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Puntarenas

(Encyclopedia)Puntarenas po͞ontärāˈnäs [key], town (1995 est. pop. 40,706), capital of Puntarenas prov., W Costa Rica, on the Gulf of Nicoya. Formerly the country's principal port on the Pacific, it has been s...

Vatel, François

(Encyclopedia)Vatel, François fräNswäˈ vätĕlˈ [key], fl. 17th cent., French chef, famous in the time of Louis XIV. Mme Marie de Sévigné, in her letters, speaks of him as the chef of the prince of Condé an...

Woods Hole

(Encyclopedia)Woods Hole, uninc. village (1990 pop. 1,080) and seaport in the town of Falmouth, Barnstable co., SE Mass., at the southwestern extremity of Cape Cod. It is the departure point for nearby island resor...

Berdyansk

(Encyclopedia)Berdyansk bĕrˌdyänskˈ [key], city, in SE Ukraine on the Berdyansk Gulf of the Sea of Azov. It is ...

Tema, city, Ghana

(Encyclopedia)Tema tāmə [key], city (1984 pop. 99,608), SE Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea. With the opening of an artificial harbor in 1961, Tema developed from a small fishing village to become Ghana's leading sea...

Biwa

(Encyclopedia)Biwa bēˈwä [key], lake, c.40 mi (60 km) long and from 2 to 12 mi (3.2–19 km) wide, Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. The lake, shaped like the biwa, a musical instrument, is the largest in Japan...

Ziguinchor

(Encyclopedia)Ziguinchor zēgăNshôrˈ [key], city (1988 pop. 124,283), SW Senegal, a port on the Casamance River. Located in a rice-growing region, the city produces peanut oil, frozen fish, and orange juice and ...

scale, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)scale, in zoology, an outgrowth, either bony or horny, of the skin of an animal. The major component of the scales of fishes is bone, and they are formed directly in the skin membrane as the fish grow...

sea snake

(Encyclopedia)sea snake, name for any of the venomous marine snakes of the family Hydrophidae, found in tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans. The sea snake's body is flattened laterally and its oarlike ...

sturgeon

(Encyclopedia)sturgeon, primitive fish of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike evolutionarily advanced fishes, it has a fine-grained hide, with very reduced scalation, a mostly cartilagin...