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Barrett Firearms Manufacturing

Barrett Firearms Manufacturing is an Australian-owned, American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition located in Christiana, Tennessee. It was founded in 1982 by Ronnie G. Barrett for the purpose of building semi-automatic rifles chambered for the .50 BMG (12.7×99mm NATO) ammunition, originally developed for and used in M2 Browning machine guns. Barrett began this work in the early 1980s, and the first working rifles were available in 1982, hence the designation M82. Barrett personally designed every part of the weapon. He marketed the weapon and mass-produced it utilizing private funds. He continued to develop the rifle through the 1980s, and developed the improved M82A1 rifle by 1986. Barrett was acquired by the NIOA Group on 17 January 2023, solidifying the long-standing relationship between the two companies.

History
Barrett introduced the M82 in 1982 but did not have significant sales until 1989. These first large sales were to Sweden. Soon afterward, the M82 was purchased by the United States armed forces, and it was deployed in the Gulf War. The company has since gained contracts with dozens of countries to supply sniper rifles.

The success of the M82A1 led the company to develop several other models of .50 BMG rifles, including the M95, M99, and M99-1. These are lighter and lower cost bolt-action rifles.

An early customer of the M82 (or "Barrett Light Fifty") was the IRA, which conducted a sniper campaign against the British Armed Forces in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. An unidentified IRA volunteer, quoted by author Toby Harnden, said that:

"What's special about the Barrett is the huge kinetic energy... The bullet can just walk through a flak jacket. South Armagh was the prime place to use such weapon because of the availability of Brits. They came to dread it and that was part of its effectiveness."

The US military uses the M82A3 and a newer version, the M107, as an anti-materiel rifle. It is used by explosive ordnance disposal teams with special military HEIAP ammunition.

Barrett also manufactured the REC7 upper receiver for the AR-15 style rifle, chambered in 6.8 mm Remington SPC, which was one of the weapons the US Army reviewed in 2008 while drafting requirements for a potential M4 carbine replacement.

In response to California's ban of civilian ownership of .50 BMG rifles, Barrett suspended sales and service to all law enforcement agencies in California. In October 2008, Barrett introduced the new M98B. The M98B is a bolt-action rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum. It went on sale in 2009. On February 26, 2016, Tennessee named the Barrett M82 the official rifle of the State of Tennessee.

In 2021, Barrett secured a $50 million contract for the United States Army Precision Sniper Rifle initiative.

In January 2023, Barrett was acquired by Australian defense contractor NIOA. Long-serving Barrett Chief Operating Officer Bryan James became President. Barrett founder Ronnie Barrett said: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Barrett story. Rob and the NIOA team have great respect for the legacy Barrett has created as the leader in long range precision rifles. It's reassuring to know Barrett will be in good hands with a family-owned company that is focused on manufacturing and delivering world-class firearms and munitions to a global network."

Products

 * Anti-materiel rifles
 * Barrett M82/M107
 * Barrett M90
 * Barrett M95
 * Barrett M99
 * Barrett XM109
 * Barrett XM500
 * Sniper rifles
 * Barrett M98B
 * Barrett MRAD
 * Barrett MRADELR
 * Semi-automatic rifles
 * Barrett M468
 * Barrett REC7
 * Barrett REC10
 * Machine guns
 * Barrett M240LW
 * Optics
 * Barrett Optical Ranging System (BORS)
 * Ammunition
 * .50 BMG M33 Ball
 * .416 Barrett
 * 6.8 SPC
 * .338 Lapua Magnum

title: Barrett Firearms Manufacturing


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Search/Retrieve Web Service

Search/Retrieve Web service (SRW) is a web service for search and retrieval. SRW provides a SOAP interface to queries, to augment the URL interface provided by its companion protocol Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU). Queries in SRU and SRW are expressed using the Contextual Query Language (CQL).

Standards for SRW, SRU, and CQL are promulgated by the United States Library of Congress.

The SRW service and SRU protocol were both created by as part of the ZING (Z39.50 International: Next Generation) initiative as successors to the Z39.50 protocol.

Implementations

 * refbase
 * RefDB
 * Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Search/Retrieve Web Service


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Business Development Bank of Canada

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; Banque de développement du Canada) is a Crown corporation and national development bank wholly owned by the Government of Canada, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses through financing, growth and transition capital, venture capital and advisory services, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises.

Founded in 1944, its corporate headquarters is located in Montreal and it has more than 123 business centres working with 60,000 clients. BDC's debt obligations, secured by the Government of Canada, are issued to public and private sector institutions.

History
The bank was established by an Act of Parliament as the Industrial Development Bank (IDB) in September 1944. IDB was initially an arm of the Bank of Canada, and the Governor of the Bank was also Chief Executive Officer of the IDB. During its first years, the bank's main role was to help small "industrial enterprises" convert from military production to peacetime operations after World War II. IDB was one of the first and largest development banks in the world.

The Industrial Development Bank Act was first amended in 1952 to allow the bank to offer financing to companies in the commercial airlines industry. By the mid-1950s, one in ten planes in Canada was financed by IDB. Later, the Industrial Development Bank Act was amended twice more to allow the bank to lend to companies in almost all industries.

By 1964, 20 years after its foundation, IDB had 22 branches across Canada, covering main cities such as Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, including operations in relatively rural areas. In the mid-1970s, the bank added consulting and training to its financial offerings to help entrepreneurs better manage their businesses.

In 1975, its name was changed to Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB), and its venture capital operations were started. At the time, the bank was known as "a lender of last resort"—supporting businesses in difficulty.

In 1995, the Business Development Bank of Canada Act was passed, leading to a new name and mission for the bank. It mandated BDC to promote entrepreneurship, focusing on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to fill gaps in the market and maximize financing alternatives for businesses by offering services that were complementary to those available from other financial institutions.

BDC is financially self-sustaining. Since 1998, it has been profitable and paid a total of more than $746 million in dividends to its sole shareholder, the Government of Canada. On June 8, 2022, BDC’s Board of Director authorized the repurchase of $5.0 billion of its common shares. Every ten years, the Minister of Industry must conduct a review of the provisions and operations of the BDC Act. The last legislative review was completed in December 2014.

In April 2021, the Bank announced the appointment of Isabelle Hudon as President and Chief Executive Officer as of August of the same year, at the end of the term of current CEO Michael Denham. In 2023, current and former staff raised concerns about spending at the bank, including expenditure on consulting services from McKinsey & Company and air transport for a private chauffeur.

Services
BDC offers loans and advisory services with a focus on small and medium-sized companies. It reports to Parliament through the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. BDC Capital, a subsidiary of BDC, offers specialized financing, including venture capital, equity as well as growth and business transition capital.

BDC's Venture Capital arm makes strategic investments in Canadian companies through its Energy/Cleantech Fund, Healthcare Fund and IT Fund. Notable investments include GradeSlam, Q1 Labs, Radian6, Canopy Labs, D-Wave Systems, CoolIT Systems, Protiva Biotherapeutics, Sanctuary AI and Klipfolio Dashboard.

BDC is a complementary lender, offering commercial loans and investments that fill out or complete services available from private-sector financial institutions. It also provides advice to businesses through its advisory services division.

Launched by FBDB in 1979, Small Business Week is a yearly celebration of entrepreneurs and their contribution to Canadian society. It became a nationwide event in 1981.

Tax Exemption
BDC is exempt from taxes imposed by the Income Tax Act.

Recognition
BDC was named among Canada's Top 100 employers from 2007 to 2018.

BDC Capital won multiple Deal of the Year Awards from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association in the venture capital category. It won in 2011, for its investment in Radian6 Technologies Inc.; in 2012, for its investment in Q1 Labs Inc.; and again in 2014, for its investment in Layer 7 Technologies.

title: Business Development Bank of Canada


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User talk:Alangford

Welcome to Wikipedia!
Hello Alangford, welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for all your contributions. Here are some useful links in case you haven't already found them: If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!
 * MediaWiki User's Guide
 * How to edit a page
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

—Noldoaran (Talk) 03:32, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
 * P.S. I am also interested in Web design and Photography.

title: User talk:Alangford


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Australian Terrier

The Australian Terrier is a small breed of dog of the terrier type. The breed was developed in Australia, although the ancestral types of dogs from which the breed descends were from Great Britain.

Appearance
The Australian Terrier is a small dog with short legs, weighing around 6.5 kg and standing about 25 cm at the withers, with a medium length shaggy harsh double coat that is not normally trimmed. Fur is shorter on the muzzle, lower legs, and feet, and there is a ruff around the neck. The coat colours are blue or silver and tan with a lighter coloured topknot, and with markings on face, ears, body and legs of a colour described in the breed standard as "tan, never sandy", or a solid red with a sandy variation. The tail was traditionally docked, in order to protect the dog from spinal injury while working and hunting in the field.

