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= = Distribution and habitat = = |
The diamond stingray is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from southern California to northern Chile , as well as around the Galápagos and Hawaiian Islands ; it is very abundant around Baja California and in the Gulf of California . At the northern and southern extremes of its range , it is generally only present dur... |
A bottom @-@ dwelling inhabitant of inshore waters , the diamond stingray favors sandy or muddy bottoms , often near rocky reefs or kelp forests . Off southern California , it usually occurs from the intertidal zone to a depth of 7 m ( 23 ft ) during the summer , shifting to depths of 13 – 18 m ( 43 – 59 ft ) during l... |
= = Description = = |
The diamond stingray attains a disc width of 1 m ( 3 @.@ 3 ft ) or possibly 1 @.@ 2 m ( 3 @.@ 9 ft ) ; females grow larger than males . Its pectoral fin disc is rhomboid in shape , slightly wider than long , with angular outer corners and subtly convex margins . The snout is blunt @-@ angled and non @-@ projecting . T... |
The whip @-@ like tail generally measures up to one and half times the length of the disc , and bears one ( more if replacements have grown in ) long , slender , serrated spine on the upper surface , closer to the base than the tip . Behind the spine , there are long dorsal and ventral fin folds that rise gradually , ... |
= = Biology and ecology = = |
The diamond stingray is most active at night , spending much of the day buried in sand with only its eyes protruding . When foraging for food , it may be solitary but more commonly forms groups numbering up to the hundreds . There is strong segregation by sex and age . This species feeds on crustaceans , molluscs , an... |
The typical hunting strategy of the diamond stingray is to cruise just above the sea floor , landing atop any prey encountered . It then quickly levers its body up @-@ and @-@ down with its disc , producing negative pressure to extract the prey from its burrow . This ray has also been known to excavate large pits by u... |
Like other stingrays , the diamond stingray is aplacental viviparous : the embryos are initially nourished by yolk , and later by histotroph ( " uterine milk " , rich in proteins and lipids ) produced by the mother . Only the left ovary and uterus are functional in adult females . Several bays along the Pacific coast ... |
= = Human interactions = = |
At least one fatality off southern California has resulted from the long , venomous tail spine of the diamond stingray . However , it is not aggressive and will usually flee given the opportunity . This ray is not found off the United States in sufficient numbers to be economically important . Elsewhere in its range ,... |
In Mexico , the diamond stingray is one of the most important components of Pacific artisanal shark and ray fisheries , comprising around a tenth of the total annual catch . Its significance is likely underestimated , as Mexican fishery reports frequently suffer from misidentifications and a lack of species @-@ specif... |
= George Calvert , 1st Baron Baltimore = |
George Calvert , 1st Baron Baltimore ( 1579 – 15 April 1632 ) was an English politician and colonizer . He achieved domestic political success as a Member of Parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I. He lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince C... |
Calvert took an interest in the British colonization of the Americas , at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for English Catholics . He became the proprietor of Avalon , the first sustained English settlement on the southeastern peninsula on the island of Newfoundland ( off the eastern coast of ... |
= = Family and early life = = |
Little is known of the ancestry of the Yorkshire branch of the Calverts . At George Calvert 's knighting , it was claimed that his family originally came from Flanders ( a Dutch @-@ speaking area today across the English Channel in modern @-@ day Kingdom of Belgium ) . Calvert 's father , ( an earlier ) Leonard was a ... |
In 1569 , Sir Thomas Gargrave had described Richmondshire as a territory where all gentlemen were " evil in religion " , by which he meant predominately Roman Catholic ; it appears Leonard Calvert was no exception . During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , continuing the changes wrought in the previous century by her f... |
The Calvert household suffered the intrusion of the Elizabethan @-@ era religious laws . From the year of George 's birth onwards , his father , Leonard Calvert was subjected to repeated harassment by the Yorkshire authorities , who in 1580 extracted a promise of conformity from him , compelling his attendance at the ... |
In 1593 , records show that Grace Calvert was committed to the custody of a " pursuivant " , an official responsible for identifying and persecuting Catholics , and in 1604 , she was described as the " wife of Leonard Calvert of Kipling , non @-@ communicant at Easter last " . |
George Calvert went up to Trinity College , at Oxford University matriculating in 1593 / 94 , where he studied foreign languages and received a bachelor 's degree in 1597 . As the oath of allegiance was compulsory after the age of sixteen , he would almost certainly have pledged conformity while at Oxford . The same p... |
= = Marriage and family = = |
In November 1604 , he married Anne Mynne in a Protestant , Church of England ceremony at St Peter 's , Cornhill , where his address was registered as St Martin in the Fields . His children , including his eldest son and heir , Cecil , who was born in the winter of 1605 – 06 , were all baptized as Christian Protestants... |
