Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) fishing, act of catching fish for consumption or display. Fishing—usually by hand, club, spear, net, and (at least as early as 23,000 years ago) by hook—was known to prehistoric people. It was pra...

(Encyclopedia) skiing, sport of sliding over snow on skis—long, narrow, flexible runners. Water skiing is a warm-weather sport in which a motor-propelled craft tows a skier through the water. Although its orig...

(Encyclopedia) cricket, ball-and-bat game played chiefly in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries. In the early 21st cent., Twenty20, a new version of cricket with a much faster, more compressed format, eme...

(Encyclopedia) biathlon bīăthˈlŏn [key], sport in which cross-country skiers race across hilly terrain, occasionally stopping to shoot, prone or standing as required, with rifles at sets of fixed targets. The bi...

(Encyclopedia) iceberg, mass of ice that has become detached, or calved, from the edge of an ice sheet or glacier and is floating on the ocean. Because ice is slightly less dense than water about one ninth of the to...

(Encyclopedia) As Salamiya äs-sälämˈēyä [key], town (1988 est. pop. 47,000), W central Syria. It is a transportation center situated in a fertile plain where cereals, vegetables, and cotton are grown. As Salam...

(Encyclopedia) dog racing, trials of speed between dogs. Now contested on oval tracks, the sport developed from the ancient practice of coursing, in which specially trained dogs chase game animals in the open field....

(Encyclopedia) weight lifting, international sport, also a training technique for athletes in other sports. From the earliest times men have lifted weights as a test of strength. Long popular as a competitive sport ...

(Encyclopedia) glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

(Encyclopedia) mountain climbing, the practice of climbing to elevated points for sport, pleasure, or research. Also called mountaineering, it is practiced throughout the world. Many mountain climbing clubs have...