Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

wampum

(Encyclopedia)wampum wämˈpəm [key] [New England Algonquian,=white string of beads], beads or disks made by Native Americans from the shells of mollusks found on the eastern coast or along the larger rivers of No...

wrasse

(Encyclopedia)wrasse răs [key], common name for a member of the large family Labridae, brilliantly colored fishes found among rocks and kelp in tropical seas. Wrasses, related to the parrotfishes (which are includ...

Coco

(Encyclopedia)Coco, river, c.466 mi (750 km) long, rising in S Honduras and flowing E into Nicaragua and then NE to the Caribbean Sea. Part of the Mosquito Coast region, and once the object of dispute between Hondu...

Falster

(Encyclopedia)Falster fälˈstər [key], island, 198 sq mi (513 sq km), Storstrøm co., SE Denmark, in the ...

Izalco

(Encyclopedia)Izalco ēsälˈkō [key], volcano, 7,828 ft (2,386 m) high, W El Salvador. It was sometimes called the Lighthouse of the Pacific because it was visible to 19th-century navigators off the coast. Althou...

Gros Morne

(Encyclopedia)Gros Morne grō môrn [key], mountain, 2,644 ft (806 m) high, W Newfoundland island, Canada, in the Long Range N of Bonne Bay; second highest point on Newfoundland. Gros Morne National Park (690 sq mi...

Gironde, estuary, France

(Encyclopedia)Gironde, estuary, c.45 mi (70 km) long and from 2 to 7 mi (3.2–11.3 km) wide, formed by the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, which join c.14 mi (23 km) N of Bordeaux. Sand banks and a high tidal range h...

Back, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Back, Sir George, 1796–1878, British explorer in N Canada. He accompanied Sir John Franklin on arctic expeditions in 1818, 1819–22, and 1824–27. On an expedition (1833–35) to search for the mi...

Korhogo

(Encyclopedia)Korhogo kôrhōˈgō [key], town (1996 est. pop. 158,300), N Côte d'Ivoire. It is an administrative and processing center for a mountainous region where cotton, kapok, rice, millet, peanuts, corn, an...

Kaneohe

(Encyclopedia)Kaneohe käˈnāōhā [key], uninc. city (1990 pop. 35,448), Honolulu co., Hawaii, on the east coast of Oahu, on Kaneohe Bay. Once the site of a pineapple plantation and cannery, it is a residential s...