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Head, Sir Francis Bond

(Encyclopedia)Head, Sir Francis Bond, 1793–1875, British administrator in Canada. A soldier (1811–25) and unsuccessful mining adventurer in South America, he had had little experience to prepare him for the pos...

Guri Dam

(Encyclopedia)Guri Dam, 24,364 ft (7,426 m) long and 531 ft (162 m) high, on the Caroní River, Bolívar state, SW Venezuela. Built in phases between 1963 and 1986, the dam consists of a central concrete gravity da...

Viña del Mar

(Encyclopedia)Viña del Mar vēˈnyä dĕl mär [key] [Span.,=vineyard by the sea], city (1990 est. pop. 281,100), central Chile. Practically a suburb of Valparaiso, Viña del Mar is one of the most famous and popu...

Cavendish, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cavendish, Thomas, 1560–92, English navigator. He commanded a ship in the flotilla under Sir Richard Grenville sent (1585) by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the first colony in Virginia. In 1586, i...

Acuña, Cristóbal de

(Encyclopedia)Acuña, Cristóbal de krēstōˈbäl dā ako͞oˈnyä [key], 1597–1676?, Spanish Jesuit missionary and explorer in South America, rector of the Jesuit college at Cuenca, Ecuador. In 1638 he was sent...

Stinnes, Hugo

(Encyclopedia)Stinnes, Hugo ho͞oˈgō shtĭnˈəs [key], 1870–1924, German industrialist. The son of a Westphalian mine owner, he founded his own company in 1892 and rapidly expanded his interests to build a hug...

shrike

(Encyclopedia)shrike or butcher bird, predatory songbird found in most parts of the world except Australia and South America. The plumage of the European and North American species is mostly gray, black, and white;...

crossbill

(Encyclopedia)crossbill, bird of the genus Loxia, in the finch family. Its bill, crossed at the tips, is specialized for pulling apart pine cones and picking out the seeds. Crossbills are found in the evergreen for...

horseshoe pitching

(Encyclopedia)horseshoe pitching, game played by two or more persons using horseshoes, the object being to throw the shoes so as to encircle a vertical iron peg that is 14 in. (35.6 cm) high. Regulation courts are ...

foot-and-mouth disease

(Encyclopedia)foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease, highly contagious disease almost exclusive to cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and other cloven-hoofed animals. It is caused by a virus, specifically an a...