RIO DE JANEIRO (423), capital and chief seaport of Brazil, charmingly situated on the E. coast of Brazil, on the W. shore of a spacious and beautiful bay, 15 m. long, which forms one of the finest natural harbours in the world; stretches some 10 m. along the seaside, and is hemmed in by richly clad hills; streets are narrow and ill kept; possesses a large hospital, public library (180,000 vols.), botanical gardens, arsenal, school of medicine, electric tramways, &c.; has extensive docks, and transacts half the commerce of Brazil; coffee is the chief export; manufactures cotton, jute, silk, tobacco, &c.  Great heat prevails in the summer, and yellow fever is common.

RIO GRANDE (known also as Rio Bravo del Norte), an important river of North America, rises in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado; flows SE., dividing Texas from Mexico, and enters the Gulf of Mexico after a course of 1800 m.; is navigable for steamboats some 500 m.; chief tributary, Rio Pecos; also the name given to the head-stream of the river Parana in Brazil and Argentina.

RIO GRANDE DO NORTE (310), a maritime State in the NE. corner of Brazil, called after the Rio Grande, which flows NE. and enters the Atlantic at Natal, the capital of the State.

RIO GRANDE DO SUL (645), the southmost state in Brazil, lies N. of Uruguay, fronting the Atlantic; capital, Rio Grande (18).

RIO NEGRO, 1, One of the larger tributaries of the Amazon, rises as the Guainia in SE.  Columbia; crosses Venezuela and Brazil in a more or less SE. direction, and joins the Amazon (the Maranon here) near Manaos after a course of 1350 m.; some of its tributaries connect the Orinoco with the Amazon. 2, Has its source in a small lake in the Chilian Andes, flows NE. and E. to the Atlantic, is some 500 m. long, and easily navigated.

RIOJA (80), a province of W. Argentina, embraces some of the most fruitful valleys of the Andes which grow cereals, vines, cotton, &c.; some mining in copper, silver, and gold is done.  The capital, Rioja (6), is prettily planted in a vine and orange district at the base of the Sierra Velasco 350 m.  NW. of Cordoba.

RIOM (10), a pretty little French town in the dep. of Puy-de-Dome, noted for its many quaint old houses of the Renaissance period; does a good trade in tobacco, linen, &c.

RIP VAN WINKLE, a Dutch colonist of New York who, driven from home by a termagant wife strolls into a ravine of the Katskill Mountains, falls in with a strange man whom he assists in carrying a keg, and comes upon a company of odd-looking creatures playing at ninepins, but never uttering a word, when, seizing an opportunity that offered, he took up one of the kegs he had carried, fell into a stupor, and slept 20 years, to find his beard and all the world about him quite changed.

RIPLEY, 1, a manufacturing town (7) of Derbyshire, situated 10 m.  NE. of Derby, in a busy coal and iron district; manufactures silk lace. 2.  A Yorkshire village on the Nidd, 31/2 m.  NW. of Harrowgate; has an interesting castle, old church, &c.