History
The Australian Terrier is descended from the rough coated type terriers brought from Great Britain to Australia in the early 19th century. The ancestral types of all of these breeds were kept to eradicate mice and rats. The Australian Terrier shares ancestors with the Cairn Terrier, Shorthaired Skye Terrier, and the Dandie Dinmont Terrier; Yorkshire Terriers and Irish Terriers were also crossed into the dog during the breed's development.

Development of the breed began in Australia about 1820, and the dogs were at first called the Rough Coated Terrier. The breed was officially recognised in 1850, and later renamed as the Australian Terrier in 1892. The Australian Terrier was shown at a dog show for the first time in 1906 in Melbourne, and was also shown in Great Britain about the same time.

Health
The Australian Terrier is known to be susceptible to the auto-immune disease Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada-like syndrome.

A 2002 survey by the Australian Terrier Club of America found that the top three causes of death were old age (17%), cancer (15%), and diabetes (13%). The most common conditions affecting dogs were diabetes mellitus (10%), luxating patella (9%), ear infections (5%), cataracts (5%), flea allergy dermatitis (5%), ruptured cranial cruciate ligament (4%), and hypothyroidism (4%).

Life expectancy
Life expectancy in the 2002 American survey was 11 years. Bitches lived roughly a year longer than dogs. A survey in the UK of breed club members found the Australian Terrier to have a median life expectancy of just above 12 years.

Temperament
The breed standard describes the ideal Australian Terrier temperament as spirited, alert, "with the natural aggressiveness of a ratter and hedge hunter". The Australian Terrier ranks 34th in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, being of above average "Working and Obedience" intelligence, indicating good trainability.

title: Australian Terrier


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Mount Tarawera

Mount Tarawera is a volcano on the North Island of New Zealand within the older but volcanically productive Ōkataina Caldera. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886. While the 1886 eruption was basaltic, study has shown there was only a small basalt component to the previous recent rhyolitic predominant eruptions. This eruption was one of New Zealand's largest historical eruptions, and killed an estimated 120 people. The fissures run for about 17 km northeast–southwest.

The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome (the highest at 1,111 metres), Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Ōkataina, Ōkareka, Tikitapu / Blue and Rotokākahi / Green. The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.

In 2000, the mountain was ceded to the Ngāti Rangitihi sub-tribe of Te Arawa. In 2002, the group and their lessee stopped previously free public access to the mountain. This decision caused angst among Rotorua residents.

Ōkareka eruption
The eruption that generated the Ōkareka Tephra has been dated to 23,535 ± 300 years before the present. It had a tephra volume of about 12 km3 but may be less, generated in days or weeks at the most. The associated eruption mountain building appears to have been at both ends of the complex and includes present features at the eastern end such as the Rotomahana Dome (434 m ) and Patiti Island (peak is 404 m high) which is in the middle of Lake Rotomahana. Lava fields at the western end came from sources most likely buried in the Waiohau eruption, have a volume of at least 5 km3, and would have taken several years to form. The Ōkareka Embayment is a separate, but adjacent volcanic structure in the Ōkataina Caldera responsible for the Rotorua Tephra.

Rerewhakaaitu eruption
The Rerewhakaaitu eruption has been recently re-dated forward to 17,496 ± 462 years ago, at about the time of the last glacial termination, with a tephra volume of about 7.5 km3. Other historic sources suggested a higher volume. It involved three rhyolite magmas with a total volume of about 5 km3 with the Rerewhakaaitu Tephra having 15 rhyolitic fall units. The Southern (1024 m ) and Western (446 m ) Domes were formed at this time and the lava excursion of 2 km3 again lasted for several years after the much shorter tephra phase of the eruption.

Waiohau eruption
The Waiohau eruption occurred 14,009 ± 155 years ago (recently re-dated backward). The Kanakana (925 m ) and Eastern (529 m ) Domes were formed. The estimated total volume of the fifteen or more Waiohau Tephra eruptions and some lava is 2 km3. During one of the eruptions structural collapse of the then mountain occurred.

Kaharoa eruption
Mount Tarawera erupted 1314±12 CE in the Kaharoa eruption. This was just a few years after the first Māori settlement about 1280 CE although more wide spread settlement is now believed to have not taken place until 1320 to 1350 AD. The Plinian phase of this eruption consisted of 11 discrete episodes of VEI 4 although there are possibly two more discrete sub-Plinian phases in a two stage eruption from at least two different vents along a 8 km long fissure. The total dense rock equivalent (DRE) was at least 9.1 km3. It distributed the Kaharoa Tephra, very low in the essential mineral cobalt (lack of cobalt is a factor in New Zealand bush sickness), from the east coast of the Northland Peninsula, down the Coromandel Peninsula and through beyond Tarawera to northern Hawke Bay at the Māhia Peninsula. The total volume of material erupted was more than 5 times that of the 1886 eruption and has been stated to be at least 15 km3 of tephra. The Ruawahia (1111 m ), Tarawera(874 m ), Wahanga (1025 m ) and Crater (1095 m ) Domes were formed.

1886 eruption

Shortly after midnight on the morning of 10 June 1886, a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and by 2:45 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky At around 3.30 am, the largest phase of the eruption commenced; vents at Rotomahana produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometer radius, and the Pink and White Terraces appeared to be obliterated. Recent research using mathematical modelling of events during the later Rotomahana eruption phase, is consistent with eyewitness accounts; describing it resembling a pot boiling over.

Settlements inhabited by Ngāti Rangitihi and Tūhourangi around the Ariki arm of Lake Tarawera, including Moura, Koutu, Kokotaia, Piripai, Pukekiore and Otuapane, Tapahoro, Te Wairoa, Totarariki, and Waingongoro, were buried or destroyed. Of these, Te Wairoa is now a tourist attraction and is described as the "buried village". The official death toll was reported as 153, and many more were displaced, making the eruption the most deadly in New Zealand history. The survivors became refugees in their own country, for generations.

The eruption was also believed to have destroyed the world-famous Pink and White Terraces. However, 125 years after the eruption a small portion of the Pink Terraces was reportedly rediscovered under Lake Rotomahana. This was due to the discovery of a previously unknown 1859 survey of Lake Rotomahana by Ferdinand von Hochstetter, which was deciphered and published between 2016 and 2019. This unique primary data indicate the Pink, Black and White Terrace locations now lie along the present lake shores. There is a prospect the terraces or sections of them, may lie buried, and as a result the terraces can no longer be assumed destroyed.

The phantom waka

One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom waka (canoe). Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a waka approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre-eruption fissures had freed a burial waka from its resting place. Traditionally, the dead were tied in an upright position. A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.

Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signalled by the reappearance of the waka.

Geology
It is within the Ōkataina Caldera of the Ōkataina Volcanic Centre in the central segment of the Taupō Volcanic Zone. This rhyolitic segment is dominated by explosive caldera. The actual basaltic dyke of the 1886 eruption is 15 km long and extends from the eruptive fissure of Mount Tarawera to Lake Rotomahana and has a remnant hydrothermal hot spot in the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley. The dyke and linear line of vents align with the Taupō Rift at this point.

title: Mount Tarawera


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Prime ring

In abstract algebra, a nonzero ring R is a prime ring if for any two elements a and b of R, arb = 0 for all r in R implies that either a = 0 or b = 0. This definition can be regarded as a simultaneous generalization of both integral domains and simple rings.

Although this article discusses the above definition, prime ring may also refer to the minimal non-zero subring of a field, which is generated by its identity element 1, and determined by its characteristic. For a characteristic 0 field, the prime ring is the integers, and for a characteristic p field (with p a prime number) the prime ring is the finite field of order p (cf. Prime field).

Equivalent definitions
A ring R is prime if and only if the zero ideal {0} is a prime ideal in the noncommutative sense.

This being the case, the equivalent conditions for prime ideals yield the following equivalent conditions for R to be a prime ring:
 * For any two ideals A and B of R, AB = {0} implies A = {0} or B = {0}.
 * For any two right ideals A and B of R, AB = {0} implies A = {0} or B = {0}.
 * For any two left ideals A and B of R, AB = {0} implies A = {0} or B = {0}.

Using these conditions it can be checked that the following are equivalent to R being a prime ring:
 * All nonzero right ideals are faithful as right R-modules.
 * All nonzero left ideals are faithful as left R-modules.

Examples

 * Any domain is a prime ring.
 * Any simple ring is a prime ring, and more generally: every left or right primitive ring is a prime ring.
 * Any matrix ring over an integral domain is a prime ring. In particular, the ring of 2 × 2 integer matrices is a prime ring.

