Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Viscount Melville Sound

(Encyclopedia)Viscount Melville Sound, 250 mi (402 km) long and 100 mi (161 km) wide, arm of the Arctic Ocean, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada, between Victoria and Prince of Wales islands on the south an...

Tórshavn

(Encyclopedia)Tórshavn or Thorshavn both: tôrsˌhounˈ [key], city (1998 est. pop. 16,095), capital of the Faeroe Islands, on SE Streymoy Island, Denmark. It is the commercial and shipping center of the Faeroe Is...

Mainland

(Encyclopedia)Mainland. 1 Island (1991 pop. 14,150), 178 sq mi (461 sq km), N Scotland. The largest of the Orkney Islands, it is also called Pomona. Kirkwall, the seat of the Orkney Islands council area, is on the ...

Mourne Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Mourne Mountains môrn [key], in Down, Newry, and Mourne dists., SE Northern Ireland. Slieve Donard (2,796 ft/852 m) is the highest peak in Northern Ireland. The district is barren and sparsely popula...

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...

Ephraim

(Encyclopedia)Ephraim ēˈfrēəm [key], in the Bible, younger son of Joseph and Asenath and eponymous ancestor of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. His tribe occupied the rugged country around Shiloh that later came...

Usuman dan Fodio

(Encyclopedia)Usuman dan Fodio 1754–1817. Fulani religious and political leader. Beginning as an itinerant Muslim missionary in northern Nigeria, he gained a large following for his syncretic visions, establishin...

Faulkner, Brian

(Encyclopedia)Faulkner, Brian fôkˈnər [key], 1921–77, Northern Irish politician. A Protestant businessman, he was elected to the Northern Ireland Parliament as a Unionist in 1949. As minister of home affairs (...

Australasia

(Encyclopedia)Australasia ôstrəlāˈzhə, –shə [key], islands of the South Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and adjacent islands. The term is sometimes used to include all of Oceania. ...

Pamlico Sound

(Encyclopedia)Pamlico Sound pămˈlĭkō [key], lagoon, 80 mi (129 km) long and 15 to 30 mi (24–48 km) wide, E N.C., separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a row of low, sandy barrier islands; largest lagoon along ...