Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

428 results found

National Petroleum Reserve

(Encyclopedia)National Petroleum Reserve, area, c.23 million acres (9.32 million hectares), Alaska North Slope, situated W of Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The reserve, which is the largest r...

Andrée, Salomon August

(Encyclopedia)Andrée, Salomon August säˈlo͞omôn ouˈgəst ändrāˈ [key], 1854–97, Swedish polar explorer, grad. Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm. An aeronautical engineer and head of the Swedish patent...

curlew

(Encyclopedia)curlew kûrˈlo͞o [key], common name for large shore birds of both hemispheres, generally brown and buff in color and with decurved bills. There are eight species, belonging to the genus Numenius. Th...

Samoyed

(Encyclopedia)Samoyed sămˈəyĕd [key], breed of hardy, muscular working dog developed in N Siberia many centuries ago. It stands from 19 to 23.5 in. (48.3–59.7 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 35 to 65...

Borough, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Borough, Stephen bûrˈō, bŭˈrō [key], 1525–84, English navigator. Under the direction of Richard Chancellor he was master of the Edward Bonaventure, the first ship to round (1553) North Cape an...

Vescovo, Victor Lance

(Encyclopedia)Vescovo, Victor Lance, 1966–, American private equity investor and adventurer, b. Dallas, Tex., M.B.A. Harvard, 1994. He was a principal at Lehman Brothers (1991–92), a senior manager at Bain and ...

seal, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)seal, carnivorous aquatic mammal with front and hind feet modified as flippers, or fin-feet. The name seal is sometimes applied broadly to any of the fin-footed mammals, or pinnipeds, including the wa...

Madeira Islands

(Encyclopedia)Madeira Islands mədērˈə, –dârˈə [key], archipelago (1991 pop. 257,692), 308 sq mi (798 sq km), autonomous region of Portugal, in the Atlantic Ocean c.350 mi (560 km) off Morocco. Madeira, the...

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

(Encyclopedia)French Southern and Antarctic Lands, overseas territory of France, including Adélie Land, which covers c.200,000 sq mi (520,000 sq km) in Antarctica, and a number of islands in the S Indian Ocean. Th...

Keeshond

(Encyclopedia)Keeshond kāsˈhŏnd [key] (pl. Keeshonden), breed of medium-sized nonsporting dog raised in Holland for several hundred years and introduced into England in the year 1900. It stands about 18 in. (46 ...