There are several forms of the sport of archery. They include bow hunting, target archery, field archery and flight shooting. In flight shooting the object is to shoot the arrow as far as possible. Special bows with a draw weight of up to 91 kg (200 lb) are used, and small lightweight arrows. In ordinary flight shooting, archers shoot while …

Acentric chromosomes are formed as a result of inversion of genes in one of the chromosomes in a homologous pair. This is a type of chromosomal aberration. Homologous loci are paired at meiosis. The meiotic anaphase will contain a chromatid connecting the two centromeres, called a chromatid bridge; a chromatid lacking a centromere altogether is called an acentric fragment. Neither …

When the British retreated from Washington during the war of 1812 they took prisoner a Dr William Beanes and held him aboard a warship in Chesapeake Bay. Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer, obtained permission to intercede for the release of his friend as the British fleet was preparing to bombard Fort McHenry, which protected Baltimore. The British agreed to …

The Incas were an Indian people who lived in the Andean region of South America. The first Inca ruler, Manco Capan (c. A.D. 1200) was believed to have been descended from the sun god. The Incas thirsted for power. They warred against and defeated their neighbours, and soon their empire extended from central Chile to the present Colombia-Ecuador border. Having …

The Green Mountain Boys had their origins in a dispute over land in America. In 1749 Governor Benning of New Hampshire began to grant lands west of the Connecticut River (which today is Vermont), even though New York put in a strong claim. In 1770 the New York Supreme Court held that all Hampshire west of the Green Mountains were …

The first real explorers of the Ancient World were the Phoenicians. They were a people who had settled on a costal strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, now known as the Lebanon, who had many colonies, the most important being Tyre and Sidon. Phoenician wealth originally came from a dye made from a small shellfish found …

During the twelfth or thirteenth centuries the third had greatest of the Mexican civilizations arose – the Aztecs. They were a warlike race which gradually grew in power, becoming the strongest nation in Mexico. Their capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on islands in a marshy area where Mexico City stands today. They worshiped a blood-thirsty pantheon of gods, led by Huitzilopochtli, …

Alfred, Lord Tennyson immortalized these six hundred British soldiers in his famous poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. This commemorated the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (1864-66), in which Russia, Turkey, Britain and France were involved. The Light Brigade (the six hundred) was told, in a confusion of orders, to charge strong Russian batteries. They suffered heavy …

The story of man’s attempt to rival the birds is as old as the human race. From Greek mythology we have the story of Icarus who had wings of feathers sewn on with threads and fastened with wax. He flew too near the sun, and the wax melted. Icarus fell into the sea and was drowned. Oliver of Malmesbury, an …

According to Roman legend Romulus and Remus were grandsons of Numitor, King of Alba, who was deposed by his brother, Amulius. Numitor’s daughter was forced to become a Vestal Virgin, but Mars, the god of war, fell in love with her and she gave birth to twin sons. Amulius commanded that the infants be drowned and they were thrown into …