Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/16

 K A R -- K A R native pilgrims. There are three recognized forest divi sions in the district the Nallamalai, the Vellikonda, and the Yellamalai. The first two are conserved by the forest department. The chief timber-trees are teak and yepi. In the northern parts, where the jungle is poor, there are extensive level grassy lands, which afford pasture to numerous herds of cattle. The jungle products consist of gall-nuts, honey, wax, tamarinds, stick-lac, and bamboo rice. Tigers are numerous in the Nallamalais, and commit great havoc among the herds of cattle pastured in the jungles. The other animals include cheetahs, wolves, hyaenas, foxes, bears, spotted deer, wild goats, several varieties of antelopes, bison, porcupines, and pigs. The population in 1871 numbered 914,432, of whom 819,453 were Hindus, 60, 579 Mohammedans, and about 3844 Christians, chiefly Roman Catholics, whose principal station is at Polur. The Catholics originally belonged to the Kapu caste, and their conver sion to Christianity has not made any material change in their manners and customs. They eat and drink with Hindus, and in several cases intermarry with them. The Protestant converts are almost entirely low-caste natives in rural tracts. The wild tribes or Chenchus live on the Nallamalais in small communities called yudcms. Each gudem includes several tribes, and has a portion of the hills allotted to it by common consent. The Chenchus are unwilling to cultivate, but are sometimes employed by the villagers in the plains to watch their fields during the harvest, and some of them are employed as road watchmen. During the hill festival they collect fees from pilgrims. Some of them also enjoy free lands for guarding the jungles. The principal towns are Karnul (population in 1871, 25,579), Nandial (9378), Cumbum (7137), Giidur (5825), Meddikera (8586), Kodunmr (6064), and Paikali (5076). The chief crops are rice, wheat, and other cereals, gram, cotton, tobacco, indigo, sugar-cane, betel, chillies, &c. The staple of the district is cJwlam (Sorghum vutgarc). The total area under cultiva tion in 1877 was 2,089,689 acres, area uncultivated but capable of cultivation 1,017,389 acres, and uncultivable waste 1,396,602 acres. There is not much waste land in the plains, but there is a good deal in the Nallamalais, which was cultivated in ancient times, but is now overgrown with jungle. The main canal of the Madras Irrigation Company, intended for both irrigation and navigation, runs 142 miles within Karnul ; the extent actually irrigated in 1875-76 was 10,479 acres. Both Karnul and the neighbouring district of Bellary suffer from droughts at periodic intervals ; and, the mass of the population being small landowners, with no reserve capital, the failure of a single monsoon involves general distress; 1804, 1810, 1824, 1833, 1854, 1866, and 1876 were all years of drought and consequent scarcity. In the famine of 1876-77 nearly 600,000 was spent on relief works, yet the number of deaths recorded from 1st October 1876 to 30th June 1877 was 48,000, as compared with 19,974 in the corresponding period of the previous year. The chief manufacture in Karnul is weaving. Iron is worked at the foot of the Nallamalais. Of late years this industry has greatly diminished, native iron being superseded for agricultural implements by imported iron. Diamond mines have been worked from early times in the quartzite beds of the Yellamalai hills, which are now rented out by Government for about 20 a year. Quarry ing stones is an important industry. Indigo and sugar are also manufactured. Weekly markets are held in most of the towns and important villages. There is little or no export of grain. Salt is imported from the eastern coast, but earth salt is largely manu factured. Cotton, indigo, tobacco, and hides, with cotton carpets and cotton cloth, are the chief exports. European piece goods, areca-nut, cocoa-nut, and various dry condiments required for native households are the chief imports. The total net revenue of the district in 1870-71 was 196,468, the total civil expenditure 46,998 ; the land revenue was 135,929. Education is backward, only 4 per cent, of the population in 1871 being returned as able to read and write. In 1875 there were altogether 263 schools, with 5781 pupils. The climate is on the whole healthy. The prevailing winds are west and north-east, and the mean temperature, is about I 85 Fahr. The total annual rainfall is about 35 inches. In the villages along the foot of the Nallamalais, a severe type of fever prevails, accompanied by enlargement