Properties

 * A commutative ring is a prime ring if and only if it is an integral domain.
 * A nonzero ring is prime if and only if the monoid of its ideals lacks zero divisors.
 * The ring of matrices over a prime ring is again a prime ring.

title: Prime ring


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Matrix ring

In abstract algebra, a matrix ring is a set of matrices with entries in a ring R that form a ring under matrix addition and matrix multiplication. The set of all n × n matrices with entries in R is a matrix ring denoted Mn(R) (alternative notations: Matn(R) and Rn×n). Some sets of infinite matrices form infinite matrix rings. A subring of a matrix ring is again a matrix ring. Over a rng, one can form matrix rngs.

When R is a commutative ring, the matrix ring Mn(R) is an associative algebra over R, and may be called a matrix algebra. In this setting, if M is a matrix and r is in R, then the matrix rM is the matrix M with each of its entries multiplied by r.

Examples

 * The set of all n × n square matrices over R, denoted Mn(R). This is sometimes called the "full ring of n-by-n matrices".
 * The set of all upper triangular matrices over R.
 * The set of all lower triangular matrices over R.
 * The set of all diagonal matrices over R. This subalgebra of Mn(R) is isomorphic to the direct product of n copies of R.
 * For any index set I, the ring of endomorphisms of the right R-module $M=\bigoplus_{i\in I}R$ is isomorphic to the ring $$\mathbb{CFM}_I(R)$$ of column finite matrices whose entries are indexed by I × I and whose columns each contain only finitely many nonzero entries.  The ring of endomorphisms of M considered as a left R-module is isomorphic to the ring $$\mathbb{RFM}_I(R)$$ of row finite matrices.
 * If R is a Banach algebra, then the condition of row or column finiteness in the previous point can be relaxed. With the norm in place, absolutely convergent series can be used instead of finite sums.  For example, the matrices whose column sums are absolutely convergent sequences form a ring.  Analogously of course, the matrices whose row sums are absolutely convergent series also form a ring.  This idea can be used to represent operators on Hilbert spaces, for example.
 * The intersection of the row-finite and column-finite matrix rings forms a ring $$\mathbb{RCFM}_I(R)$$.
 * If R is commutative, then Mn(R) has a structure of a *-algebra over R, where the involution * on Mn(R) is matrix transposition.
 * If A is a C*-algebra, then Mn(A) is another C*-algebra. If A is non-unital, then Mn(A) is also non-unital. By the Gelfand–Naimark theorem, there exists a Hilbert space H and an isometric *-isomorphism from A to a norm-closed subalgebra of the algebra B(H) of continuous operators; this identifies Mn(A) with a subalgebra of B(H⊕n). For simplicity, if we further suppose that H is separable and A $$\subseteq$$ B(H) is a unital C*-algebra, we can break up A into a matrix ring over a smaller C*-algebra. One can do so by fixing a projection p and hence its orthogonal projection 1 − p; one can identify A with $\begin{pmatrix} pAp & pA(1-p) \\ (1-p)Ap & (1-p)A(1-p) \end{pmatrix}$, where matrix multiplication works as intended because of the orthogonality of the projections. In order to identify A with a matrix ring over a C*-algebra, we require that p and 1 − p have the same "rank"; more precisely, we need that p and 1 − p are Murray–von Neumann equivalent, i.e., there exists a partial isometry u such that p = uu* and 1 − p = u*u. One can easily generalize this to matrices of larger sizes.
 * Complex matrix algebras Mn(C) are, up to isomorphism, the only finite-dimensional simple associative algebras over the field C of complex numbers. Prior to the invention of matrix algebras, Hamilton in 1853 introduced a ring, whose elements he called biquaternions and modern authors would call tensors in C ⊗R H, that was later shown to be isomorphic to M2(C). One basis of M2(C) consists of the four matrix units (matrices with one 1 and all other entries 0); another basis is given by the identity matrix and the three Pauli matrices.
 * A matrix ring over a field is a Frobenius algebra, with Frobenius form given by the trace of the product: σ(A, B) = tr(AB).

Structure

 * The matrix ring Mn(R) can be identified with the ring of endomorphisms of the free right R-module of rank n; that is, Mn(R) ≅ EndR(Rn). Matrix multiplication corresponds to composition of endomorphisms.
 * The ring Mn(D) over a division ring D is an Artinian simple ring, a special type of semisimple ring. The rings $$\mathbb{CFM}_I(D)$$ and $$\mathbb{RFM}_I(D)$$ are not simple and not Artinian if the set I is infinite, but they are still full linear rings.
 * The Artin–Wedderburn theorem states that every semisimple ring is isomorphic to a finite direct product $\prod_{i=1}^r \operatorname{M}_{n_i}(D_i)$, for some nonnegative integer r, positive integers ni, and division rings Di.
 * When we view Mn(C) as the ring of linear endomorphisms of Cn, those matrices which vanish on a given subspace V form a left ideal. Conversely, for a given left ideal I of Mn(C) the intersection of null spaces of all matrices in I gives a subspace of Cn. Under this construction, the left ideals of Mn(C) are in bijection with the subspaces of Cn.
 * There is a bijection between the two-sided ideals of Mn(R) and the two-sided ideals of R. Namely, for each ideal I of R, the set of all n × n matrices with entries in I is an ideal of Mn(R), and each ideal of Mn(R) arises in this way.  This implies that Mn(R) is simple if and only if R is simple. For n ≥ 2, not every left ideal or right ideal of Mn(R) arises by the previous construction from a left ideal or a right ideal in R. For example, the set of matrices whose columns with indices 2 through n are all zero forms a left ideal in Mn(R).
 * The previous ideal correspondence actually arises from the fact that the rings R and Mn(R) are Morita equivalent. Roughly speaking, this means that the category of left R-modules and the category of left Mn(R)-modules are very similar. Because of this, there is a natural bijective correspondence between the isomorphism classes of left R-modules and left Mn(R)-modules, and between the isomorphism classes of left ideals of R and left ideals of Mn(R). Identical statements hold for right modules and right ideals. Through Morita equivalence, Mn(R) inherits any Morita-invariant properties of R, such as being simple, Artinian, Noetherian, prime.

Properties
\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\   0 & 0   \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix} $$   1 & 1 \\    0 & 0   \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix}. $$   0 & 1 \\    0 & 0   \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 0 \\   0 & 0  \end{bmatrix}. $$
 * If S is a subring of R, then Mn(S) is a subring of Mn(R). For example, Mn(Z) is a subring of Mn(Q).
 * The matrix ring Mn(R) is commutative if and only if n = 0, R = 0, or R is commutative and n = 1. In fact, this is true also for the subring of upper triangular matrices. Here is an example showing two upper triangular 2 × 2 matrices that do not commute, assuming 1 ≠ 0 in R:
 * and
 * $$ \begin{bmatrix}
 * For n ≥ 2, the matrix ring Mn(R) over a nonzero ring has zero divisors and nilpotent elements; the same holds for the ring of upper triangular matrices. An example in 2 × 2 matrices would be
 * $$ \begin{bmatrix}
 * The center of Mn(R) consists of the scalar multiples of the identity matrix, In, in which the scalar belongs to the center of R.
 * The unit group of Mn(R), consisting of the invertible matrices under multiplication, is denoted GLn(R).
 * If F is a field, then for any two matrices A and B in Mn(F), the equality AB = In implies BA = In. This is not true for every ring R though.  A ring R whose matrix rings all have the mentioned property is known as a stably finite ring.

Matrix semiring
In fact, R needs to be only a semiring for Mn(R) to be defined. In this case, Mn(R) is a semiring, called the matrix semiring. Similarly, if R is a commutative semiring, then Mn(R) is a .

For example, if R is the Boolean semiring (the two-element Boolean algebra R = $\{0, 1\}$ with 1 + 1 = 1), then Mn(R) is the semiring of binary relations on an n-element set with union as addition, composition of relations as multiplication, the empty relation (zero matrix) as the zero, and the identity relation (identity matrix) as the unity.

title: Matrix ring


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Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains, east of El Paso, Texas. The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 ft, and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line. The ruins of a stagecoach station stand near the Pine Springs visitor center. The restored Frijole Ranch contains a small museum of local history and is the trailhead for Smith Spring. The park covers 86,367 acre in the same mountain range as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, about 25 mi to the north in New Mexico. The Guadalupe Peak Trail winds through pinyon pine and Douglas-fir forests as it ascends over 3,000 ft to the summit of Guadalupe Peak, with views of El Capitan and the Chihuahuan Desert.

The McKittrick Canyon trail leads to a stone cabin built in the early 1930s as the vacation home of Wallace Pratt, a petroleum geologist who donated the land. Dog Canyon, on the northern park boundary at the Texas-New Mexico State line, is accessed via Carlsbad, New Mexico or Dell City, Texas. Camping is available at the Pine Springs campground and at Dog Canyon. A public corral for livestock is available by reservation. The park observes Mountain Time.

