson was a French naturalist and traveller. He was born in 1727 and died in 1806. He lived five years in Senegal, and wrote a natural history of this region as well as works on botany. The baobabgenus is named Adansonia after him. Research Michel Adanson
The Wolof are the majority ethnic group living in Senegal. There is also a Wolof minority in Gambia. There are about two million speakers of Wolof, a language belonging to the Niger-Congo family. The Wolof are predominantly arable farmers, and some also raise cattle. Research Wolof
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