• Third rock from the sun
• Protecting our natural resources
• Freedom fighters
• Cattle and other grazing animals - Nature Watch

Third rock from the sun

When you count the planets from the Sun, the first is Mercury, the second Venus and third Earth. For that reason some people call Earth the third rock from the Sun. The Earth is where we live. It provides everything we need. The Earth spins round and round the Sun like the other planets do. We don't feel it because we are so tiny and Earth is so big.

Millions of years ago there was an enormous spinning in space, millions of miles wide! It spun round and round slowly until it formed into a lump that got bigger and bigger. Because of the pull of gravitation, the lump turned into the Sun. Then smaller balls formed and those became the planets of the solar system today.(Earth is one of those planets.)

Our Earth is really important to us. We get a supply of valuable rocks and minerals from it,like coal, gems, gold, diamonds, oil, petrol etc.) In addition, the Earth supplies us with forests, oceans and many other habitats for wildlife and humans.

Life on Earth is endangered. The smoke from cars and factories is polluting it. We must save mother Earth. Anyone can help. "Stop polluting mother Earth!" It is very important. We only have one more chance.

Devasmitha Wijesundara
Hillwood College, Kandy

Protecting our natural resources

All living things must depend on their environment. Environment means everything around you; living things, water, soil and air. Scientists call soil, air and water natural resources. They are part of nature. We call them resources because they supply something we use. When we use plants and animals, they too become resources. The minerals we take from the soil also are natural resources. We mine coal, silver and copper. We drill for oil or gas. These are valuable resources we use. They give human beings a better life.

Scientists warn that the earth will not supply all these things forever. It is important that we do not waste them. We must learn to take care of the earth and its resources. That is why we must learn about the earth and its history. The earth is always changing. In the past there have been living things that could not adapt to the changing earth and became extinct. So far, people have succeeded in staying alive. We have found ways to stay warm in winter. We have learned to produce and store food. And we have found ways to live longer by controlling disease. In doing all this, we have also changed the environment.

Scientists say that people sometimes upset the balance of nature. More and more people are moving into places that once belonged to plants and animals. We need to protect the wild areas from harmful human action. If not, many kinds of living things will become extinct.

What can you do to help? Think about it. First, you must learn about the earth and its history. Next, you must apply what you learn. That is what science is all about. By learning and applying your knowledge you can help save the earth.

Hiranthi Goonasekara

Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya

Stamp News 51

Freedom fighters

By Uncle D.C.R

The 51st anniversary of Sri Lanka's Independence is being celebrated on 4 February. It is a fitting occasion to see how pioneers in the struggle for freedom have been honoured with stamps.

These pioneers were mostly from the middle class who, due to their wealth and education were determined to get back the freedom through constitutional agitation. They were leading members of the Ceylon National Congress which fought for freedom.

Giving the lead in the early part of the century was Sir James Peiris (1856-1930), who submitted a memorandum in 1906 demanding the reform of the Legislative Council by the abolition of racial representation and the introduction of the principle of elections. He was President of the Ceylon National Congress (1921-22) and Vice-President of the Legislative Council (1924-29). His 125th birth anniversary was commemorated with a release of a 50 cent stamp on 20 December 1981.

The first to represent the educated Ceylonese was Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan (1851-1930). He was instrumental in forming the Ceylonese National Association which later led to the formation of the Ceylon National Congress. He was largely responsible for the declaration of Vesak Day as a public holiday, the enactment of the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance and the establishment of the Post Office Savings Bank (which continues to this day as the National Savings Bank). His brother, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalem (1853-1924), the first President of the Congress, joined the agitation with an epoch making address on 'Our political needs' in April 1917.

Proposals for constitutional reforms were submitted by the Congress through delegations sent to England in the 1920s. Acting as secretary of three deputations was D B (later Sir Baron) Jayatilaka (1868-1944) who became the President of the Congress in 1924. An educationist and leading temperance worker, Sir Baron was elected uncontested to the Kelaniya seat in the first State Council (1931) and became Minister of Home Affairs and Leader of the House until 1942 when he was sent as Ceylon's first representative in India. A 25 cent stamp was issued to mark his 100th birth anniversary on February 1968.

