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Fraser Island

(Encyclopedia)Fraser Island or Great Sandy Island, 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Queensland, Australia; on the west it borders Hervey Bay (NW) and the Great Sandy Strait (SW). Known as...

Ibaraki

(Encyclopedia)Ibaraki ēbäˈräkē [key], prefecture, 2,352 sq mi (6,092 sq km), central Honshu, Japan. ...

Alta California

(Encyclopedia)Alta California älˈtə kălˌĭfôrˈnyə [key], term used by the Spanish to refer to their possessions along the entire Pacific coast north of the Mexican state of Baja California. California was o...

Stikine

(Encyclopedia)Stikine stĭkēnˈ [key], river, 335 mi (539 km) long, rising in the Stikine Mts., NW British Columbia, Canada. It flows in an arc west and southwest, crossing SE Alaska, to the Pacific Ocean N of Wra...

Sydney, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Sydney, city (1991 pop. 26,063), Cape Breton Island, N.S., Canada, on the northeast coast at the head of the South Arm of Sydney Harbour. It is the port and the commercial, trade, and industrial cente...

Bristol Channel

(Encyclopedia)Bristol Channel, inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, c.85 mi (140 km) long and from 5 to 50 mi (8.1–80 km) wide, stretching westward from the mouth of the River Severn and separating Wales from SW England....

pilot

(Encyclopedia)pilot, person responsible for safe navigation of a ship or airplane. A ship's pilot is an individual possessing local knowledge of coastal waters. Usually licensed by public authority (in the United S...

Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith)

(Encyclopedia)Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith), 1856–1923, American author and educator, b. Philadelphia. In San Francisco she organized the first free kindergartens on the Pacific coast (1878) and with her sister es...

Wolof

(Encyclopedia)Wolof wōlˈəf [key], black African ethnic group numbering over 3 million, along the Atlantic coast of W Africa; most live in Senegal, but there is a significant minority in Gambia. Traditional Wolof...

Canadian Pacific Railway

(Encyclopedia)Canadian Pacific Railway, transcontinental transportation system in Canada and extending into the United States, privately owned and operated. The construction of a railroad crossing the continent in ...