The Gypsum sand dunes lie on the west side of the park near Dell City. A rough four-wheel drive road leads to the Williams Ranch.

Park purpose
As stated in the foundation document: "Guadalupe Mountains national park preserves, protects, and interprets an area of outstanding geological values, scenery, wilderness, and other natural resources in the northern Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas."

History
The Guadalupe Mountains give their name to the Guadalupian series in the Permian period. The International Commission on Stratigraphy estimates the mountain range's age at 272–260 Mya. The mountains have had a tumultuous history for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence shows that people have lived there for over 10,000 years in and among the many caves and alcoves. Hunter-gatherers followed large game and collected edible vegetation, as evidenced by the discovery of projectile points, baskets, pottery and rock art.

The first Europeans to arrive in the area were the Spanish in the 16th century, but they did not make serious attempts to settle in the area. The Spanish introduced horses; nomadic indigenous tribes like the Apaches soon found them an asset for hunting and migrating. Mescalero Apaches followed game and harvested the agave (or mescal) for food and fiber (Mescalero is Spanish for mescal-maker). Agave roasting pits and other artifacts of Mescalero culture can be found in the park.

The Mescalero Apaches occupied the mountains through the mid-19th century, but were challenged by an American transportation route at the end of the American Civil War. During the 1840s and 1850s, many immigrants travelled west crossed the area. In 1858, Pinery Station was constructed near Pine Springs for the Butterfield Overland Mail. The Butterfield Overland Mail crossed Guadalupe Pass, located at 5534 ft above sea level. The 9th Cavalry Regiment was ordered to the area to stop Indian raids on settlements and the mail stage route. During the winter of 1869, Lt. H.B. Cushing led his troops into the Guadalupe Mountains and destroyed two Mescalero Apache camps. They were eventually driven out of the area and into US reservations.

Felix McKittrick was one of the first European settlers in the Guadalupe Mountains; he worked cattle during the 1870s. McKittrick Canyon is thought to be named after him. Frijole Ranch was the first permanent ranch house, constructed in 1876 by the Rader brothers. It became the only major building in the region and served as a community center and regional post office from 1916 to 1942. Today, it has been restored and serves as a cultural museum. In 1908 Williams Ranch House was built, and it was named after one of its inhabitants, James Adolphus Williams. Judge J.C. Hunter from Van Horn, Texas consolidated most of the smaller ranches in the area into the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch.

In 1921, Wallace Pratt, a geologist for Humble Oil and Refining Company, was impressed by the beauty of McKittrick Canyon and bought the land to build two houses there. Both were used as summer homes by Pratt and his family up until 1960. Wallace Pratt donated about 6000 acre of McKittrick Canyon which became part of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which was dedicated and formally opened to the public in September 1972.

In 1978, the United States Congress designated 46,850 acres (190 km2) of the park as a wilderness area.

Geography
The Guadalupe Mountains reach their highest point at Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, with an elevation of 8751 ft. The range lies southeast of the Sacramento Mountains and east of the Brokeoff Mountains. The mountain range extends north-northwest and northeast from Guadalupe Peak in Texas into New Mexico. The northeastern extension ends about 10 mi southwest of Carlsbad, near Carlsbad Caverns National Park; the southwest tip ends with El Capitan about 90 mi east of El Paso. The mountains rise more than 3000 ft above the arid floor of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Guadalupe Mountains are surrounded by the South Plains to the east and north, Delaware Mountains to the south, and Sacramento Mountains to the west.

The northwestern extension, bounded by a dramatic escarpment known as "The Rim", extends much further into New Mexico, approaching close to the Sacramento Mountains. The range is bordered on the north by Four Mile Canyon; on the east by the valley of the Pecos River; and on the west by Piñon Creek, Big Dog Canyon, Valley Canyon, Middle Dog Canyon and West Dog Canyon. Much of the range is built from the ancient Capitán Reef, formed at the margins of a shallow sea during the Permian Period. As the range is built up almost entirely of limestone, upland areas have little or no surface water. The only significant surface water is McKittrick Creek, in McKittrick Canyon, which emerges from the eastern side of the massif, just south of the New Mexico border. Elevations at the base of the range vary from 4000 ft above sea level on the western side to 5000 ft on the east. Several peaks on the southern end exceed 8000 ft.

Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Guadalupe Mountains National Park has a cold semi-arid climate (BSk). The plant hardiness zone on Guadalupe Peak is 7b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 6.1 °F (-14.4 °C).

The Guadalupe Mountains experience relatively hot summers, calm, mild autumn weather, and cool to cold weather in winter and early spring. Snow storms, sleet storms, freezing rain, or fog may occur in winter or early spring. Frequent high wind warnings are issued during winter through spring. Late summer monsoons produce thunderstorms. Nights are cool, even in summer.

Ecology
Three major ecosystems are contained within the park. The Chihuahuan Desert exhibits salt flats, creosote bushes, and honey mesquite on the western side of the park, with low elevations on the eastern side covered with grassland, pinyon pine, and junipers. The canyon interiors, including McKittrick, Bear, and Pine Springs Canyon, exhibit bigtooth maple, velvet ash, chinkapin oak, and other deciduous trees that are fed by springs recharged by mountain streams. Finally, alpine areas more than 7000 ft above sea level contain forests of ponderosa pine, Arizona pine, southwestern white pine, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, alligator juniper, and small stands of quaking aspen.

The range contains many large cave systems, including Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave. The history of the range includes occupation by ancient Pueblo and Mogollon peoples, and by the Apache and various outlaws in the 19th century.

Flora
The park is home to over 1000 species of plants, some of which include cacti, succulents, wildflowers, grasses and shrubs. Viola guadalupensis, the Guadalupe Mountains violet, is a rare plant that is endemic to the park.

Fauna
Mammals that inhabit this national park include elk, javelina, gray fox, American black bear, coyote, bobcat, striped and hog-nosed skunk, badger, sixteen species of bat, mule deer, and mountain lion. Birds of this park include great horned owl, chickadee, sparrow, woodpecker, turkey vulture, greater roadrunner, hummingbird, peregrine falcon, golden eagle, wren, and grosbeak.

title: Guadalupe Mountains National Park


text:
Talk:Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Isn't it "Guadaloupe"?
Isn't it "Guadaloupe"? ugen64 03:44, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)

 * No, that's the French spelling, these are named in Spanish. RickK 03:59, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

location map
This article needs a location map, like the one at Yellowstone National Park. - Bevo 22:18, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Good idea - how do you put one in there? H2O 22:55, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm trying to find out how the map in Yellowstone National Park was created. I would then create an image for Guadalupe Mountains National Park and upload it, and then use it in an inserted table like in Yellowstone National Park. - Bevo 23:01, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * There's your image. Very simple to make. I didn't make the table yet. I'll leave that to you. :) -- Decumanus 23:21, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I uploaded a blank one Image:Map of USA.png which you can use to make other ones (I couldn't find one, so I made one). Basically at this resolution, just eyeball the location. I used 255,0,0 red and put down a paintbrush dab using the GIMP. I'm sure that's the way Yellowstone was made too. -- Decumanus 23:26, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks! I saw your entry on my Talk page. Thanks for the maps. - Bevo 04:08, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

neutral POV?
regarding the "please rewrite article from a neutral POV" -- it's hard to see how entries about national parks won't end up sounding like advertisements -- most of the population agrees that they tend to be pretty places, you know... 24.227.183.26 07:37, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Took your suggestion about the advert tag. Thank you for your contribution. --Ancheta Wis 07:47, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Distance and Direction to Carlsbad Caverns NP
Regarding distance and direction from Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico: It should read 42 miles to the Northeast.

