Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Uist, North yo͞oˈĭst, o͞oˈ– [key], and South Uist, islands, two of the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles council area, NW Scotland. North Uist (1985 est. pop. 3,300), is 18 mi (29 km) long and 13 m...

(Encyclopedia) Belle Fourche bĕl fo͞osh [key], river, c.290 mi (470 km) long, rising in NE Wyo., flowing NE and then E to the Cheyenne River in W S.Dak. The Belle Fourche project provides flood control and recreat...

(Encyclopedia) fur, hairy covering of an animal, especially the skins of animals that have thick, soft, close-growing hair next to the skin itself and coarser protective hair above it. The underhair is frequently ca...

(Encyclopedia) Dubuque, Julien dəbyo͞okˈ [key], 1762–1810, pioneer settler of Iowa, b. Nicolet co., Que. Setting out at a young age for the West, Dubuque reached Prairie du Chien, in what is now Wisconsin, by 1...

(Encyclopedia) Muskogean məskōˈgēən [key], branch of Native North American languages belonging to the Hokan-Siouan linguistic family, or stock, of North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...

(Encyclopedia) Iroquoian ĭrˌəkwoiˈən [key], branch of Native North American languages belonging to the Hokan-Siouan linguistic family, or stock, of North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...

(Encyclopedia) Thirteen Colonies, the, term used for the colonies of British North America that joined together in the American Revolution against the mother country, adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776,...

(Encyclopedia) French North Africa, originally general name for Algeria, former French Morocco, and Tunisia. ...

(Encyclopedia) Cook, James, 1728–79, English explorer and navigator. The son of a Yorkshire agricultural laborer, he had little formal education. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joine...

(Encyclopedia) scarab beetle or scarab, name for members of a large family of heavy-bodied, oval beetles (the Scarabaeidae), with about 30,000 species distributed throughout most of the world and over 1,200 in North...