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hedgehog

(Encyclopedia)hedgehog, Old World insectivorous mammal of the family Erinaceidae. The spiny hedgehogs are found in Africa and Eurasia, except SE Asia. They have rounded bodies up to 13 in. (33 cm) long, very short ...

stratosphere

(Encyclopedia)stratosphere strătˈəsfēr [key], second lowest layer of the earth's atmosphere. The level from which it extends outward varies with latitude; it begins c.51⁄2 mi (9 km) above the poles, c.6 or 7 ...

Dudley

(Encyclopedia)Dudley, metropolitan borough, W central England. Dudley's famed iron, coal, and limestone industries began declining c.1870. Other industries include en...

Cîmpina

(Encyclopedia)Cîmpina kŭmˈpēnä [key], town, S central Romania, in Walachia. It is a major petroleum ce...

Chiatura

(Encyclopedia)Chiatura chēəto͞oˈrə [key], city (1989 pop. 29,228), S central Georgia, on the Kvirila River. One of the world's largest manganese producers, Chiatura alone accounted for half of the world's mang...

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

(Encyclopedia)Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse əpŏkˈəlĭps [key], allegorical figures in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. The rider on the white horse has many interpretations—one is that he represents Chr...

Josetsu

(Encyclopedia)Josetsu jōˌsāˈtso͞o [key], fl. 1425, Japanese landscape painter, teacher, and priest. His work shows the formal characteristics of Chinese suiboku-ga (black-and-white) painting. He worked in Kyot...

Tuapse

(Encyclopedia)Tuapse to͞oəpsyĕˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 63,100), Krasnodar Territory, SE European Russia, on the Black Sea. It is a major petroleum port and the terminal of the pipeline from the Grozny oil field...

bitumen

(Encyclopedia)bitumen bĭtyo͞oˈmən [key] a generic term referring to flammable, brown or black mixtures of tarlike hydrocarbons, derived naturally or by distillation from petroleum. It can be in the form of a vi...

Sewell, Anna

(Encyclopedia)Sewell, Anna so͞oˈəl [key], 1820–78, English author. Her only work, Black Beauty (1877), the story of a horse, became a children's classic and has gone into many reprints. Her mother, Mary Wright...