E W Perera (1875-1953), scholar, legal luminary and patriot is best remembered for his heroic act in taking some vital documents to London hidden in his shoe in 1915 when martial law had been declared following riots. He led a deputation before the Donoughmore Commission in 1926 as President of the Ceylon National Congress. He opposed the granting of universal suffrage and later broke away from his Congress colleagues. A 60 cent stamp was released on his 16th death anniversary on 17 February 1969.

Another leading light in the struggle between 1915 and 1926 was F R Senanayake (1882-1926), brother of D S Senanayake, first Prime Minister of Independent Ceylon. A temperance leader, he was President of the Mahajana Sabha and a member of the 1920 deputation to England agitating for constitutional reforms. He was remembered with a 50 cent stamp on the day of his 56th death anniversary on 1 January 1980.

Cattle and other grazing animals

Giraffes and okapis

Giraffes are another family of even-toed ungulates. They live in Africa, south of the Sahara. They have a neck which like a human neck has only seven joints. At six metres, the giraffe is the world's tallest animal. The blood vessels in the neck have valves to help pump the blood up to the brain. They have short horns on the head, covered with hairy skin.

The giraffe lives in herds, browsing on trees. The pattern on its coat makes it hard to see. It is so tall that it has to spread its legs out sideways in order to reach down to drink water. Although it looks clumsy it can run as fast as a race horse.

Its relative, the shy okapi, lives in the dense forests of the Congo and was only discovered in the 1900s. Its neck is shorter than the giraffe's, and it has a dark coat which helps camouflage it. It often stands in water and has white stripes around its legs.

Cattle

The largest family of even-toed ungulates is the cattle family, which includes domestic cattle, sheep, goats, deer and antelopes.

The farm cattle we know are mostly descended from the auroch, a large animal, two metres tall, which roamed the forests of Europe and northern Asia. The last one was killed in Poland in 1827.

Water buffalo are common in the Far East and are used for ploughing. They are not the same as the Cape buffalo, of Africa, which is wild.

Other kinds of cattle are the Arctic musk ox and the shaggy yak, which the people of the Himalayas use as a beast of burden.

The massive European bison was once common in forests, but was almost wiped out by man. Today it is found in some zoos, and in a Polish game park.

Millions of American bison or buffalo once roamed the plains, hunted by the North American Indians who used the flesh for food and the hide to make clothing and tepees. With the arrival of firearms, farming and railways, the buffalo was almost exterminated. A few were saved, and are kept in game parks.

Cattle have four-chambered stomachs. Plant food is swallowed and is stored in the first chamber, the paunch or rumen. Then it passes to the reticulam, where minute bacteria and protozoa break down the cellulose in the plants. While the animal is resting it coughs up lumps of food and chews them thoroughly. The food then goes to the third chamber the omasum, and then to the fourth, the abomasum, where it is fully digested.

This complicated process is called ruminating or chewing the cud. It helps protect the animals, as they are able to eat quickly at dawn and dusk, and then hide away to digest the food. The domestic cow, which has no natural enemies, will lie down in the middle of a field to ruminate.

Goats and sheep

Goats and sheep are also ruminants. The wild bezoar goat of the mountains of south-west Asia is probably the ancestor of the farm goat. Another wild goat, the ibex, lives on mountains in Europe. The Rocky Mountain goat lives in the American Rockies.

The ancestor of the domestic sheep, the mouflon, lives on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.

Deer

Deer are the most northerly ruminants. The males carry branched horns called antlers, which they shed and regrow every year. The only female deer to have antlers is the reindeer, the most northerly deer.

In the Middle Ages hunting deer was the sport of kings, especially hunting the stag, the male red deer. There is a similar deer, the wapiti, in North America.

The moose, called the elk in Europe, is the largest deer. It often goes into swamps to eat water plants.

The attractive spotted fallow deer came from Asia, but has been introduced to many countries. The roe deer lives in conifer woods and is very shy.

Antelopes

Antelopes live in Africa and Asia. They look like deer, but both sexes have unbranched horns which spiral or curve, and which are not shed. The biggest antelope is the eland, nearly two metres tall, and the smallest is the royal antelope, only 25 centimetres high.

The pronghorn buck

The pronghorn buck lives on the North American plains. Like antelopes, both sexes have permanent horns; an outer layer of these is shed each year. But the horns are branched, more like a deer than an antelope. It is neither an antelope nor a deer, but a separate animal.

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