Part 34

KAROSS, a cloak made of sheepskin, or the hide of other animals, with the hair left on. It is properly confined to the coat of skin without sleeves worn by the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa. These karosses are now often replaced by a blanket. Their chiefs wore karosses of the skin of the wild cat, leopard or caracal. The word is also loosely applied to the cloaks of leopard-skin worn by the chiefs and principal men of the Kaffir tribes. Kaross is probably either a genuine Hottentot word, or else an adaptation of the Dutch _kuras_ (Portuguese _couraca_), a cuirass. In a vocabulary dated 1673 _karos_ is described as a "corrupt Dutch word."

KARR, JEAN BAPTISTE ALPHONSE (1808-1890), French critic and novelist, was born in Paris, on the 24th of November 1808, and after being educated at the College Bourbon, became a teacher there. In 1832 he published a novel, _Sous les tilleuls_, characterized by an attractive originality and a delightful freshness of personal sentiment. A second novel, _Une heure trop tard_, followed next year, and was succeeded by many other popular works. His _Vendredi soir_ (1835) and _Le Chemin le plus court_ (1836) continued the vein of autobiographical romance with which he had made his first success. _Genevieve_ (1838) is one of his best stories, and his _Voyage autour de mon jardin_ (1845) was deservedly popular. Others were _Feu Bressier_ (1848), and _Fort en theme_ (1853), which had some influence in stimulating educational reform. In 1839 Alphonse Karr, who was essentially a brilliant journalist, became editor of _Le Figaro_, to which he had been a constant contributor; and he also started a monthly journal, _Les Guepes_, of a keenly satirical tone, a publication which brought him the reputation of a somewhat bitter wit. His epigrams were frequently quoted; e.g. "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose," and, on the proposal to abolish capital punishment, "je veux bien que messieurs les assassins commencent." In 1848 he founded _Le Journal_. In 1855 he went to live at Nice, where he indulged his predilections for floriculture, and gave his name to more than one new variety. Indeed he practically founded the trade in cut flowers on the Riviera. He was also devoted to fishing, and in _Les Soirees de Sainte-Adresse_ (1853) and _Au bord de la mer_ (1860) he made use of his experiences. His reminiscences, _Livre de bord_, were published in 1879-1880. He died at St Raphael (Var), on the 29th of September 1890.

KARRER, FELIX (1825-1903), Austrian geologist, was born in Venice on the 11th of March 1825. He was educated in Vienna, and served for a time in the war department, but he retired from the public service at the age of thirty-two, and devoted himself to science. He made especial studies of the Tertiary formations and fossils of the Vienna Basin, and investigated the geological relations of the thermal and other springs in that region. He became an authority on the foraminifera, on which subject he published numerous papers. He wrote also a little book entitled _Der Boden der Hauptstadte Europas_ (1881). He died in Vienna on the 19th of April 1903.

