Water Snake

Any member of the genus Natrix, family Colubridae, and similar snakes. The 65 to 80 species of Natrix occur on all continents except South America. Some authorities place the New World species in several genera, the largest of which is Nerodia. Most water snakes have dark blotches or dorsal streaks on their stout bodies, and the scales are keeled. They are semiaquatic, preying

Andalusite

(Al2SiO5), aluminum silicate mineral that occurs in relatively small amounts in various metamorphic rocks, particularly in altered sediments. It is found in commercial quantities in the Inyo Mountains, Mono county, Calif., in the United States; in Kazakstan; and in South Africa. Such deposits are mined as a raw material for refractories and porcelain used in spark plugs

Price, Lloyd

Price's recording of his composition

Chatham Islands

Island group in the South Pacific Ocean, about 500 miles (800 km) east of New Zealand. Composed of 10 islands, with a total land area of 372 square miles (963 square km), they are primarily of volcanic formation, but areas of limestone indicate that they may once have been part of New Zealand. Chatham Island, the largest (347 square miles [900 square km]), rises to 942 feet (287 m); more than 20 percent of its poorly drained

Progressive Party

(1924), in the United States, a short-lived independent political party assembled for the 1924 presidential election by forces dissatisfied with the conservative attitudes and programs of the Democrats and Republicans. The Progressive Party included liberals, agrarians, Republican progressives, socialists, and labour representatives. It chose as its presidential candidate Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, who in 1911 had organized what became an independent party formally called the Progressive but generally known as the Bull Moose Party (q.v.). The 1924 Progressives pledged a �housecleaning� of executive departments, public control of natural resources, public ownership of railways, and tax reduction. The party polled only some 17 percent of the popular vote and did not influence the election, in which President Calvin Coolidge and the Republicans won a majority. The Progressive Party dissolved when La Follette died the following year.

Soga, Tiyo

Xhosa journalist, minister, translator, composer of hymns, and collector of black South African fables, legends, proverbs, history, praises, and customs. His translation of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (U-Hambo lom-Hambi, 1866) had almost as great an influence upon the Xhosa

Lbk Culture

Formerly �Danubian Culture, � Neolithic culture that expanded over large areas of Europe north and west of the Danube River (from Slovakia to the Netherlands) about the 5th millennium BC. Farmers probably practiced a form of shifting cultivation on the loess soil. Emmer wheat and barley were grown, and domestic animals, usually cattle, were kept. The name LBK derives from an abbreviation of the German

Amin, Idi

A member of the small Kakwa ethnic group of northwestern Uganda, Amin had little formal education and joined the King's African Rifles of the British colonial army in 1946 as an assistant cook. He quickly rose through the ranks, serving in the Allied

A'sha, Al-

Al-A'sha spent his youth in travels through Mesopotamia,

Buka Island

One of the northern Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific. It lies northwest of Bougainville Island, from which it is separated by the deep Buka Passage (5 miles [8 km] wide). A volcanic formation measuring 35 miles by 9 miles (56 km by 14 km), Buka has a total land area of 190 square miles (492 square km). Rising to 1,634 feet (498 metres) in hills on the southwest, the island is densely

Augustine, Saint, Early writings

Moderns enamoured of Augustine from the narrative in the Confessions have given much emphasis to his short, attractive early works, several of which mirror the style and manner of Ciceronian dialogues with a new, Platonized Christian content: Contra academicos (386; Against the Academics), De ordine (386; On Providence), De beata vita (386; On the Blessed Life), and Soliloquia (386/387; Soliloquies

Aomori

Northernmost ken (prefecture) on the island of Honshu, Japan. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean (east), the Tsugaru Strait (north), and the Sea of Japan (west). The peninsulas of Tsugaru and Shimokita enclose Mutsu Bay. Aomori has a relatively poor agricultural economy that is handicapped by long, cold, snowy winters and poor drainage. Rice and Japan's largest apple crop are

Urticales

Nettle order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, the largest order in the subclass Hamamelidae. The order includes a diversity of plant types that range from small herbaceous species to large trees. Among the members are stinging nettles; mulberry, fig, and elm trees; hop vines; and the hemp, or marijuana, plant.

Lai

Medieval poetic and musical form, cultivated especially among the trouv�res, or poet-musicians, of northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries but also among their slightly earlier, Proven�al-language counterparts, the troubadours, and, called Leich, by the German minnesingers. The lai was a long poem having nonuniform stanzas of about 6 to 16 or more lines of 4 to 8 syllables.

