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ferret

(Encyclopedia) ferret, name for a domesticated polecat, Mustela putorius, common in the Old World. It has been used for centuries to hunt rats, mice, and rabbits. Domestic ferrets are found in many…

Midwest

(Encyclopedia) Midwest or Middle West, region of the United States centered on the western Great Lakes and the upper-middle Mississippi valley. It is a somewhat imprecise term that has been applied…

Assiniboin

(Encyclopedia) AssiniboinAssiniboinəsĭnˈəboinˌ [key], Native North Americans whose culture is that of the N Great Plains; their language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic…

pasqueflower

(Encyclopedia) pasqueflowerpasqueflowerpăskˈflouˌər [key], name for two similar perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family). The Old World pasqueflower (Anemone pulsatilla) was so named…

mammoth

(Encyclopedia) mammoth, name for several large prehistoric relatives (genus Mammuthus) of modern elephants which ranged over Eurasia and North America in the Pleistocene epoch. The shoulder height of…

Black Hills

(Encyclopedia) Black Hills, rugged mountains, c.6,000 sq mi (15,540 sq km), enclosed by the Belle Fourche and Cheyenne rivers, SW S.Dak. and NE Wyo., and rising c.2,500 ft (760 m) above the…

prairies

(Encyclopedia) prairies, generally level, originally grass-covered and treeless plains of North America, stretching from W Ohio through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa to the Great Plains region. The…

Buffalo Bill

(Encyclopedia) Buffalo Bill, 1846–1917, American plainsman, scout, and showman, b. near Davenport, Iowa. His real name was William Frederick Cody. His family moved (1854) to Kansas, and after the…

artesian well

(Encyclopedia) artesian well, deep drilled well through which water is forced upward under pressure. The water in an artesian well flows from an aquifer, which is a layer of very porous rock or…

drought

(Encyclopedia) drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such…