KARROO, two extensive plateaus in the Cape province, South Africa, known respectively as the Great and Little Karroo. Karroo is a corruption of _Karusa_, a Hottentot word meaning dry, barren, and its use as a place-name indicates the character of the plateaus so designated. They form the two intermediate "steps" between the coast-lands and the inner plateau which constitutes the largest part of South Africa. The Little (also called Southern) Karroo is the table-land nearest the southern coast-line of the Cape, and is bounded north by the Zwaarteberg, which separates it from the Great Karroo. From west to east the Little Karroo has a length of some 200 m., whilst its average width is 30 m. West of the Zwaarteberg the Little Karroo merges into the Great Karroo. Eastward it is limited by the hills which almost reach the sea in the direction of St Francis and Algoa Bays. The Great Karroo is of much larger extent. Bounded south, as stated, by the Zwaarteberg, further east by the Zuurberg (of the coast chain), its northern limit is the mountain range which, under various names, such as Nieuwveld and Sneeuwberg, forms the wall of the inner plateau. To the south-west and west it is bounded by the Hex River Mountains and the Cold Bokkeveld, eastward by the Great Fish River. West to east it extends fully 350 m. in a straight line, varying in breadth from more than 80 to less than 40 m. Whilst the Little Karroo is divided by a chain of hills which run across it from east to west, and varies in altitude from 1000 to 2000 ft., the Great Karroo has more the aspect of a vast plain and has a level of from 2000 to 3000 ft. The total area of the Karroo plateaus is stated to be over 100,000 sq. m. The plains are dotted with low ranges of _kopjes_. The chief characteristics of the Karroo are the absence of running water during a great part of the year and the consequent parched aspect of the country. There is little vegetation save stunted shrubs, such as the mimosa (which generally marks the river beds), wild pomegranate, and wax heaths, known collectively as Karroo bush. After the early rains the bush bursts into gorgeous purple and yellow blossoms and vivid greens, affording striking evidence of the fertility of the soil. Such parts of the Karroo as are under perennial irrigation are among the most productive lands in South Africa. Even the parched bush provides sufficient nourishment for millions of sheep and goats. There are also numerous ostrich farms, in particular in the districts of Oudtshoorn and Ladismith in the Little Karroo, where lucerne grows with extraordinary luxuriance. The Karroo is admirably adapted to sufferers from pulmonary complaints. The dryness of the air tempers the heat of summer, which reaches in January a mean maximum of 87 deg. F., whilst July, the coldest month, has a mean minimum of 36 deg. F. A marked feature of the climate is the great daily range (nearly 30 deg.) in temperature; the Karroo towns are also subject to violent dust storms. Game, formerly plentiful, has been, with the exception of buck, almost exterminated. In a looser sense the term Karroo is also used of the vast northern plains of the Cape which are part of the inner table-land of the continent. (See CAPE COLONY.)

KARS, a province of Russian Transcaucasia, having the governments of Kutais and Tiflis on the N., those of Tiflis and Erivan on the E., and Asiatic Turkey on the S. and W. Its area amounts to 7410 sq. m. It is a mountainous, or rather a highland, country, being in reality a plateau, with ranges of mountains running across it. The northern border is formed by the Arzyan range, a branch of the Ajari Mts., which attains altitudes of over 9000 ft. In the south the Kara-dagh reach 10,270 ft. in Mount Ala-dagh, and the Agry-dagh 10,720 ft. in Mount Ashakh; and in the middle Allah-akhbar rises to 10,215 ft. The passes which connect valley with valley often lie at considerable altitudes, the average of those in the S.E. being 9000 ft. Chaldir-gol (altitude 6520 ft.) and one or two other smaller lakes lie towards the N.E.; the Chaldir-gol is overhung on the S.W. by the Kysyr-dagh (10,470 ft.). The east side of the province is throughout demarcated by the Arpa-chai, which receives from the right the Kars river, and as it leaves the province at its S.E. corner joins the Aras. The Kura rises within the province not far from the Kysyr-dagh and flows across it westwards, then eastwards and north-eastwards, quitting it in the north-east. The winters are very severe. The towns of Kaghyshman (4620 ft.) and Sarykamish (7800 ft.) have a winter temperature like that of Finland, and at the latter place, with an annual mean (35 deg. F.) equal to that of Hammerfest in the extreme north of Norway, the thermometer goes down in winter to 40 deg. below zero and rises in summer to 99 deg. The annual mean temperature at Kars is 40.5 deg. and at Ardahan, farther north, 37 deg. The Alpine meadows (_yailas_) reach up to 1000 ft. and afford excellent pasturage in spring and summer. The province is almost everywhere heavily forested. Firs and birches flourish as high as 7000 ft., and the vine up to above 3000 ft. Cereals ripen well, and barley and maize grow up to considerable altitudes. Large numbers of cattle and sheep are bred. Extensive deposits of salt occur at Kaghyshman and Olty. The population was 167,610 in 1883 and 292,863 in 1897. The estimated population in 1906 was 349,100. It is mixed. In remote antiquity the province was inhabited by Armenians, the ruins of whose capital, Ani, attest the ancient prosperity of the country. To the Armenians succeeded the Turks, while Kurds invaded the Alpine pasturages above the valley of the Aras; and after them Kabardians, Circassians, Ossetes and Kara-papaks successively found a refuge in this highland region. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, when this region was transferred to Russia by the treaty of Berlin, some 82,750 Turks emigrated to Asia Minor, their places being taken by nearly 22,000 Armenians, Greeks and Russians. At the census of 1897 the population consisted principally of Armenians (73,400), Kurds (43,000), Greeks (32,600), Kara-papaks (30,000), Russians, Turks and Persians. The capital is Kars. The province is divided into four districts, the chief towns of which are Kars (q.v.), Ardahan (pop. 800 in 1897), Kaghyshman (3435) and Olty. (J. T. Be.)

