Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Head, Sir Edmund Walker

(Encyclopedia)Head, Sir Edmund Walker, 1805–68, British governor-general of Canada (1854–61), cousin of Sir Francis Bond Head. An Oxford scholar and tutor, he published several books. His success as lieutenant ...

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,...

Castle Mountains National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Castle Mountains National Monument, 20,920 acres (8,466 hectares), SE California. Surrounded on three sides by the Mojave National Preserve (see Mojave Desert), the monument contains Native American a...

Bernina

(Encyclopedia)Bernina bĕrnēˈnä [key], mountain group, part of the Rhaetian Alps on the Swiss-Italian border, SE Switzerland. Piz Bernina is the highest (13,304 ft/4,055 m) peak. The group has many glaciers; Mor...

Ceraunian Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Ceraunian Mountains sĭrônˈēən [key], Albanian Kanalit, coastal range, S Albania, extending northwest c.70 mi (110 km) from the Greek border to the Strait of Otranto; Mt. Çikës (6,726 ft/2,050 m...

Derbyshire

(Encyclopedia)Derbyshire därˈbēshər, –shĭr [key] county, 1,016 sq mi (2,632 sq km), central England. The county seat ...

Pike, Zebulon Montgomery

(Encyclopedia)Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, 1779–1813, American explorer, an army officer, b. Lamberton (now part of Trenton), N.J. He joined the army (c.1793) and was commissioned second lieutenant in 1799. In 1805 ...

Leshan

(Encyclopedia)Leshan lōˈshänˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 384,300), central Sichuan prov., China, just S of Chengdu, on the Min River. Heavy industry is the city's largest source of income; agriculture and ligh...

Murano

(Encyclopedia)Murano mo͞oräˈnō [key], suburb of Venice, NE Italy, on five small islands in the Lagoon of Venice. From the late 13th cent. it was the center of the Venetian glass industry, which reached a peak i...

Savai'i

(Encyclopedia)Savai'i sävīˈē [key], volcanic island (1981 pop. 43,150), Samoa. It is the largest (c.700 sq mi/1,810 sq km) and most westerly of the Samoan islands. Savai'i, fertile and mountainous, has the high...