Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) George, Saint, 4th cent.?, perhaps a soldier in the imperial army who died for the faith in Asia Minor. His life is cloaked in legends; Gibbon's identification of him with George of Cappadocia is fals...

(Encyclopedia) Fraser, Simon, 1776–1862, Canadian explorer and fur trader. Born in Bennington, Vt., he was taken to Canada as a child. He entered the service of the North West Company in 1792, and in 1801 he was m...

(Encyclopedia) Leif Ericsson lēf ĕrˈĭksən [key], Old Norse Leifr Eiriksson, fl. a.d. 999–1000, Norse discoverer of America, b. probably in Iceland; son of Eric the Red. He spent his youth in Greenland and in ...

(Encyclopedia) redstart, common name for an Old World thrush of the genus Phoenicurus, family Turdidae. A small, slender-legged songbird, it is found in woodlands, parks, and heaths. The European redstart, P. phoeni...

(Encyclopedia) selenium səlēˈnēəm [key], nonmetallic chemical element; symbol Se; at. no. 34; at. wt. 78.96; m.p. 217℃; b.p. about 685℃; sp. gr. 4.81 at 20℃; valence −2, +4, or +6. Selenium is directly ...

(Encyclopedia) Migdol mĭgˈdŏl [key], in the Bible. 1 Place near which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. 2 City, Egypt, where Jews lived. It is the modern Tall al Hayr, S of Pelusium. ...

(Encyclopedia) Nubian Desert, eastern region of the Sahara Desert, c.157,000 sq mi (407,000 sq km), NE Republic of Sudan, NE Africa, between the Nile and the Red Sea. The arid region, largely a sandstone plateau, ha...

(Encyclopedia) Pepin, Lake pĕpˈĭn, pĭpˈ– [key], a widening of the Mississippi River, 21 mi (34 km) long and c.3 mi (5 km) wide, SE Minn., between Wabasha and Red Wing; formed by a natural dam of silt dropped ...

(Encyclopedia) East Lansing, city (2020 pop. 47,741, Ingham co., S central Mich., a suburb of Lansing, on the Red Cedar River; inc. 1907. The city was first known as C...

(Encyclopedia) Fan Si Pan fäN sē päN [key], peak, 10,312 ft (3,143 m) high, on the divide between the Red and Black rivers, NW Vietnam, near the Chinese border. It is the highest point in Vietnam. ...