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Piura

Capital of Piura department, northwestern Peru, on the Piura River in the warm coastal desert. San Miguel de Piura was the first city founded (1532) in Peru by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro. The original site proved unhealthful, and several other locations were occupied before the present site was settled in 1588. Piura retains a colonial flavour, especially in the church

Pierre Shale

Division of Upper Cretaceous rocks in the United States (the Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 to 66.4 million years ago). Named for exposures studied near old Fort Pierre, S.D., the Pierre Shale occurs in South Dakota, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The Pierre consists of about 600 m (2,000 feet) of dark gray shale, some sandstone, and many layers of bentonite (altered

Ghardaïa

Chief town of the M'zab (q.v.) Oasis, north-central Algeria. It lies along the left bank of the Oued (wadi) Mzab in the northern Sahara (Desert). Founded in the 11th century, it was built around the cave (ghar) reputedly inhabited by the female saint Daïa (the cave is still venerated by M'zabite women). Ghardaïa is a fortified town with white and red clay houses that rise in terraces and

Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke Of

Grandson of the 2nd duke, Charles Fitzroy (1683–1757), and great-grandson of the 1st, he was educated at Westminster School and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was secretary of state in 1765 under the Marquess of Rockingham but retired the following year. William

Eylau, Battle Of

(Feb. 7–8, 1807), one of the engagements in the Napoleonic War of the Third Coalition. The first major deadlock suffered by Napoleon, the battle was fought around the East Prussian town of Eylau (modern Bagrationovsk, Russia), 23 miles (37 km) south of Königsberg (Kaliningrad). The 76,000 Russians and Prussians under Leonty Leontyevich Bennigsen confronted 74,000 men under Napoleon shortly after

Moser-pröll, Annemarie

Pröll skied from the age of four. She tried out for the Austrian national ski team at the age of 15. Her Olympic Winter Games success came late. She won silver medals for the downhill and the giant slalom at the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan,

Canadian River

River that rises in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, northeastern New Mexico, U.S., and flows southward across the Las Vegas Plains, cutting a gorge nearly 1,500 feet (450 m) deep in the Canadian escarpment before turning eastward. It continues through the Texas Panhandle in a deep, narrow valley cut into reddish sandstones, the walls of which are known locally as the “breaks,” and flows

Numbat

Also called  Banded Anteater  (Myrmecobius fasciatus), marsupial mammal of the family Dasyuridae (some authorities classify it as a family in its own right, Myrmecobiidae). It forages by day for termites in forests of southwestern Australia. Formerly widespread across southern Australia, the numbat is now restricted to the southwestern corner of the country and is regarded as an endangered

Epistatic Gene

In genetics, a gene that determines whether or not a trait will be expressed. The system of genes that determines skin colour in man, for example, is independent of the gene responsible for albinism (lack of pigment) or the development of skin colour. This gene is an epistatic gene. When the albino condition occurs, the genes that determine skin colour are present but not