KARS, a fortified town of Russian Transcaucasia, in the province of Kars, formerly at the head of a sanjak in the Turkish vilayet of Erzerum. It is situated in 40 deg. 37' N. and 43 deg. 6' E., 185 m. by rail S.W. of Tiflis, on a dark basalt spur of the Soghanli-dagh, above the deep ravine of the Kars-chai, a sub-tributary of the Aras. Pop. (1878), 8672; (1897), 20,891. There are three considerable suburbs--Orta-kapi to the S., Bairam Pasha to the E., and Timur Pasha on the western side of the river. At the N.W. corner of the town, overhanging the river, is the ancient citadel, in earlier times a strong military post, but completely commanded by the surrounding eminences. The place is, however, still defended by a fort and batteries. There is a 10th century cathedral, Kars being the see of a bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church. Coarse woollens, carpets and felt are manufactured.

During the 9th and 10th centuries the seat of an independent Armenian principality, Kars was captured and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, by the Mongols in the 13th, and by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1387. The citadel, it would appear, was built by Sultan Murad III. during the war with Persia, at the close of the 16th century. It was strong enough to withstand a siege by Nadir Shah of Persia, in 1731, and in 1807 it successfully resisted the Russians. After a brave defence it surrendered on the 23rd of June 1828 to the Russian general Count I. F. Paskevich, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war. During the Crimean War the Turkish garrison, guided by General Williams (Sir W. Fenwick Williams of Kars) and other foreign officers, kept the Russians at bay during a protracted siege; but, after the garrison had been devastated by cholera, and food had utterly failed, nothing was left but to capitulate (Nov. 1855). The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the war of 1877-78, and on its conclusion was transferred to Russia.

See Kmety, _The Defence of Kars_ (1856), translated from the German; H. A. Lake, _Kars and our Captivity in Russia_ (London, 1856); and _Narrative of the Defence of Kars_ (London, 1857); Dr Sandwith, _Narrative of the Siege of Kars_ (London, 1856); C. B. Norman, _Armenia and the Campaign of 1877_ (London, 1878); Greene, _Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey_ (1879).

KARSHI, a town of Bokhara, in Central Asia, situated 96 m. S.E. of the city of Bokhara, in a plain at the junction of two main confluents of the Kashka-darya. It is a large and straggling place, with a citadel, and the population amounts to 25,000. There are three colleges, and the Biki mosque is a fine building inlaid with blue and white tiles. Along the river stretches a fine promenade sheltered by poplars. Poppies and tobacco are largely grown, the tobacco being deemed the best in Central Asia. There is a considerable trade in grain; but the commercial prosperity of Karshi is mainly due to its being a meeting-point for the roads from Samarkand, Bokhara, Hissar, Balkh and Maimana, and serves as the market where the Turkomans and Uzbegs dispose of their carpets, knives and firearms. Its coppersmiths turn out excellent work. Karshi was a favourite residence of Timur (Tamerlane).