France, History Of

From the 9th to the 11th century the peoples and lands dominated by west Frankish kings were transformed. The Carolingian protectorate of local order collapsed under the pressures of external invasions and internal usurpations of power. Growing populations and quickening economies were reorganized in principalities whose leaders struggled to carry on the

Cuza, Alexandru Ion

The scion of an old boyar family, Cuza studied in Paris, Pavia, and Bologna, participated in revolutionary agitation against Russo-Turkish rule in his native Moldavia (1848), obtained the rank of colonel, and subsequently achieved prominence

Kamchatka

Also spelled �Kamcatka, � oblast (province), far eastern Russia. Kamchatka oblast includes the entire Kamchatka Peninsula and the southern end of the Koryak Mountains. It includes the Koryak autonomous okrug (district). The administrative centre is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (q.v.). The population, averaging only 2.3 persons per square mile (0.9 per square km), consists chiefly of Russian settlers. The

United States Naval Academy

The academy was founded as a Naval School on Oct. 10, 1845, by George Bancroft, historian, educator, and secretary of the Navy, to improve the then-unsatisfactory

Earth, Matching continental outlines

Early geographers making maps of the South Atlantic Ocean were probably the first to notice the similarity of the outlines of South America and Africa and to wonder if these two continents might have been together at one time. It was not until the early 20th century, however, that Alfred Wegener of Germany used the geography of the Atlantic coastlines, along with geologic

Earth, Matching continental outlines

Early geographers making maps of the South Atlantic Ocean were probably the first to notice the similarity of the outlines of South America and Africa and to wonder if these two continents might have been together at one time. It was not until the early 20th century, however, that Alfred Wegener of Germany used the geography of the Atlantic coastlines, along with geologic

Mimir

Old Norse �M�mir� in Norse mythology, the wisest of the gods of the tribe Aesir; he was also believed to be a water spirit. Mimir was sent by the Aesir as a hostage to the rival gods (the Vanir), but he was decapitated and his head was returned to the Aesir. The god Odin preserved the head in herbs and gained knowledge from it. According to another story, Mimir resided by a well that stood beneath

Daedalus

(Greek: �Skillfully Wrought�), mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who was said to have built, among other things, the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favour with Minos and was imprisoned; he fashioned wings of wax and feathers for himself and for his son Icarus and escaped to Sicily. Icarus, however, flew too near the Sun, and his wings

Daedalus

(Greek: �Skillfully Wrought�), mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who was said to have built, among other things, the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favour with Minos and was imprisoned; he fashioned wings of wax and feathers for himself and for his son Icarus and escaped to Sicily. Icarus, however, flew too near the Sun, and his wings

Chelles

Town, eastern suburb of Paris, in Seine-et-Marne d�partement, Paris region, north-central France, near the Marne River. It is the site of ancient Calae and has ruins of the 7th-century Abbey of Notre-Dame-de-Chelles (founded by Bathilde, widow of Clovis II, and destroyed during the French Revolution). Prehistoric remains found nearby in the 19th century were designated Chellean

Amos, Valerie Ann, Baroness Amos Of Brondesbury

British politician, the first woman of African descent to serve in a British cabinet and as leader of the House of Lords. She was educated at Townley Grammar School for Girls and received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Warwick (1976) and a master's degree in cultural studies from the University of Birmingham (1977). She worked

Tsushima Current

Surface oceanic current, the northeastward-flowing branch of the Kuroshio along the west coast of Japan. Entering the Sea of Japan through the Korea Strait, the Tsushima Current issues the East Korea Warm Current as a northern branch. It is primarily a spring and summer current and is barely discernable in winter.

Ars Antiqua

(Medieval Latin: �Ancient Art�), in music history, period of musical activity in 13th-century France, characterized by increasingly sophisticated counterpoint (the art of combining simultaneous voice parts), that culminated in the innovations of the 14th-century Ars Nova (q.v.). The term Ars Antiqua originated, in fact, with the Ars Nova theorists, some of whom spoke of the �Ancient

France, History Of, The conquest of southern Germany

To the east, the Franks extended their domain in southern Germany, bringing Thuringia (c. 531 Chlotar I carried off Radegunda, a niece of the Thuringian king), the part of Alemannia between the Neckar and the upper Danube (after 536), and Bavaria under subjection. The latter was created as a dependent duchy in about 555. The Franks were less successful in northern Germany; in 536 they imposed

Amarna, Tell El-

Also spelled �Tall al-Amarna�, or �Tel el-Amarna� site of the ruins and tombs of the city of Akhetaton (�Horizon of Aton�) in Upper Egypt, 44 miles (71 km) north of modern Asyut in al-Minya muhafazah (governorate). On a virgin site on the east bank of the Nile, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) built the city in about 1348 BC as the new capital of his kingdom when he abandoned the worship of Amon and devoted himself to that of Aton. About four years after Akhenaton's