Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hamilton, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Mount, peak 4,372 ft (1,333 m) high, W Calif., in the Coast Ranges, E of San Jose. It is the site of Lick Observatory (built 1876–88), directed by the Univ. of California Observatories. ...

Herne Bay

(Encyclopedia)Herne Bay hûrn [key], town, Kent, SE England. It is a resort with 7 mi (11 km) of coast and ...

Gisborne

(Encyclopedia)Gisborne gĭzˈbôrn [key], city, East Coast North Island, New Zealand, on Poverty Bay. It is a ...

Hyères

(Encyclopedia)Hyères yĕr [key], city, Var dept., SE France, in Provence, on the Mediterranean Sea. A port...

Shelter Island

(Encyclopedia)Shelter Island (1990 pop. 1,193), 7 mi (11.2 km) long and 6 mi (9.7 km) wide, between the two peninsulas of E Long Island, SE N.Y. Settled in the 17th cent. by English colonists, the island has been a...

Taiwan Strait

(Encyclopedia)Taiwan Strait, Chinese Taiwan haixia, arm of the Pacific Ocean, between China's Fujian coast and Taiwan, linking the East and South China seas. It contains the Pescadores. It is also called the Formos...

Spars

(Encyclopedia)Spars [from the motto “Semper Paratus,” Lat.,=always prepared], the women's reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard, created in Nov., 1942, to release men for sea duty. Wartime enlistment reached a peak o...

bight

(Encyclopedia)bight, broad bend or curve in a coastline, forming a large open bay. The New York bight, for example, is the curve in the coast described by the southern shore of Long Island and the eastern shore of ...

Oligocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Oligocene epoch ŏlˈəgōsēnˌ [key], third epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era of geologic time, lasting from 38 to 24 million years ago. More of North America was dry land during the ...

Drake, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Sir Francis, 1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80). In 1585, Drake commanded a fleet that sacked Vigo in Spain and burned São ...