Calvert had a total of thirteen children : Cecil , who succeeded his father as the 2nd Baron Baltimore , Leonard , Anne , Mary , Dorothy , Elizabeth , Grace , Francis , George , Helen , Henry , John , and Philip . |
= = Political success = = |
Calvert named his son " Cecilius " ( 1605 @-@ 1675 ) for Sir Robert Cecil , first Earl of Salisbury , ( 1563 @-@ 1612 ) . Spymaster to Queen Elizabeth , whom Calvert had met during an extended trip to Europe between 1601 and 1603 , after which he became known as a specialist in foreign affairs . Calvert carried a pack... |
King James rewarded Robert Cecil , whom he made a privy councillor and secretary of state , with the granting of the title of Earl of Salisbury in 1605 , and Lord High Treasurer in 1608 , making him the most powerful man at the royal court . As Cecil rose , Calvert rose with him . Calvert 's foreign languages , legal ... |
In 1606 , the king made Calvert " clerk of the Crown " and " Assizes in Connaught " , County Clare , Ireland , his first royal appointment . In 1609 , James appointed him a " clerk of the Signet office " , a post which required the preparation of documents for the royal signature and brought Calvert into close contact... |
With Robert Cecil 's support , George Calvert came into his own as an advisor and supporter of King James . In 1610 and 1611 , Calvert undertook missions to the continent on behalf of the King , visiting a number of embassies in Paris , Holland , and the Duchy of Cleves , and acting as an ambassador to the French Roya... |
In 1611 , James employed Calvert to research and transcribe his tract against the Dutch Protestant theologian Conrad Vorstius , ( 1569 @-@ 1622 ) . The following year , Cecil died , and Calvert acted as one of the four executors of his will . The king 's favourite , Sir Robert Carr , first Earl of Somerset , ( 1587 @-... |
In 1613 , the King commissioned Calvert to investigate Roman Catholic grievances in Ireland , along with Sir Humphrey Wynch , ( 1555 @-@ 1625 ) , Sir Charles Cornwallis , ( XXX ? -1629 ) and Sir Roger Wilbraham , ( 1553 @-@ 1616 ) . The commission spent almost four months in Ireland , and its final report , partly dra... |
In 1619 , Calvert completed his rise to power when James appointed him as one of the two principal secretaries of state . This followed the dismissal of Sir Thomas Lake , ( 1567 @-@ 1630 ) , due to scandals , including his wife 's indiscretions with state secrets . Not emerging as a candidate until the end of the sele... |
= = Secretary of State = = |
In Parliament , a political crisis developed over the king 's policy of seeking a Spanish wife for Charles , Prince of Wales , as part of a proposed alliance with the Habsburgs . In the Parliament of 1621 , it fell to Calvert to advocate the " Spanish match " , as it came to be called , against the majority of Parliam... |
Although King James rewarded Calvert in 1623 for his loyalty by granting him a 2 @,@ 300 @-@ acre ( 9 @.@ 3 km2 ) estate in County Longford , in the central Ireland region of Leinster , where his seat was known as the " Manor of Baltimore " , Calvert was increasingly isolated from court circles as the Prince of Wales ... |
= = Resignation and conversion to Catholicism = = |
As the chief parliamentary spokesman for an abandoned policy , Calvert no longer served a useful purpose to the English Royal Court , and by February 1624 his duties had been restricted to placating the Spanish ambassador . The degree of his disfavour was shown when he was reprimanded for supposedly delaying diplomati... |
No disgrace was attached to Calvert 's departure from office : the King , to whom he had always remained personally loyal , confirmed his place on the Privy Council and appointed him " Baron Baltimore " , in County Longford in Leinster of central Ireland . Immediately after Calvert resigned , he converted to Roman Cat... |
The connection between Calvert 's resignation and his conversion to Roman Catholicism was a complex one . George Cottington , a former employee of Calvert , suggested in 1628 that Calvert 's conversion had been in progress a long time before it was made public . George Abbot , ( 1562 @-@ 1633 ) , the reigning Archbish... |
However , no one had questioned Calvert 's conformity at the time , and if he had indeed been secretly Catholic , he had hidden it well . It seems more likely Calvert converted in late 1624 . At the time , Simon Stock , a Discalced Carmelite priest reported to the Congregation Propaganda Fide in Rome on November 15 th... |
When King James I ( and VI of Scotland ) died in March 1625 , his successor King Charles I maintained Calvert 's barony but not his previous place on the Privy Council . Calvert then turned his attention to his Irish estates and his overseas investments . He was not entirely forgotten at court . After Buckingham 's da... |
= = Colony of Avalon ( Newfoundland ) = = |
Calvert had long maintained an interest in the exploration and settlement of the New World , beginning with his investment of twenty @-@ five pounds in the second Virginia Company in 1609 , and a few months later a more substantial sum in the East India Company , which he increased in 1614 . In 1620 , Calvert purchase... |
Calvert dispatched Captain Edward Wynne and a group of Welsh colonists to Ferryland , where they landed in August 1621 , and set about constructing a settlement . Wynne sent positive reports concerning the potential for local fisheries and for the production of salt , hemp , flax , tar , iron , timber and hops . Wynne... |
The settlement appeared to be progressing so well that in January 1623 , Calvert obtained a concession from King James for the whole of Newfoundland , though the grant was soon reduced to cover only the southeastern Avalon peninsula , owing to competing claims from other English colonists . The final Charter constitut... |
