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Ashley, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Ashley, William Henry, c.1778–1838, American fur trader and politician, b. Virginia. In 1820 he was elected lieutenant governor of Missouri. He sent fur-trading expeditions up the Missouri River to ...

Assassin

(Encyclopedia)Assassin əsăsˈĭn [key], European name for the member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam. They are known as Nizaris after Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, whom they supported as caliph; the Euro...

cheetah

(Encyclopedia)cheetah chēˈtə [key], carnivore of the cat family, Acinonyx jubatus, native to Africa and SW Asia as far east as India. Formerly numerous all over their range, they are extinct now in Asia except f...

Blue Ridge

(Encyclopedia)Blue Ridge, eastern range of the Appalachian Mts., extending south from S Pa. to N Ga.; highest mountains in the E United States. Mt. Mitchell, 6,684 ft (2,037 m) high, is the tallest peak. Beginning ...

Nagorno-Karabakh

(Encyclopedia)Nagorno-Karabakh nəgôrˈnə-kərəbäkh [key], region (1990 pop. 192,000), 1,699 sq mi (4,400 sq km), SE Azerbaijan, between the Caucasus and the Karabakh range. Khankendi or Stepanakert (the capita...

Croagh Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Croagh Patrick krōˈäpătˈrĭk, krōˈäkh– [key], mountain, 2,510 ft (765 m) high, Co. Mayo, W Republic of Ireland, near Westport Bay. Legend connects it with St. Patrick, and its summit has lon...

Collingwood

(Encyclopedia)Collingwood, town, S Ont., Canada at the south end of Georgian Bay, an arm of Lake Huron. Collingwood is a shipbuilding center and has one of the larges...

Gran Paradiso

(Encyclopedia)Gran Paradiso grän pärädēˈzō [key], mountain, 13,323 ft (4,061 m) high, in Valle d'Aosta, NW Italy. In the Graian Alps, it is the highest Alpine peak entirely in Italian territory. ...

troll

(Encyclopedia)troll trōl [key], in Scandinavian folklore, dwarfish or gigantic creature of caves and hills. Variously friendly or malicious, trolls toiled as smiths. The mountain king in Ibsen's Peer Gynt is a tro...

gorilla

(Encyclopedia)gorilla, an ape, genus Gorilla, native to the lowland and mountain forests of western and central equatorial Africa. The two gorilla species are the western, comprising the western lowland (G. gorilla...