Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kennebec kĕnˈəbĕk [key], river, 164 mi (264 km) long, rising in Moosehead Lake, NW Maine, and flowing S to the Atlantic; the Androscoggin River is its chief tributary. Samuel de Champlain explored...

(Encyclopedia) horseshoe, narrow plate, commonly of iron or steel, shaped to fit a horse's hoof and attached to the hoof by nailing it to the inner edge of the horny wall of the hoof. Horseshoes vary from the light ...

(Encyclopedia) Japan, Sea of, or East Sea, enclosed arm of the Pacific Ocean, c.405,000 sq mi (1,048,950 sq km), located between Japan and the Asian mainland, connecting with the East China Sea, the Pacific Ocean, a...

(Encyclopedia) Ketchikan kĕˈchĭkănˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 8,263), SE Alaska, a port of entry on Revillagigedo Island in the Alexander Archipelago. A supply point for miners in the gold rush of the 1890s, it ha...

(Encyclopedia) Skagway skăgˈwāˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 692), Skagway-Yakutat census div., SE Alaska, in the Panhandle, at the head of Lynn Canal; founded 1897. It is an ice-free port of entry; a trade and touris...

(Encyclopedia) act of God, in law, an accident caused by the operation of extraordinary natural force. The effect of ordinary natural causes (e.g., that rain will leak through a defective roof) may be foreseen and a...

(Encyclopedia) Barentz or Barents, Willem both: vĭˈləm bäˈrənts [key], d. 1597, Dutch navigator. He made three voyages (1594, 1595, 1596–97) in search of the Northeast Passage to Asia. He reached Novaya Zeml...

(Encyclopedia) frost or hoarfrost, ice formed by the condensation of atmospheric water vapor on a surface when the temperature of the surface is below 32℉ (0℃). In the formation of frost, a gas (water vapor) is ...

(Encyclopedia) Lena lēˈnə, Rus. lyĕˈnə [key], river, easternmost of the great rivers of Siberia, c.2,670 mi (4,300 km) long, rising near Lake Baykal, SE Siberian Russia. It flows northeast, then north along th...

(Encyclopedia) Pechenga pyĕˈchĭn-gə [key], Finnish Petsamo, town, NW European Russia, an ice-free port at the head of Pechenga Fjord on the Barents Sea and near the Norwegian border. It is also the northern term...