Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/866

 832 K A M K A M the eastern side of the peninsula. The active volcanoes are as follows: Klyutchevskaya Sopka (15,040 feet in height), Shevelyutch (9898 feet), Bolshaya (i.e., the Great) Tolbatcha (7800 feet), Kizimen, Uzon, Kishpinitch, the Great and the Little Semetchik, Zhupanova Sopka (8496 feet), Avatchinskaya (8360 feet), Asatcha, and Tchaokhtch. The eruptions of Klyutchevskaya are not unworthy of being compared with those of Mount Etna ; the most notable chronicled by European observers are those of 1727-1731 (lasting four years), 1737, and 1854. More than twenty hot springs are known. The basis rocks are granite and porphyry, with metamorphic schists, basalts, trachytes, and other volcanic rocks. The sedimen tary rocks are mainly of Tertiary and more particularly Eocene origin ; those of the Quaternary period have a limited area. Native copper, magnetic iron, lignite, amber, mica, and sulphur are the chief minerals. Of the rivers the largest bears the same name as the peninsula ; rising in the highest part of the central range, it flows north for about 310 miles, and falls into the Behring Sea. The valley of the Kamchatka forms the most fertile and most populous portion of the peninsula. For the meteorology of this portion of Asia the materials are of the scantiest ; Dr Wild even (Met. Repertorium, suppl. vol., St Fetersb., 1881) is obliged to have recourse to observations as far back as 1844. In January the mean temperature appears to be 19 4 Fahr. at the southern point of the peninsula, 17 6 at Petropavlovsk, and - 5 -8 at the northern ex tremity. The western coast is very considerably colder in winter than the east, but the snowfall is much heavier in the east than in the west. Towards the south especially snow often lies so thick that the natives cannot keep reindeer. During summer the weather is very un certain, with frequent rains and fogs ; but in the centre of the peninsula especially there is a large amount of warmth. Vegetation, especially on soils of volcanic origin, is remarkably luxuriant ; the grass grows nearly 5 feet high, and may be cut three times. In the woods berries, mushrooms, and the Martagon lily abound, the bulbs of the last also furnishing food to the natives. Beyond the forests appear Rhododendron Kamtschaticum, Salix arctica, and other plants of an alpine type. The Kamchatkan nettle with richly variegated foliage is a familiar object in English greenhouses. Besides the Kamchadales proper there are Koryak and Lamut tribes within the limits of the peninsula. By themselves the Kamchadales are called Itelm, the name by which they are usually known being a corruption of Konchal, their Koryak appellation. There are not in all more than 2000 Kamchadales, and the process of Russification is going on rapidly. They are a strong hardy people, inured to the severities of the climate, capable of any amount of toil in the way of walking. To their women they are affectionate, and even submissive. In winter they live in pits covered in with earth and turf, the interior being reached by means of a ladder. In the summer they occupy slight wooden sheds (boloyans) raised on high props or stilts. The skill they display in the training of their sledge-dogs is not surpassed by any other people who practice the same art. With their sledges (narts) which measure from 5 to 10 feet in length they travel 4 to 8 miles an hour. The Kamchadale language cannot be assigned to any known group ; its vocabulary is extremely poor. The purity of the tongue is best preserved by the people of the Penzhinsk district on the west coast ; many of the inhabitants of the Kamchatka valley speak a broken Russian. Mr Kennan compares the sound of the language to that of water running out of a narrow-mouthed jug. The total population of the peninsula were 7331 in 1853, and 5846 in 1870. The Russians made their first settlements in Kamchatka in the end of the 17th century ; in 1696 Vladimir Atlasoff from Ana- duirsk founded Nizhne-Kamchatsk, and in 1704 Kobelefl founded Bolsheryetsk. About twelve years later the Russians came for the first tirno by sea from Okhotsk. In 1720 