BlueVet --BlueVet 20:16, 24 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by BlueVet (talk • contribs) 22:37, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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title: Talk:Guadalupe Mountains National Park


text: Talk:Moroccan cuisine

title: Talk:Moroccan cuisine


text:
Talk:Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore

æ
I'm seeing Cecilius rendered as "Caecilius" in several places including on the charter for the Maryland colony. Does anyone think that's wrong? Does anyone think the "ae" should be rendered with the funky æ character? help!
 * The use of 'ae' vs 'æ' is purely a matter of stylistic choice in Latin and French spelling. It is however not standard usage in English. Latin words and names were commonly transcribed into English by consolidating 'ae' to 'e.' Hence in British English the word 'anaesthetic' is written 'anesthetic' in American English as the spelling reform movement was less conservative in the United States than in Britain. Jm3106jr (talk) 23:36, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

I agree that it is stylistic in Latin and French. It is not stylistic nor correct in English. It is appropriate to mention the alternative historic spellings, but this article is in English and the references need to be in English without the typographic ligature. BeadleB (talk) 19:11, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

The Name Baltimore
As I understand, the town Baltimore, Maryland comes from Caecilius calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. But where does the name of Baron come from? I cannot find such place in Ireland, at least. Is tehere a possible feedback to America, since the Baltic Sea is in Russian Baltiiskoye More, and in Maryland and Delaware there have been lots of newcomers from Sweden, and very probably Russia, too. Does anybody know? thanks --Höyhens 11:42, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

 * It is (or at least was when the title was created) a place in County Longford. Proteus (Talk) 12:17, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

 * The word Baron is a title of nobility not a place name. Thus the title 2nd Baron Baltimore means that Calvert was the Second Baron of Baltimore in Ireland. The original town of Baltimore - after which the capital of Maryland is named - is located in County Cork on the southwestern Irish coast and not in County Longford. Jm3106jr (talk) 23:46, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Date of birth
I know that numerous sources list Cecil's date of birth as August 8, 1605, but Browne (page 4) has him born in 1606. Perhaps this should be mentioned in the article as well. Qblik 22:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Latin Phrase deleted
In the beginning paragraph after Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore's full title, I deleted the following sentence: "A Latin term is 'Scvto Bonae Volvntatis Tvae Coronasti Nos, 1632'." This is not a Latin version of his title, but is a text encircling the reverse side of the original colonial seal of the Province of Maryland and is still used as the Great Seal of the State of Maryland today. The Latin text encircling the seal, Scuto bonæ voluntatis tuæ coronasti nos, is from Psalm 5:12 in the Vulgate, the Latin bible. It translates as "Thou hast crowned us with the shield of thy goodwill." The founding date of the colony, 1632, completes the text. Jm3106jr (talk) 15:31, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Burial Site Incorrect in Article?
This article claims the 2nd Baron is buried in the USA on city hall grounds in Baltimore. The site thepeerage.com states he is buried at St. Gile's-in-the-Fields Church, London, England, this seems more likely as he never visited Maryland. If anyone knows definitively please correct the article, it would be appreciated. Link to the "thepeerage.com" article below.

Update: This error appears to have been fixed.

http://thepeerage.com/p2615.htm#i26146 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.244.91.35 (talk) 16:50, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Roman Catholicism not official
The Province of Maryland was never officially Roman Catholic. Trinitarian Christians, including Catholics, were officially tolerated according to the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649, although the Act was temporarily rescinded in favor of Protestants between 1654-1658. Toleration lasted another 31 years until it was ended permanently during the Protestant Revolution of 1689. Roman Catholics and non-Protestants would not be fully emancipated for 87 more years in Maryland until the American Revolution of 1776. Jm3106jr (talk) 03:14, 11 November 2013 (UTC)/00:01, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Baltimore's colony in Newfoundland confusion
This section is confusing. There has been an expansion request on it since 2008. As it reads now, the father had title to a part of Newfoundland, the son got title to the entire island, but the father opposed this new title. Is this correct? It IS possible that it was because of family feuding, but it seems that the father might be happy that the family possessions had been expanded so much. Can anyone clarify this? BeadleB (talk) 19:18, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Requested move 31 December 2013

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Page moved. No opposes in full listing period. One support !vote out of the four supports (including the nominator) don't give any rationale at all, and a second one of the four uses slightly dubious logic surrounding whether "Cecilius" is an English or Latin name, but all in all it seems quite uncontroversial. — Amakuru (talk) 15:53, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore → Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore – His name was Cecil. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the Complete Peerage confirm that he was named after Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and not after anybody called Caecilius. Even this article says he was known as Cecil not Cecilius. Opera hat (talk) 17:14, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

 * Support Jm3106jr (talk) 19:14, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Support Folklore1 (talk) 16:21, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Sources generally give "Cecil". -- Necrothesp (talk) 20:22, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Any additional comments:

 * I agree in full. His name was Cecil Calvert in English, not Cecilius (or Caecilius) which is simply Cecil in Latin. Jm3106jr (talk) 19:16, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Cecil Calvert was not the first Proprietary Governor of Maryland.
Currently this entry opens with the false claim: "Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (8 August 1605 – 30 November 1675), was the first Proprietor and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland." But in fact the first Proprietary Governor of Maryland was Cecil's younger brother, Leonard. See for example the wikipedia entry List of colonial governors of Maryland, the Encyclopædia Britannica or the Maryland State Archives, all of which confirm that Leonard was Maryland's first Proprietary Governor. While Cecil was the Proprietor of Maryland, he never set foot there, unlike his younger brother whom he appointed as governor of his colony. I will remove the errata and cite Talk. 24.170.226.11 (talk) 01:12, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

"Reichsgräfin"?
Why is Anne Arundell described as "Reichsgräfin von Wardour"? The additional description "daughter of Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour" is accurate and complete and gave her no title beyond "The Hon." and certainly no claim to a title in the Holy Roman Empire. Curmudgeonly Pedant (talk) 19:40, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore


text:
Lord Baltimore

Lord Baltimore may refer to:

Fictional persons

 * Lord Henry Baltimore, eponymous character of the Baltimore by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
 * Lord Baltimore, Indian tracker in feature film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Nobility

 * Baron Baltimore, an extinct title in the Peerage of Ireland:
 * George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1580–1632)
 * Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (Lord Baltimore), the original namesake of the City of Baltimore, Maryland and adjacent Baltimore County
 * Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (1637–1715)
 * Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (1679–1715)
 * Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore (1699–1751)
 * Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (1731–1771)

Other uses

 * Baltimore and Ohio No. 2 Lord Baltimore, steam locomotive of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
 * Lord Baltimore Hotel, on West Baltimore and North Hanover Streets, in downtown Baltimore, Maryland
 * Lord Baltimore (streetcar truck), a streetcar truck built by the Baltimore Car Wheel Company in Baltimore, Maryland, US
 * "Lord Baltimore" (The Blacklist), an episode of the American TV series The Blacklist

Music

 * Sir Lord Baltimore, an American heavy metal band
 * Sir Lord Baltimore (album), 1971 eponymous album
 * Sir Lord Baltimore III Raw, 2006 album

title: Lord Baltimore


text:
Province of Maryland

The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the American Revolution against Great Britain. In 1781, Maryland was the 13th signatory to the Articles of Confederation. The province's first settlement and capital was in St. Mary's City, located at the southern end of St. Mary's County, a peninsula in the Chesapeake Bay bordered by four tidal rivers.

The province began in 1632 as a proprietary colony granted to Cecil Calvert, the English 2nd Baron Baltimore, whose father, George, had long sought to found a colony in the New World to serve as a refuge for English Roman Catholics at the time of the European wars of religion. Thus, provincial Maryland served an early pioneer of religious toleration in the English colonies. However, religious strife among Anglicans, Puritans, Catholics, and Quakers was common in the early years and Puritan rebels briefly seized control of the province. Later, in 1689, the year following the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain, John Coode led a rebellion that removed Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, from power in Maryland. That power was restored to the Baltimore family in 1715 after Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, declared in public that he was a Protestant.

Despite early competition with the colony of Virginia to its south, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland to its north, the province of Maryland developed along similar lines to Virginia. Its early settlements and population centers tended to cluster around the rivers and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake Bay, and, like Virginia, Maryland's economy quickly became centered on the cultivation of tobacco for sale in Europe.

However, after tobacco prices collapsed, the need for cheap labor to accommodate the mixed farming economy that followed led to a rapid expansion of the Atlantic slave trade and the concomitant American enslavement of Africans—as well as the expansion of indentured servitude and British penal transportation. Maryland received a larger felon quota than any other province.

Maryland was an active participant in the events leading up to the American Revolution, echoing events in New England by establishing committees of correspondence and hosting its own tea party similar to the one that took place in Boston. By 1776 the old order had been overthrown as Maryland's colonial representatives signed the Declaration of Independence, presaging the end of British colonial rule.

Founding charter

The Catholic George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), former Secretary of State to King Charles I of England, wished to create a haven for English Catholics in the New World. After having visited the Americas and founded a colony in the future Canadian province of Newfoundland called "Avalon", he convinced the King to grant him a second territory in more southern, temperate climes. Upon Baltimore's death in 1632 the grant was transferred to his eldest son Cecil, the 2nd Baron Baltimore.

On June 20, 1632, Charles granted the original charter for Maryland, a proprietary colony of about twelve million acres (49,000 km2), to the 2nd Baron Baltimore. Some historians view this grant as a form of compensation for the 2nd Lord Baltimore's father's having been stripped of his title of Secretary of State upon announcing his Roman Catholicism in 1625.

