Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rhône, river, Switzerland and France

(Encyclopedia)Rhône, Lat. Rhodanus, river, 505 mi (813 km) long, rising in the Rhône glacier, NE Valais, Switzerland. It flows west through a narrow, flat valley that separates the Bernese Alps from the Pennine A...

Gordon, Adam Lindsay

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Adam Lindsay, 1833–70, Australian poet, b. the Azores. In 1853 he went to South Australia, where he joined the mounted police and later became famous as a steeplechase rider and horse owner....

Australian Alps

(Encyclopedia)Australian Alps, chain of mountain ranges, SE Australia, in the state of Victoria and New South Wales, making up the southern part of the Eastern Highlands and forming the watershed between the Murray...

Arno

(Encyclopedia)Arno, river, c.150 mi (240 km) long, rising in the Northern Apennines, Tuscany, central Italy, and flowing south to Arezzo where it turns northwest; it proceeds generally west, through Florence and Pi...

Kapuas

(Encyclopedia)Kapuas käˈpo͞oäs [key], river, c.710 mi (1,140 km) long, rising in the mountains of central Borneo and flowing SW through W Kalimantan, Indonesia, to the South China Sea near Pontianak. Its valley...

La Guajira

(Encyclopedia)La Guajira lä gwähēˈrä [key], peninsula, c.100 mi (160 km) long, N Colombia, extending into the Caribbean Sea. Punta Gallinas, at the tip, is the northernmost point of South America. On the spars...

Walvis Bay

(Encyclopedia)Walvis Bay wôlˈvĭs [key], municipality (1991 pop. 12,100), W central Namibia, on Walvis Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. Walvis Bay is Namibia's most important port and the terminus of a railroad...

Lynch, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Lynch, Thomas, 1749–79, political figure in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, known as Thomas Lynch, Jr., b. Prince George Parish, S.C., studied Cambridge and law a...

Malacca, Strait of

(Encyclopedia)Malacca, Strait of məläkˈə [key], c.500 mi (800 km) long and from c.30 to 200 mi (50–320 km) wide, between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea, it ...

embolus

(Encyclopedia)embolus ĕmˈbələs [key], foreign matter circulating in and obstructing a blood vessel. It may be a portion of a clot that has separated from the wall of a vessel (see thrombosis), a bubble of gas o...