a survey of the peninsula was undertaken ; in 1725-30 it was visited by Behring s expedition; and from 1733-45 it was the scene of the labours of the Krashenin- nikoff and Steller expedition. Disturbance among the natives in 1731 led to the building of a fort at Tigilsk. The seat of the govern ment is at Petropavlovsk. In 1855 the country was incorporated with the Maritime Province. See Krasheiiinnikoff, Opisanie Kamchatki, 1786, of which an English translation appeared at Gloucester, 1764, and a German translation at Leipsic, 1774; Les.seps, Reise durch Kamtschatka, Berlin, 1791 ; Erman, Reise, vol. iii. ; Langsdorff, Bcmcrk. auf cincr Reise um die Welt, 1812 ; Tronson, Voyage to Japan, &e. , London, 1859 ; Petermann s Mittheilungcn, 1860 ; Revue d An- thropologie, 1872 ; Kerinan, Tent Life in Liberia, New York, 1870; and the same author s paper in Journ. of Amcr. Geoyr. Soc., 1876. KAMENETS (Polish, Kamieniec), usually distinguished as Podolian Kamenets to distinguish it from Lithuanian Kamenets in Grodno, is the chief town of the government of Podolia, Russia. It is situated in 48 40 N. lat. and 26 25 E. long., 982 miles south of St Petersburg, and occupies a high and rocky peninsula formed by the liver Smotritch, a left-hand tributary of the Dniester. Round about the town lie quite a cluster of suburban villages, the Polish Folwark, the Russian Folwark, Zinkovtsui, Karvasarui, &c. ; and on the opposite side of the river, and accessible by a wooden bridge, stands the fine old castle which so long frowned defiance across the Dniester to Khotin. Among the ecclesiastical buildings may be men tioned the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, built in 1361, and distinguished by a minaret, which recalls the time when it was used as a mosque by the Turks ; the Greek cathedral of John the Baptist, dating from the 16th century, but up to 1798 belonging to the Basilian monastery ; the Orthodox monastery of the Trinity; the Catholic Armenian church, founded in 1398, and possessing among its treasures a missal of slightly earlier date and an image of the Virgin Mary that saw the Tartar invasion. The town contains further a Govern ment gymnasium, Orthodox and Roman Catholic semin aries, Jewish colleges, and an infirmary. The population was 20,699 (11,091 males) in 1863, comprising 9965 Jews, 4987 Catholics, 69 Armenians, and 56 Protestants. In 1870 the total was 22,611. Kamenets appears to be first mentioned in the Russian chroniclers in the end of the 12th century, though there is some doubt whether it be the Podolian town that is meant. Laid waste in 1240 by the forces of Baty, the leader of the Golden Horde, it passes out of view for nearly a century. It afterwards appears frequently in the gen eral history of the Podolian region ; and in 1434 it was made the chief town of the province of Podolia, institutefl by Ladislaus III., king of Poland. In the course of the 15th and 16th centuries it suffered frequently from the invasions of Tartars, Moldavians, and Turks ; and in 1672 the hetman Doroshenko, assisted by Mahomet 1 V., made himself master of the place. Restored to Poland by the peace of Carlowitz (1699), it passed with Podolia to Russia in 1795, and on the constitution of the Podolian government in the following year obtained the rank of government town. KAMENZ, chief town of a department in the circle of Bautzen, Saxony, is situated on the Black Elster, about 21 miles north-east of Dresden. It is the seat of a local court, and has a handsome new town-house and a library. The hospital is dedicated to the memory of Lessing, who was born here in 1729. A colossal bust of the poet was placed opposite the Wend church in 1863 ; and a monument was raised to him on a neighbouring hill in 1864. The industries of Kamenz include wool-spinning, and the manufacture of cloth, crockery, and stoneware. In 1875 the inhabitants numbered 6785, including the garrison. Till the 16th century Kamenz was known by the name Dreikret- cham. In 1318 it passed by purchase to the margrave of Branden burg ; in 1319 it went to the king of Bohemia ; and in 1635, after suffering much in the Hussite and Thirty Years wars, it came into