of the spleen. KARNUL, the headquarters of the above district, in 15 49 58&quot; N. lat. and 78 5 29&quot; E. long., had a popu lation m 1871 of 25,579. It is a hot unpleasant town, built on rocky soil at the junction of the Hindri and Tungabhadra rivers. The old Hindu fort was levelled in 1865, with the exception of one of the gates, which was preserved as a specimen of ancient architecture, and in .some measure restored. In the famine of 1877-78 Karnul and the surrounding country suffered terribly, owing to their isolated position. The nearest railway station is Gooty, 80 miles distant ; and it was only by extraordinary efforts that food was conveyed to the town. The popula tion is half Hindu and half Moslem, this unusual propor tion marking the long rule of the Pathan nawabs. KARS, a fortified town of Armenia, formerly at the head of a sandjak in the Turkish vilayet of Erzeroum, but since 1878 the centre of a territory attached to the Russian governor-generalship of the Caucasus. It is situated in 40 36 52&quot; N. lat. and 43 5 7G&quot; E. long., 30 miles south-west of Alexandropol (Gumri) and 130 miles north-east of Erzeroum, on the eastern end of a spur of the Soghanli Dagh, the site of the town proper being cut off from the rest of the range by the Kars Tchai, a sub-tributary of the Araxes. There are three considerable suburbs Orta Kapi to the south, Bairam Pasha to the east, and Timur Pasha on the western side of the river. To the south-eastward opens up a vast plain. Owing to the bareness of the dark basalt hills, and the sombre colour of the buildings, a touch of melancholy mingles with the picturesqueness of the view. At the north-west corner of the town, overhanging the river, rises the ancient citadel (the Itch Kaleh of the Turks), which in earlier times was a strong military post, but is now of almost no moment in a regular siege, being commanded completely by several of the surrounding eminences. The value of the position depends on the line of forts, and even this is greatly diminished by the fact that they are disposed in a circuit of about 10 miles round the town. Of chief importance are the works on the Kara Dagh heights to the north-east and the line on the heights above the left bank of the river. The population of Kars was at one time estimated at 40,000; but, according to Baron von Seidlitz, it had in 1878 only 8672 inhabitants (including 7330 Turks, 1191 Armenians, 138 Greeks). Though during the 9th and 10th centuries the seat of an inde pendent Armenian principality, Kars has nothing to boast of beyond its military fame. The citadel, it would appear, was built ly Amurath III. during the war with Persia, in the close of the 16th century. It was strong enough to stand a siege by Nadir Shah in 1731, and in 1807 it successfully resisted the Russians. After a brave defence it surrendered on 23d June 1828 to the Russian general T askievitch, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war. During the Crimean war the Turkish garrison, guided and stimu lated by General Williams (afterwards knighted as Sir W. Fenwick Williams of Kars) and other foreign officers, kept the Russians gallantly 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 (November 1855). The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the war of 1877-78. See Kmety, The Defence of Kars, ISofi, translated from the German ; Lake, Kars and our Captivity in Russia, 1S5G, and Narrative of the Defence of Kara, 1857; I)r Sandwith, The Siege of Kars, 1856; C. B. Norman, Armenia and the CampaiijnoflS T, iSTS; Greene, Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey, 1879. KARSHI, an important town of Central Asia, the centre of a begship dependent on Bokhara, It is situated about 85 miles south-south-west of Samarkand, in a vast plain at the junction of two of the main confluents of the Kashkadarya, a river which, though fed by numer ous mountain streams, soon loses itself in the sands. It is a large and straggling place, with a circuit of 5 miles, and the population within the walls amounts to 25,000. There are three colleges, with accommodation for upwards of three hundred students. The Biki mosque is a fine building inlaid with blue and white tiles. All the ordinary houses are built of clay, but they are often two stones high. Along the river stretches a fine public promenade sheltered by clumps of poplars. Round the town lie gardens and fields watered from wells. Poppies and tobacco are both largely grown, the tobacco being deemed the best in Central Asia. There is also a considerable trade in grain ; but the commercial prosperity of Karshi is mainly due to