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Wilkins, Sir George Hubert

(Encyclopedia)Wilkins, Sir George Hubert, 1888–1958, British explorer, b. Australia. He made a number of trips to Antarctica and to the Arctic. Valuable experience gained when he accompanied Vilhjalmur Stefansson...

Yukon, river, Canada and the United States

(Encyclopedia)Yukon yo͞oˈkŏn [key], river, c.2,000 mi (3,220 km) long, rising in Atlin Lake, NW British Columbia, Canada, and receiving numerous headwater streams; one of the longest rivers of North America. It ...

Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch

(Encyclopedia)Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch tĭlˈək gôlt [key], 1817–93, Canadian statesman, b. England; son of John Galt. In 1835 he went to Canada in the service of the British American Land Company. He direct...

Tryon, William

(Encyclopedia)Tryon, William, 1729–88, English colonial governor in North America. After a distinguished army career he was appointed (1764) lieutenant governor of North Carolina and succeeded (1765) Arthur Dobbs...

Trans-Canada Highway

(Encyclopedia)Trans-Canada Highway, c.4,800 mi (7,700 km) long, S Canada; dedicated 1962; completed 1970. The world's longest national highway, it traverses North America from St. John's, N.L., to Victoria, British...

Rasles, Sébastien

(Encyclopedia)Rasles, Sébastien sābästyăNˈ räl [key], 1657?–1724, French Jesuit missionary in North America. Arriving in present-day Maine in 1689, he spent two years with the Abnaki in Acadia. He then beca...

Jones, Brian

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Brian, 1947–, British balloonist, b. Bristol. A former Royal Air Force pilot, he entered the world of ballooning in the 1980s, and in 1997 became an organizer for the attempt of the British-b...

Smith, John, English colonist in America

(Encyclopedia)Smith, John, c.1580–1631, English colonist in America, b. Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England. A merchant's apprentice until his father's death in 1596, he thereafter lived an adventurous life, travel...

Seaton, John Colborne, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Seaton, John Colborne, 1st Baron, 1778–1863, British soldier and colonial administrator. He served in Egypt (1801) and Sicily (1806), participated (1808–14) in the Peninsular War, and helped to de...

caribou, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)caribou, name in North America for the genus (Rangifer) of deer from which the Old World reindeer was originally domesticated. Caribou are found in arctic and subarctic regions. They are the only deer...