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sirocco
sirocco [Ital., from Arab. sharq =east], hot, dust-laden, dry, southerly wind originating in the N African desert (most commonly in the spring) and reaching Italy and nearby Mediterranean areas. The term more generally denotes any oppressive, warm, southerly or southeasterly wind in this region.
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Geneva Conference
Geneva Conference any of various international meetings held at Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the more important ones are discussed here. 1 International conference held Apr.-July, 1954, to restore peace in Korea and Indochina . The chief participants were the United States, the Soviet Union, G...
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Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth 1802-56, American explorer and trader in the far West, b. Cambridge, Mass. A businessman in Boston, he was fired with a desire to go to Oregon by the eloquence of Hall J. Kelley . When Kelley's plans for an expedition were long delayed, Wyeth formed one of his own and in 183...
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Stewart
Stewart river, 331 mi (533 km) long, rising in the Mackenzie Mts., central Yukon Territory, Canada, and flowing generally W to the Yukon River S of Dawson. The river is navigable for most of its length and is a transportation route for lead ore from its upper reaches. It was explored (1850) by Robe...
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Townsville
Townsville city (1991 pop. 101,398), NE Queensland, Australia, on Cleveland Bay. It is a major port. Wool, hides, meat, copper, and sugar are the chief exports. Copper and sugar refining, meat and fish packing and freezing, and cement making are other industries. Within easy reach of the Great Bar...
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Lena
Lena , 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 the east side of the central Siberian uplands and parallels the Verkhoyansk Range, reaching a width of 8.5 mi (13.7 km). It empties ...
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Annapurna
Annapurna , massif of the Himalayas, N central Nepal, forming a ridge 35 mi (56 km) long, including two of the highest peaks in the world, Annapurna I (26,502 ft/8,078 m) in the west and Annapurna II (26,041 ft/7,938 m) in the east. The summit of Annapurna I was first reached in 1950 by a French exp...
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Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson fl. 1607-11, English navigator and explorer. He was hired (1607) by the English Muscovy Company to find the Northeast Passage to Asia. He failed, and another attempt (1608) to find a new route was also fruitless. Engaged (1609) for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Company, he...
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Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. demonstrated that the American continents were a true barrier to a short route to East Asia, there sti...
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Hawaii
Hawaii island (1990 pop. 120,217), 4,037 sq mi (10,456 sq km), largest and southernmost island of the state of Hawaii and coextensive with Hawaii co.; known as the Big Island. Geologically the youngest of the Hawaiian group, Hawaii is made up of three volcanic mountain masses rising from the floor ...
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