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Beachy Head

(Encyclopedia)Beachy Head, high chalk cliffs (575 ft/175 m), on the south coast of East Sussex, S England. The battle of Beachy Head, in the War of the Grand Alliance, was fought (1690) between an Anglo-Dutch fleet...

Somme, river, France

(Encyclopedia)Somme, river, c.150 mi (240 km) long, rising near Saint-Quentin, N France, and flowing generally NW past Amiens into the English Channel; connected by canal with the Scheldt and Oise rivers. Once an o...

Brooks Range

(Encyclopedia)Brooks Range, mountain chain, northernmost part of the Rocky Mts., extending about 600 mi (970 km) from east to west across N Alaska. Mt. Chamberlin, 9,020 ft (2,749 m) high, near the Canadian border,...

Byrhtnoth

(Encyclopedia)Byrhtnoth brīkhtˈnōth [key], d. 991, alderman of the East Saxons. Leader of the English forces in the battle of Maldon, he was killed in the battle and was buried at Ely. ...

pith

(Encyclopedia)pith, in botany, core of the stem of most plants. Pith is composed of large, loosely packed food-storage cells. As the stem grows older the pith usually dries out, and in some it disintegrates and the...

Wilson, Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron, 1881–1964, British field marshal. He served in the South African War and World War I and in 1939 became commander of the British forces in Egypt. He led the...

Zeya

(Encyclopedia)Zeya zāˈä, Rus. zyāˈə [key], river, c.800 mi (1,290 km) long, rising in the Stanovoy Range, Russian Far East, and flowing south to join the Amur River at Blagoveshchensk. It carries gold in its ...

Zhoushan Archipelago

(Encyclopedia)Zhoushan Archipelago jō-shän [key], NE Zhejiang prov., China, in the East China Sea, at the entrance to Hangzhou Bay. It includes the main island of Zhoushan and about 100 lesser islands; Dinghai on...

Viscount Melville Sound

(Encyclopedia)Viscount Melville Sound, 250 mi (402 km) long and 100 mi (161 km) wide, arm of the Arctic Ocean, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada, between Victoria and Prince of Wales islands on the south an...

Botany Bay

(Encyclopedia)Botany Bay, inlet, New South Wales, SE Australia, just S of Sydney. It was visited in 1770 by James Cook, who proclaimed British sovereignty over the east coast of Australia. The site of the landing i...