Whatever the reason for granting the colony specifically to Lord Baltimore, however, the King had practical reasons to create a colony north of the Potomac in 1632. The colony of New Netherland begun by England's great imperial rival in this era, the United Provinces, specifically claimed the Delaware River valley and was vague about its border with Virginia. Charles rejected all the Dutch claims on the Atlantic seaboard, but was anxious to bolster English claims by formally occupying the territory. The new colony was named after the devoutly Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, by an agreement between the 1st Lord Baltimore and King Charles I.

Colonial Maryland was considerably larger than the present-day State of Maryland. The original charter granted the Calverts a province with a boundary line that started "from the promontory or headland, called Watkin's Point, situate upon the bay aforesaid near the river Wighco on the West, unto the main ocean on the east; and between that boundary on the south, unto that part of the bay of Delaware on the north, which lyeth under the 40th degree of north latitude from the aequinoctial, where New England is terminated." p. 116 The boundary line would then continue westward along the fortieth parallel "unto the true meridian of the first fountain of the river Pattowmack". From there, the boundary continued south to the southern bank of the Potomac River, continue along the southern river bank to the Chesapeake Bay, and "thence by the shortest line unto the aforesaid promontory, or place, called Watkin's Point." p. 38. Based on this deceptively imprecise description of the boundary, the land may have comprised up to 18750 sqmi, 50% larger than today's State.

Early settlement

In Maryland, Baltimore sought to create a haven for English Catholics and to demonstrate that Catholics and Protestants could live together peacefully, even issuing the Act Concerning Religion in matters of religion. The 1st Lord Baltimore was himself a convert to Catholicism, a considerable political setback for a nobleman in 17th-century England, where Roman Catholics could easily be considered enemies of the crown and potential traitors to their country. Like other aristocratic proprietors, he also hoped to turn a profit on the new colony.

The Calvert family recruited Catholic aristocrats and Protestant settlers for Maryland, luring them with generous land grants and a policy of religious toleration. To try to gain settlers, Maryland used what is known as the headright system, which originated in Jamestown. Settlers were given 50 acres of land for each person they brought into the colony, whether as settler, indentured servant, or slave.

Of the 200 or so initial settlers who traveled to Maryland on the ships Ark and Dove, the majority were Protestant. On November 22, 1633, Lord Baltimore sent the first settlers to the new colony, and after a long voyage with a stopover to resupply in Barbados, the Ark and the Dove landed on March 25, 1634 (thereafter celebrated as "Maryland Day"), at Blackistone Island, thereafter known as St. Clement's Island, off the northern shore of the Potomac River, upstream from its confluence with the Chesapeake Bay and Point Lookout. The new settlers were led by Lord Baltimore's younger brother the Honorable Leonard Calvert, whom Baltimore had delegated to serve as governor of the new colony.

"The Native Americans in Maryland were a peaceful people who welcomed the English. At the time of the founding of the Maryland colony, approximately forty tribes consisting of 8,000 – 10,000 people lived in the area. They were fearful of the colonists' guns, but welcomed trade for metal tools. The Native Americans who were living in the location where the colonists first settled were called the Yaocomico Indians. The colonists gave the Yaocomico Indians cloth, hatchets, and hoes in exchange for the right to settle on the land. The Yaocomico Indians allowed the English settlers to live in their houses, a type of longhouse called a witchott. The Indians also taught the colonists how to plant corn, beans, and squash, as well as where to find food such as clams and oysters."

Here at St. Clement's Island they raised a large cross, and led by Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated Mass. The new settlement was called "St. Mary's City" and it became the first capitol of Maryland. It remained so for sixty years until 1695 when the colony's capital was moved north to the more central, newly established "Anne Arundel's Town (also briefly known as "Providence") and later renamed as "Annapolis".

More settlers soon followed. The tobacco crops that they had planted from the outset were very successful and quickly made the new colony profitable. However, given the incidence of malaria and typhoid, life expectancy in Maryland was about 10 years less than in New England.

"Historic St. Mary's City" (a historic preservationist/tourism agency) has been established to protect what is left of the ruins of the original 17th-century village, and several reconstructed, government buildings, little of which remained intact. With the exception of several periods of rebellion by early Protestants and later colonists, the colony/province remained under the control of the several Lords Baltimore until 1775–1776, when it joined with other colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and eventually became the independent and sovereign U.S. State of Maryland.

Relations with the Susquehannock
The establishment of the Province of Maryland disrupted the trade relationship between Virginia colonists and the Susquehannock, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe that lived in the lower Susquehanna River valley. Following a raid on a Jesuit mission in 1641, the Governor of Maryland declared the Susquehannock "enemies of the province." A few attempts were made to organize a military campaign, however, it was not until 1643 that an ill-fated expedition was mounted. The Susquehannock inflicted numerous casualties on the English and captured two cannon. 15 prisoners were taken and afterwards tortured to death.

Raids on Maryland continued intermittently until 1652. In the winter of 1652, the Susquehannock were attacked by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and although the attack was repulsed, it led to the Susquehannock negotiating the Articles of Peace and Friendship with Maryland. The Susquehannock relinquished their claim to territory on either side of Chesapeake Bay, and reestablished a trading relationship with the English.

A Haudenosaunee raid in 1660 led Maryland to expand its treaty with the Susquehannock into an alliance. The Maryland assembly authorized armed assistance, and described the Susquehannock as "a Bullwarke and Security of the Northern Parts of this Province." A detachment of 50 soldiers was sent to help defend the Susquehannock town against Haudenosaunee attacks. Despite suffering a smallpox epidemic in 1661, the Susquehannock easily withstood a siege in 1663, and destroyed a Haudenosaunee war party in 1666.

By 1675, epidemics and years of war had taken their toll on the Susquehannock. They abandoned their village on the Susquehanna River and moved south into Maryland. Governor Charles Calvert invited them to settle on the Potomac River above the Great Falls, however, the Susquehannock instead chose to occupy a site on Piscataway Creek where they erected a palisaded fort. In July 1675, a group of Virginians chasing Doeg raiders crossed the Potomac into Maryland and mistakenly killed several Susquehannock. Subsequent raids in Virginia and Maryland were blamed on the tribe. In September 1675, a thousand-man expedition against the Susquehannock was mounted by militia from Virginia and Maryland led by John Washington and Thomas Truman. After arriving at the Susquehannock town, Truman and Washington summoned five sachems to a parley, but then had them summarily executed. Sorties during the ensuing six-week siege resulted in 50 English deaths. In early November, the Susquehannock escaped the siege under cover of darkness, killing ten of the militia as they slept.

Most of Susquehannock crossed the Potomac and took refuge in the Piedmont of Virginia. Two encampments were established on the Meherrin River near the village of the Siouan-speaking Occaneechi. In January 1676, the Susquehannock raided plantations in Virginia, killing 36 colonists. Nathaniel Bacon, unhappy with Governor Sir William Berkeley's response to the raids, organized a volunteer militia to hunt down the Susquehannock. Bacon persuaded the Occaneechi to attack the closest Susquehannock encampment. After the Occaneechi returned with Susquehannock prisoners, Bacon turned on his allies and indiscriminately massacred Occaneechi men, women and children.

Other Susquehannock refugees fled to hunting camps on the North Branch of the Potomac or took refuge with the Lenape. Some refugees returned to the Susquehanna River in 1676 and established a palisaded village near the site of their previous village. This village was also abandoned when the inhabitants merged with the Haudenosaunee a few years later.

With Virginia
In 1629, George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, "driven by 'the sacred duty of finding a refuge for his Roman Catholic brethren'", applied to Charles I for a royal charter to establish a colony south of Virginia. He also wanted a share of the fortunes being made in tobacco in Virginia, and hoped to recoup some of the financial losses he had sustained in his earlier colonial venture in Newfoundland.

In 1631, William Claiborne, a Puritan from Virginia, received a royal trading commission granting him the right to trade with the natives in all lands in the mid-Atlantic where there was not already a patent in effect. Claiborne established a trading post on Kent Island on May 28, 1631.

Meanwhile, back in London, the Privy Council persuaded Lord Baltimore to accept instead a charter for lands north of the Virginia colony, in order to put pressure on the Dutch settlements further north along the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. Calvert agreed, but died in 1632 before the charter was formally signed by King Charles I. The Royal Grant and Charter for the new colony of Maryland was then granted to his son, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June 20, 1632. This placed Claiborne on Calvert land. Claiborne refused to recognize Lord Baltimore's charter and rights, or the authority of his brother Leonard as governor.

Following the arrest of one of his agents for trading in Maryland waters without a license in 1635, Claiborne fitted out an armed ship. There ensued a naval battle on April 23, 1635, by the mouth of the Pocomoke River during which three Virginians were killed. Following this battle, Leonard Calvert captured Kent Island by force in February 1638.