KARST, in physical geography, the region east of the northern part of the Adriatic. It is composed of high and dry limestone ridges. The country is excessively faulted by a long series of parallel fractures that border the N.E. Adriatic and continue inland that series of steps which descend beneath the sea and produce the series of long parallel islands off the coast of Triest and along the Dalmatian shore. It has been shown by E. Suess (_Antlitz der Erde_, vol. i. pt. 2, ch. iii.) that the N. Adriatic is a sunken dish that has descended along these fractures and folds, which are not uncommonly the scene of earthquakes, showing that these movements are still in progress. The crust is very much broken in consequence and the water sinks readily through the broken limestone rocks, which owing to their nature are also very absorbent. The result is that the scenery is barren and desolate, and as this structure always, wherever found, gives rise to similar features, a landscape of this character is called a Karst landscape. The water running in underground channels dissolves and denudes away the underlying rock, producing great caves as at Adelsberg, and breaking the surface with sinks, potholes and unroofed chasms. The barren nature of a purely limestone country is seen in the treeless regions of some parts of Derbyshire, while the underground streams and sinks of parts of Yorkshire, and the unroofed gorge formed by the Cheddar cliffs, give some indication of the action that in the high fractured mountains of the Karst produces a depressing landscape which has some of the features of the "bad lands" of America, though due to a different cause.

KARSTEN, KARL JOHANN BERNHARD (1782-1853), German mineralogist, was born at Butzow in Mecklenburg, on the 26th of November 1782. He was author of several comprehensive works, including _Handbuch der Eisenhuttenkunde_ (2 vols., 1816; 3rd ed., 1841); _System der Metallurgie geschichtlich, statistisch, theoretisch und technisch_ (5 vols. with atlas, 1831-1832); _Lehrbuch der Salinenkunde_ (2 vols., 1846-1847). He was well known as editor of the _Archiv fur Bergbau und Huttenwesen_ (20 vols., 1818-1831); and (with H. von Dechen) of the _Archiv fur Mineralogie, Geognosie, Bergbau und Huttenkunde_ (26 vols., 1820-1854). He died at Berlin on the 22nd of August 1853. His son, Dr Hermann Karsten (1809-1877), was professor of mathematics and physics in the university of Rostock.

KARTIKEYA, in Hindu mythology, the god of war. Of his birth there are various legends. One relates that he had no mother but was produced by Siva alone, and was suckled by six nymphs of the Ganges, being miraculously endowed with six faces that he might simultaneously obtain nourishment from each. Another story is that six babes, miraculously conceived, were born of the six nymphs, and that Parvati, the wife of Siva, in her great affection for them, embraced the infants so closely that they became one, but preserved six faces, twelve arms, feet, eyes, &c. Kartikeya became the victor of giants and the leader of the armies of the gods. He is represented as riding a peacock. In southern India he is known as Subramanya.

KARUN, an important river of Persia. Its head-waters are in the mountain cluster known since at least the 14th century as Zardeh Kuh (13,000 ft.) and situated in the Bakhtiari country about 115 m. W. of Isfahan. In its upper course until it reaches Shushter it is called Ab i Kurang (also Kurand and Kuran), and in the _Bundahish_, an old cosmographical work in Pahlavi, it is named Kharae.[1] From the junction of the two principal sources in the Zardeh Kuh at an altitude of about 8000 ft., the Ab i Kurang is a powerful stream, full, deep and flowing with great velocity for most of its upper course between precipices varying in height from 1000 to 3000 ft. The steepness and height of its banks make it in general useless for irrigation purposes. From its principal sources to Shushter the distance as the crow flies is only about 75 m., but the course of the river is so tortuous that it travels 250 m. before it reaches that city. Besides being fed on its journey through the Bakhtiari country by many mountain-side streams, fresh-water and salt, it receives various tributaries, the most important being the Ab i Bazuft from the right and the Ab i Barz from the left. At Shushter it divides into two branches, one the "Gerger," an artificial channel cut in olden times and flowing east of the city, the other the "Shutait" flowing west. These two branches, which are navigable to within a few miles below Shushter, unite after a run of about 50 m. at Band i Kir, 24 m. S. of Shushter, and there also take up the Ab i Diz (river of Dizful). From Band i Kir to a point two miles above Muhamrah the river is called Karun (Rio Carom of the Portuguese writers of the 16th and 17th centuries) and is navigable all the way with the exception of about two miles at Ahvaz, where a series of cliffs and rocky shelves cross the river and cause rapids. Between Ahvaz and Band i Kir (46 m. by river, 24 m. by road) the river has an average depth of about 20 ft., but below Ahvaz down to a few miles above Muhamrah it is in places very shallow, and vessels with a draught exceeding 3 ft. are liable to ground. About 12 m. above Muhamrah and branching off to the left is a choked-up river bed called the "blind Karun," by which the Karun found its way to the sea in former days. Ten miles farther a part of the river branches off to the left and due S. by a channel called Bahmashir (from Bahman-Ardashir, the name of the district in the early middle ages) which is navigable to the sea for vessels of little draught. The principal river, here about a quarter of a mile broad and 20 to 30 ft. deep, now flows west, and after passing Muhamrah enters into the Shatt el Arab about 20 m. below Basra. This part of the river, from the Bahmashir to the Shatt, is a little over three miles in length and, as its name, Hafar ("dug") implies, an artificial channel. It was dug c. A.D. 980 by Azud ed-Dowleh to facilitate communication by water between Basra and Ahvaz, as related by the Arab geographer Mukaddasi A.D. 986. The total length of the river is 460 to 470 m. while the distance from the sources to its junction with the Shatt el Arab is only 160 m. as the crow flies. The Karun up to Ahvaz was opened to international navigation on the 30th of October 1888, and Messrs Lynch of London established a fortnightly steamer service on it immediately after.

