The sea mink (Neovison macrodon) was a mammal from the eastern coast of North America, in the family of weasels and otters in the order Carnivora. The largest of the minks, it was hunted to extinction by fur traders before 1903, when it was first given a species description. Some biologists classify it as a subspecies of the American mink. Estimates of its size are speculative, based largely on skull fragments recovered from Native American shell middens, and on tooth remains. Some information on its appearance and habits was provided by fur traders and Native Americans. It may have been similar in behavior to the American mink: it probably maintained home ranges, was polygynandrous, and had a similar diet, supplemented by saltwater prey. Sea minks were commonly trapped along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in the Gulf of Maine. Remains have been found along the New England coast, and there were regular reports of unusually large mink furs, probably sea mink, being collected from Nova Scotia.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_mink
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1718:
The pirate Blackbeard was killed in battle by a boarding party of British sailors off the coast of North Carolina, ending his reign of terror in the Caribbean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard
1812:
War of 1812: During a punitive expedition against Native American villages, a contingent of Indiana Rangers were ambushed by Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Shawnee warriors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wild_Cat_Creek
1910:
The crews of the Brazilian warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, Bahia—all commissioned only months before—and several smaller vessels mutinied against what they called the "slavery" being practiced in the Brazilian Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Lash
1935:
The China Clipper flying boat took off from Alameda, California, U.S., to become the first service to deliver airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Clipper
1967:
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_242
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
clavicytherium: (music) A harpsichord in which the soundboard and strings are mounted vertically facing the player. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clavicytherium
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wish to use my last hours of ease and strength in telling the strange story of my experience. I have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the sympathy of my fellow-men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven — the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind. While the heart beats, bruise it — it is your only opportunity; while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty, freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for brotherly recognition — make haste — oppress it with your ill- considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless misrepresentations. The heart will by and by be still … the eye will cease to entreat; the ear will be deaf; the brain will have ceased from all wants as well as from all work. Then your charitable speeches may find vent; then you may remember and pity the toil and the struggle and the failure; then you may give due honour to the work achieved; then you may find extenuation for errors, and may consent to bury them. --George Eliot https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot
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