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Donner Party

(Encyclopedia)Donner Party, group of emigrants to California who in the winter of 1846–47 met with one of the most famous tragedies in Western history. The California-bound families were mostly from Illinois and ...

Indian pipe

(Encyclopedia)Indian pipe, common name for the genus Monotropa and for the family Monotropaceae, low flowering plants of north temperate zones. They are chlorophylless saprophytes with a funguslike appearance. Each...

igloo

(Encyclopedia)igloo ĭgˈlo͞o [key] [Inuit,=house]. The Eskimos traditionally had three types of houses. A summer house, which was basically a tent, a winter house, which was usually partially dug into the ground ...

snowshoes

(Encyclopedia)snowshoes, footgear enabling the wearer to walk on soft snow without sinking. A snowshoe consists of a light frame of tough wood or aluminum, roughly the shape of a large tennis racket, which is strun...

Langmuir, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Langmuir, Irving lăngˈmyo͞or [key], 1881–1957, American chemist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Associated (1909–50) with the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, he introduced atomic-hydrog...

precipitation, in meteorology

(Encyclopedia)precipitation, in meteorology, condensed moisture that falls to the surface of the earth in the form of rain, sleet, snow, hail, frost, or dew. ...

hail, in meteorology

(Encyclopedia)hail, precipitation in the form of pellets composed of ice or of ice and snow, occurring at any time of the year, usually during the passage of a cold front or during a thunderstorm. Small hailstones ...

Trikora Peak

(Encyclopedia)Trikora Peak, 15,518 ft (4,730 m) high, in the Jayawijaya Mts., Papua prov., Indonesia, the third highest peak in Indonesia. The snow-covered peak was formerly called Mt. Wilhelmina. ...

leopard

(Encyclopedia)leopard, large carnivore of the cat family, Panthera pardus, widely distributed in Africa and Asia. It is commonly yellow, buff, or gray, patterned with black spots and rings. The rings, unlike those ...

nutcracker

(Encyclopedia)nutcracker, common name for a small crow of the genus Nucifraga in the family Corvidae (crow family). The Old World nutcracker (N. caryocatactes) is found throughout the colder regions of Europe, incl...