After resigning the Royal secretariat of state in 1625 , the new Baron Baltimore made clear his intention to visit the colony : " I intend shortly , " he wrote in March , " God willing , a journey for Newfoundland to visit a plantation which I began there some few years since . " His plans were disrupted by the death ... |
A reference by David Rothe , bishop of Ossary , in Ireland , to a " Joane [ also recorded as Jane ] Baltimore now wife " of Calvert , reveals that Baltimore had recently remarried . |
From the time of his conversion in 1625 onwards , Baltimore took care to cater for the religious needs of his colonists , both Catholic and Protestant . He had asked Simon Stock to provide priests for the 1625 expedition , but Stock 's recruits arrived in England after Aston had sailed . Stock 's own ambitions for the... |
= = Baltimore in Avalon = = |
Baltimore was determined to visit his colony in person . In May 1626 , he wrote to Wentworth : |
Aston 's return to England in late 1626 , along with all the Catholic settlers , failed to deter Baltimore , who finally sailed for Newfoundland in 1627 , arriving on July 23 and staying only two months before returning to England . He had taken both Protestant and Catholic settlers with him , as well as two secular p... |
In 1628 , he sailed again for Newfoundland , this time with his second wife Jane , most of his children , and 40 more settlers , to officially take over as Proprietary Governor of Avalon . He and his family moved into the house at Ferryland built by Wynne , a sizeable structure for the time , by colonial standards , a... |
Matters connected to religion were to bedevil Baltimore 's stay in " this remote part of the worlde where I have planted my selfe [ sic ] " . He sailed at a time when English military preparations were underway to relieve the Huguenots at La Rochelle . He was dismayed to find that the war with France had spread to New... |
Adopting a policy of free religious worship in the colony , Baltimore allowed the Catholics to worship in one part of his house and the Protestants in another . This novel arrangement proved too much for the resident Anglican priest , Erasmus Stourton — " that knave Stourton " , as Baltimore referred to him — who , af... |
Baltimore had become disenchanted with conditions in " this wofull country " , and he wrote to his old acquaintances in England lamenting his troubles . The final blow to his hopes was dealt by the Newfoundland winter of 1628 – 9 , which did not release its grip until May . Like others before them , the residents of A... |
Baltimore solicited a new charter from the king . In order to found an alternative colony in a less hostile climate further south , he requested " a precinct " in Virginia , where he could grow tobacco . He wrote to his friends Francis Cottington and Thomas Wentworth enlisting their support for this new proposal , adm... |
Baltimore sent his children home to England in August . By the time the king 's letter reached Avalon , he had departed with his wife and servants for Virginia . |
= = Attempt to found a Mid @-@ Atlantic colony = = |
In late September or October 1629 , Baltimore arrived in Jamestown , where the Virginians , who suspected him of designs on some of their territory and vehemently opposed Catholicism , gave him a cool welcome . They gave him the oaths of supremacy and allegiance , which he refused to take , so they ordered him to leav... |
Baltimore spent the last two years of his life constantly lobbying for his new charter , though the obstacles proved difficult . The Virginians , led by William Claiborne , who sailed to England to make the case , campaigned aggressively against separate colonising of the Chesapeake , claiming they possessed the right... |
His health declining , Baltimore 's persistence over the charter finally paid off in 1632 . The king first granted him a location south of Jamestown , but Baltimore asked the king to reconsider in response to opposition from other investors interested in settling the new land of Carolina into a sugar plantation . Balt... |
= = Legacy = = |
In his will , written the day before he died , Baltimore beseeched his friends Wentworth and Cottington to act as guardians and supervisors to his first son Cecil , who inherited the title of Lord Baltimore and the imminent grant of Maryland . Baltimore 's two colonies in the New World continued under the proprietorsh... |
Maryland became a prime tobacco exporting colony in the mid @-@ Atlantic and , for a time , a refuge for Catholic settlers , as George Calvert had hoped . Under the rule of the Lords Baltimore , thousands of British Catholics emigrated to Maryland , establishing some of the oldest Catholic communities in what later be... |
140 years after its first settlement , Maryland joined twelve other British colonies along the Atlantic coast in declaring their independence from British rule and the right to freedom of religion for all citizens in the new United States . |
= Draining and development of the Everglades = |
The history of draining and development of the Everglades dates back to the 19th century . During the Second Seminole War beginning in 1836 , the United States military 's mission was to seek out Seminole people in the Everglades and capture or kill them . Those missions gave the military the opportunity to map land t... |
A pattern of political and financial motivation , and a lack of understanding of the geography and ecology of the Everglades have plagued the history of drainage projects . The Everglades are a part of a massive watershed that originates near Orlando and drains into Lake Okeechobee , a vast and shallow lake . As the l... |
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