In 1644, during the English Civil War, Claiborne led an uprising of Protestants in what came to be called the Plundering Time, also known as "Claiborne and Ingle's Rebellion", and retook Kent Island. Meanwhile, privateer Captain Richard Ingle (Claiborne's co-commander) seized control of St. Mary's City, the capital of the Maryland colony. Catholic Governor Calvert escaped to the Virginia Colony which remained nominally loyal to the crown until 1652. The Protestant pirates began plundering the property of anyone who did not swear allegiance to the Parliament of England, mainly Catholics. The rebellion was put down in 1647 by Governor Calvert.

The victory of Parliament in England renewed old tensions. This led to the 1655 Battle of the Severn, at the settlement of "Providence" (present-day Annapolis, Maryland). Moderate Protestants and Catholics loyal to Lord Baltimore, under the command of William Stone, met Puritans loyal to the Commonwealth of England from Providence under the command of Captain William Fuller. 17 of Stone's men and two Puritans were killed, resulting in victory for the Puritans.

The issue of the ongoing Claiborne grievance was finally settled by an agreement reached in 1657. Lord Baltimore gave Claiborne amnesty for all of his offenses, Virginia laid aside any claim it had to Maryland territory, and Claiborne was indemnified with extensive land grants in Virginia for his loss of Kent Island.

"Multiple colonial charters, two negotiated settlements by the states in 1785 and 1958, an arbitrated agreement in 1877, and several Supreme Court decisions have defined how Maryland and Virginia would deal with the Potomac River as a boundary line, and shaped the boundary on the Eastern Shore (separating Accomack County, Virginia, from Worcester and Somerset counties in Maryland)."

With Pennsylvania
The border dispute with Pennsylvania continued and led to Cresap's War, a conflict between settlers from Pennsylvania and Maryland fought in the 1730s. Hostilities erupted in 1730 with a series of violent incidents prompted by disputes over property rights and law enforcement, and escalated through the first half of the decade, culminating in the deployment of military forces by Maryland in 1736 and by Pennsylvania in 1737. The armed phase of the conflict ended in May 1738 with the intervention of King George II, who compelled the negotiation of a cease-fire. A provisional agreement had been established in 1732.

Maryland lost some of its original territory to Pennsylvania in the 1660s when King Charles II granted the Penn family, owners of Pennsylvania, a tract that overlapped the Calvert family's Maryland grant. For 80 years the powerful Penn and Calvert families had feuded over overlapping Royal grants. Surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon mapped the Maryland-Pennsylvania border in 1767, setting out the Mason–Dixon line.

With New York
In 1672, Lord Baltimore declared that Maryland included the settlement of Whorekills on the west shore of the Delaware Bay, an area under the jurisdiction of the Province of New York (as the British had renamed New Netherland after taking possession in 1664). A force was dispatched which attacked and captured this settlement. New York could not immediately respond because New York was soon recaptured by the Dutch. This settlement was restored to the Province of New York when New York was recaptured from the Dutch in November, 1674.

The Lords Baltimore

 * George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1631), Secretary of State under King James I, applied in 1629 for a charter to establish a colony in the Mid-Atlantic area of North America, but died five weeks before it was issued.
 * Caecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), inherited both his father's title and his charter, which was granted in 1632. He was named for Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, principal Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, whom Calvert had met during an extended trip to Europe between 1601 and 1603. Rather than go to the colony himself, Baltimore stayed behind in England to deal with the political opposition raised by supporters of the Virginia Colony and sent his next younger brother Leonard in his stead. Caecilius never travelled to Maryland.
 * Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (1637–1715), sailed to Maryland in 1661 as a young man of 24, becoming the first member of the Calvert family to take personal charge of the colony. He was appointed deputy governor by his father and, when the 2nd Lord Baltimore died in 1675, Charles inherited Maryland, becoming governor in his own right. During his tenure the price of tobacco began to decline, causing economic hardship especially among the poor. A hurricane in 1667 devastated the tobacco crop. In 1684, the 3rd Lord Baltimore traveled to England in regard to a border dispute with William Penn. He never returned to Maryland. In his absence the Protestant Revolution of 1689 took control of the colony. That year the family's royal charter was also withdrawn, and Maryland became a Royal Colony.
 * Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (1679–1715) understood that the chief impediment to the restoration of his family's title to Maryland was the question of religion. In 1713 he converted to Anglicanism, despite his father cutting off his support. He also withdrew his son Charles from a Jesuit school, largely for political reasons. Henceforth father and son would worship within the Church of England, much to the disgust of his father Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, who maintained his Catholic faith despite the political drawbacks, until his death in February 1715. Benedict became the Fourth Lord Baltimore upon his father's death in February 1715 and immediately petitioned King George I to reinstate the family's charter. However, the 4th Lord Baltimore survived his father by only two months, dying himself in April 1715.
 * Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore (1699–1751) was the great-grandson of Charles II of England through his maternal grandmother, Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, the illegitimate daughter of the king's mistress, Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland. The Province of Maryland was restored to the control of the Calvert family by King George I when around 1715 Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, swore publicly that he was a Protestant and had embraced the Anglican faith.

 * Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (1731–1771) inherited from his father the title Baron Baltimore and the Proprietary Governorship of the Province of Maryland in 1751. The 6th Lord Baltimore wielded immense power in Maryland, which was then a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain, administered directly by the Calverts. Frederick's inheritance coincided with a period of rising discontent in Maryland, amid growing demands by the legislative assembly for an end to his family's authoritarian rule. Frederick, however, remained aloof from the colony and never set foot in it in his lifetime. He lived a life of leisure, writing verse and regarding the Province of Maryland as little more than a source of revenue. The colony was ruled through governors appointed by the 6th Lord Baltimore. His frequent travels made him difficult to contact and meant that Maryland was largely ruled without him. His personal life was extremely scandalous by the standards of the time, and this contributed to growing unrest in his colony. In 1758, his wife "died from a hurt she received by a fall out of a Phaeton carriage" while accompanied by her husband. Although Frederick was suspected of foul play, no charges were ever brought.

Frederick died in 1771, by which time relations between Britain and her American colonies were fast deteriorating. In his will, Frederick left his proprietary Palatinate of Maryland to his eldest illegitimate son, Henry Harford, then aged just 13. The colony, perhaps grateful to be rid of Frederick at last, recognized Harford as Calvert's heir. However, the will was challenged by the family of Frederick's sister, Louisa Calvert Browning, who did not recognize Harford's inheritance. Before the case could grind its way through the Court of Chancery, Maryland had become engulfed by the American Revolution and by 1776 was at war with Britain. Henry Harford would ultimately lose almost all his colonial possessions.

Proprietarial rule
Lord Baltimore held all the land directly from the King for the payment of "two Indian arrowheads annually and one fifth of all gold and silver found in the colony." Maryland's foundation charter was drafted in feudal terms and based on the practices of the ancient County Palatine of Durham, which existed until 1646. He was given the rights and privileges of a Palatine lord, and the extensive authority that went with it. The Proprietor had the right and power to establish courts and appoint judges and magistrates, to enforce all laws, to grant titles, to erect towns, to pardon all offenses, to found churches, to call out the fighting population and wage war, to impose martial law, to convey or lease the land, and to levy duties and tolls.

However, as elsewhere in English North America, English political institutions were re-created in the colonies, and the Maryland General Assembly fulfilled much the same function as the House of Commons of England. An act was passed providing that:
 * "from henceforth and for ever everyone being of the council of the Province and any other gentleman of able judgement summoned by writ (and the Lord of every Manor within this Province after Manors be erected) shall and may have his voice, seat, and place in every General Assembly. together with two or more able and sufficient men for the hundred as the said freedmen or the major part of them ... shall think good".

In addition, the Lord Proprietor could summon any delegates whom he was pleased to select.

In some ways the General Assembly was an improvement upon the institutions of the mother country. In 1639, noting that Parliament had not been summoned in England for a decade, the free men of Maryland passed an act to the effect that "assemblies were to be called once in every three years at the least," ensuring that their voices would be regularly heard.

Due to immigration, by 1660 the population of the Province had gradually become predominantly Protestant. Political power remained concentrated in the hands of the largely Catholic elite. Most councilors were Catholics and many were related by blood or marriage to the Calverts, enjoying political patronage and often lucrative offices such as commands in the militia or sinecures in the Land Office.

Religious conflict

Although Maryland was an early pioneer of religious toleration in the British colonies, religious strife among Anglicans, Puritans, Roman Catholics, and Quakers was common in the early years, and Puritan rebels briefly seized control of the province. In 1644 the dispute with William Claiborne led to armed conflict. Claiborne seized Kent Island while his associate, the pro-Parliament Puritan Richard Ingle, took over St. Mary's. Both used religion as a tool to gain popular support. From 1644 to 1646, the so-called "Plundering Time" was a period of civil unrest aggravated by the tensions of the English Civil War (1641–1651). Leonard Calvert returned from exile with troops, recaptured St. Mary's City, and eventually restored order.

