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schooner

(Encyclopedia)schooner sko͞oˈnər [key], sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with from two to seven masts. Schooners can lie closer to the wind than square-rigged sailing ships, need a smaller crew, and are very...

Newton, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Newton, Alfred, 1829–1907, English zoologist, b. Geneva. He studied (1854–65) ornithology in Lapland, Iceland, the West Indies, and North America and in 1866 became the first professor of zoology ...

Avalon Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Avalon Peninsula, 3,579 sq mi (9,270 sq km), SE N.L., Canada, on Newfoundland. It is nearly divided at its center by Conception Bay and St. Mary's Bay. The peninsula is the most densely populated part...

Finley, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Finley, Samuel, 1715–66, Presbyterian minister, president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), b. Ireland. He went to North America in 1734 and is believed to have studied under William Ten...

Dare, Virginia

(Encyclopedia)Dare, Virginia, b. 1587, first white child of English parents to be born in America. She was the daughter of Ananias and Elenor Dare, members of Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated colony that settled Roan...

Hiawatha

(Encyclopedia)Hiawatha hīˈəwäˈthə [key], fl. c.1550, legendary chief of the Onondaga of North America. He is credited with founding the Iroquois Confederacy. He is the hero of the well-known poem by Henry Wad...

hominy

(Encyclopedia)hominy [Algonquian], hulled corn with the germ removed and served either ground or whole. The pioneers in North America prepared it by soaking the kernels in weak wood lye until the hulls floated to t...

calycanthus

(Encyclopedia)calycanthus kălˌĭkănˈthəs [key], any plant of the genus Calycanthus, aromatic shrubs of N North America, Asia, and Australia. An American type, the Carolina allspice, is cultivated for the aroma...

Webster, Pelatiah

(Encyclopedia)Webster, Pelatiah, 1726–95, American writer, b. Lebanon, Conn., grad. Yale, 1746. A Philadelphia businessman, he is remembered for his advocacy in his Dissertation of the Political Union and Constit...

Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of, 1831–90, British statesman. As colonial secretary (1866–67) under the earl of Derby he introduced the British North America Act, which made C...