To increase the water supply of Isfahan Shah Tahmasp I. (1524-1576) and some of his successors, notably Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629), undertook some works for diverting the Kurang into a valley which drains into the Zayendeh-rud, the river of Isfahan, by tunnelling, or cutting through a narrow rocky ridge separating the two river systems. The result of many years' work, a cleft 300 yds. long, 15 broad and 18 deep, cut into the rock, probably amounting to no more than one-twentieth of the necessary work, can be seen at the junction of the two principal sources of the Kurang.

On the upper Karun see Mrs Bishop, _Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan_ (London, 1891); Lord Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_ (London, 1892); Lieut.-Colonel H. A. Sawyer, "The Bakhtiari Mountains and Upper Elam," _Geog. Journal_ (Dec. 1894). (A. H.-S.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The _real_ principal source of the river has been correctly located at ten miles above the _reputed_ principal source, but the name Kurang has been erroneously explained as standing for Kuh i rang and has been given to the mountain with the real principal source. Kuh i rang has been wrongly explained as meaning the "variegated mountain."

KARWAR, or CARWAR, a seaport of British India, administrative headquarters of North Kanara district in the Bombay presidency; 295 m. S. of Bombay city. Pop. (1901), 16,847. As early as 1660 the East India Company had a factory here, with a trade in muslin and pepper; but it suffered frequently from Dutch, Portuguese and native attacks, and in 1752 the English agent was withdrawn. Old Karwar fell into ruins, but a new town grew up after the transfer of North Kanara to the Bombay presidency. It is the only safe harbour all the year round between Bombay and Cochin. In the bay is a cluster of islets called the Oyster Rocks, on the largest of which is a lighthouse. Two smaller islands in the bay afford good shelter to native craft during the strong north-west winds that prevail from February to April. The commercial importance of Karwar has declined since the opening of the railway to Marmagao in Portuguese territory.

KARWI, a town of British India, in the Banda district of the United Provinces, on a branch of the Indian Midland railway; pop. (1901), 7743. Before the Mutiny it was the residence of a Mahratta noble, who lived in great state, and whose accumulations constituted the treasure afterwards famous as "the Kirwee and Banda Prize Money."

KARYOGAMY (Gr. [Greek: karuon], nut or kernel, thus "nucleus," and [Greek: gamos], marriage), in biology: (1) the fusion of nuclei to form a single nucleus in syngamic processes (see REPRODUCTION); (2) the process of pairing in Infusoria (q.v.), in which two migratory nuclei are interchanged and fuse with two stationary nuclei, while the cytoplasmic bodies of the two mates are in intimate temporary union.