In 1649 Maryland passed the Maryland Toleration Act, also known as the Act Concerning Religion, a law mandating religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. Passed on September 21, 1649, by the assembly of the Maryland Colony, it was the first law requiring religious tolerance in the English North American colonies. In 1654, after the Third English Civil War (1649–1651), Parliamentary (Puritan) forces assumed control of Maryland for a time.

When dissidents pressed for an established church, Caecilius Calvert's noted that Maryland settlers were "Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers, those of the Church of England as well as the Romish being the fewest ... it would be a most difficult task to draw such persons to consent unto a Law which shall compel them to maintaine ministers of a contrary perswasion to themselves."

In 1650, Maryland had 10 churches with regular services which included all 5 Catholic churches in the colonies at the time, 4 Anglican churches, and 1 Congregational church. Following the First Great Awakening (1730–1755), the number of regular places of worship in Maryland grew to 94 in 1750 (50 Anglican, 18 Presbyterian, 15 Catholic, 4 Baptist, 4 Dutch Reformed, and 3 Lutheran), with the colony gaining an additional 110 regular places of worship to a total of 204 by 1776 (51 Episcopal, 30 Catholic, 29 Presbyterian, 26 Friends, 21 Methodism, 16 German Reformed, 16 Lutheran, 5 Baptist, 5 German Baptist Brethren, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Moravian, and 1 Mennonite).

The Protestant Revolution of 1689

In 1689, Maryland Puritans, by now a substantial majority in the colony, revolted against the proprietary government, in part because of the apparent preferment of Catholics like Colonel Henry Darnall to official positions of power. Led by Colonel John Coode, an army of 700 Puritans defeated a proprietarial army led by Colonel Darnall. Darnall later wrote: "Wee being in this condition and no hope left of quieting the people thus enraged, to prevent effusion of blood, capitulated and surrendered." The victorious Coode and his Puritans set up a new government that outlawed Catholicism, and Darnall was deprived of all his official roles. Coode's government was, however, unpopular; and William III installed a Crown-appointed governor in 1692. This was Lionel Copley who governed Maryland until his death in 1694 and was replaced by Francis Nicholson.

After this "Protestant Revolution" in Maryland, Darnall was forced, like many other Catholics, to maintain a secret chapel in his home in order to celebrate the Roman Catholic Mass. In 1704, an Act was passed "to prevent the growth of Popery in this Province", preventing Catholics from holding political office.

Full religious toleration would not be restored in Maryland until the American Revolution, when Darnall's great-grandson Charles Carroll of Carrollton, arguably the wealthiest Catholic in Maryland, signed the American Declaration of Independence.

Plantations and economy

Early settlements and population centers tended to cluster around the rivers and other waterways that empty into Chesapeake Bay. In the 17th century, most Marylanders lived in rough conditions on small farms. While they raised a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and livestock, the main cash crop was tobacco, which soon dominated the province's economy.

The Province of Maryland developed along lines very similar to those of Virginia. Tobacco was used as money, and the colonial legislature was obliged to pass a law requiring tobacco planters to raise a certain amount of corn as well, in order to ensure that the colonists would not go hungry. Like Virginia, Maryland's economy quickly became centered around the farming of tobacco for sale in Europe. The need for cheap labor to help with the growth of tobacco, and later with the mixed farming economy that developed when tobacco prices collapsed, led to a rapid expansion of indentured servitude and, later, forcible immigration and enslavement of Africans.

By 1730 there were public tobacco warehouses every fourteen miles. Bonded at £1,000 sterling, each inspector received from £25 to £60 as annual salary. Four hogsheads of 950 pounds were considered a ton for London shipment. Ships from English ports did not need port cities; they called at the wharves of warehouses or plantations along the rivers for tobacco and the next year returned with goods the planters had ordered from the shops of London.

Outside the plantations, much land was operated by independent farmers who rented from the proprietors, or owned it outright. They emphasized subsistence farming to grow food for their large families. Many of the Irish and Scottish immigrants specialized in rye-whiskey making, which they sold to obtain cash.

The 18th century
Maryland developed into a plantation colony by the 18th century. In 1700 there were about 25,000 people and by 1750 that had grown more than 5 times to 130,000. By 1755, about 40% of Maryland's population was black. Maryland planters also made extensive use of indentured servants and penal labor. An extensive system of rivers facilitated the movement of produce from inland plantations and farms to the Atlantic coast for export. Baltimore, on the Patapsco River, leading to the Chesapeake Bay, was the second-most important port in the 18th-century South, after Charleston, South Carolina.

Dr. Alexander Hamilton (1712–1756) was a Scottish-born doctor and writer who lived and worked in Annapolis. Leo Lemay says his 1744 travel diary Gentleman's Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton is "the best single portrait of men and manners, of rural and urban life, of the wide range of society and scenery in colonial America."

The Abbé Claude C. Robin, a chaplain in the army of General Rochambeau, who travelled through Maryland during the Revolutionary War, described the lifestyle enjoyed by families of wealth and status in the colony:
 * [Maryland houses] are large and spacious habitations, widely separated, composed of a number of buildings and surrounded by plantations extending farther than the eye can reach, cultivated ... by unhappy black men whom European avarice brings hither. ...Their furniture is of the most costly wood, and rarest marbles, enriched by skilful and artistic work. Their elegant and light carriages are drawn by finely bred horses, and driven by richly apparelled slaves."

The first printing press was introduced to the Province of Maryland in 1765 by a German immigrant, Nicholas Hasselbach, whose equipment was later used in the printing of Baltimore's first newspapers, The Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser, first published by William Goddard in 1773.

In the late colonial period, the southern and eastern portions of the Province continued in their tobacco economy, but as the American Revolution approached, northern and central Maryland increasingly became centers of wheat production. This helped drive the expansion of interior farming towns like Frederick and Maryland's major port city of Baltimore.

The American Revolution
Up to the time of the American Revolution, the Province of Maryland was one of two colonies that remained an English proprietary colony, Pennsylvania being the other. Maryland declared independence from Britain in 1776, with Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton signing the Declaration of Independence for the colony. In the 1776–77 debates over the Articles of Confederation, Maryland delegates led the party that insisted that states with western land claims cede them to the Confederation government, and in 1781 Maryland became the last state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. It accepted the United States Constitution more readily, ratifying it on April 28, 1788.

Maryland also gave up some territory to create the new District of Columbia after the American Revolution.

title: Province of Maryland


text:
Halosaur

Halosaurs are eel-shaped fishes found only at great ocean depths. As the family Halosauridae, halosaurs are one of two families within the order Notacanthiformes; the other being the deep-sea spiny eels, Notacanthidae. Halosaurs are thought to have a worldwide distribution, with some 17 species in three genera represented. Only a handful of specimens have been observed alive, all in chance encounters with Remotely operated underwater vehicles.

The term "halosaur" refers to the type genus, Halosaurus, which is a Greek compound word, hals meaning "sea" and sauros meaning "lizard". Halosaurs have a spotty fossil record, the oldest known genus being Echidnocephalus from the Late Cretaceous strata of Westphalia, Germany, and the second-oldest known genus, Laytonia, from Miocene strata of California and Oregon. The fossil specimens already bear strong resemblance to the modern genera. The halosaurs' greatly elongated bodies end in whip-like tails; their scales are large. One small dorsal fin is close to the sharply pointed, mostly scaleless head. The tail fin is greatly reduced, with the anal fin being the largest fin. Their pectoral fins are slender and greatly elongated. Their mouths are somewhat large, with the lower jaw shorter than the upper jaw. The swim bladder is absent in all known species, except for Aldrovandia oleosa, which has a very small bladder.

The largest species, the 90-cm (3-ft) long abyssal halosaur (Halosauropsis macrochir) is also one of the most deep-living fish, recorded at depths of 3,300 m (11,000 ft). Halosaurs have developed certain adaptations to life at these extreme depths, where no light penetrates. Their lateral line system enabling the detection of vibrations in the water is highly developed; the pores run the length of the fish's body. Some species are also known to hold their elongated pectorals erect and forward, possibly providing a further means of detection.

Halosaurs are benthic fish, spending their time cruising over or resting on the sea floor, where temperatures may be just 2-4 °C. They propel themselves with rhythmic, lateral undulations of their bodies, not unlike sea snakes. Halosaurs are thought to prey mainly on benthic invertebrates, such as polychaete worms, echinoderms, and crustaceans such as copepods, but they may also consume small fishes and cephalopods.

In life, most halosaurs are grey to bluish-black in colour. Like other notacanthiform fish, halosaurs are able to regenerate their tails easily if lost. This adaptation can be likened to certain terrestrial reptiles, such as the glass lizard, which sacrifices its tail to evade predators.

title: Halosaur