Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/162

 150 K U B K U B to circumnavigate the world. The emperor conferred several honours upon him, and lie ultimately became admiral. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did a great deal to improve the education and the position of the cadets, and in other ways the Russian navy was much indebted to his enlightened exertions. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence the iron in vessels has on the compass was adopted in ths navy. He died at Revel, August 24, 1846. Krusensteni s Voyage Round the World in 1803 was published at St Petersburg in 1810-14 in 3 vols., with folio atlas of 104 plates and maps (English edition, 2 vols., 1813 ; French edition, 2 vols., and atlas of 30 plates, 1820). His narrative contains a good many important discoveries and rectifications, especially in the region of Japan, and the contributions made by the various savants were of much scientific importance. A work of permanent value is Krusen steni s Atlas of the Pacific Ocean, with its accompanying Rccucil des Memoires Hydrographiques, 3 vols., St Petersburg, 1824-35. See Memoir by his daughter Madame Bernhardi, translated by Sir John Ross, 1856. KUBA, or KUDIAL-KALA, a town of the Caucasus, in the government of Baku, Russia, 120 miles north-west from Baku, and 25 miles west of the Caspian. Its situation at the foot of the highlands of Caucasus, on a plain watered by the numberless branches into which the Kubinka river and other smaller streams divide at their issue from the mountain valleys, makes the neighbourhood very suitable for gardening, which is the chief occupation of the 11,300 inhabitants of Kuba, mostly Mussulman Shiites. They also make carpets with very bright colours, and some silks, which are exported to Transcaucasia and Russia ; whilst Jews, who are numerous, carry on an active trade in rough silk, madder, and silk and woollen goods, exported to Russia and Persia. The town, which formerly was a Persian fort, and still is protected on one side by brick walls, is badly built and dirty; it suffers very much from fever. An unsuccessful attempt was made by the military authorities in 1825 to transport the town to New Kuba, 8 miles distant ; the new settlement did not increase, and the settlers returned to Kuba. KUBAN&quot;, a Russian district and government at the north-west extremity of the Caucasus, comprising the entire basin of the river of that name. It is bounded on the N. by the lands of the Don Cossacks and the steppes of Stavropol, E. by the watershed of the river basins of the Caspian and sea of Azoff, S. and S.W. by the Caucasian Alps, and W. by the Black Sea and Straits of Kertch. Its area comprises 27,728 square miles. Ekaterinodar, the chief town (population 30,000), is the residence of the governor, who, being also ataman in chief of the Kuban Cossacks, is invested with military and civil power. Climate varies greatly, the highest temperature reaching 104 Fahr., the lowest seldom falling below 10 Fahr. The country is very healthy, except in the lowlands, where fever prevails. The soil is of extreme fertility, yielding an abundance of wheat, maize, and tobacco. Fruit, such as apples, pears, cherries, is plentiful, and the vine is cultivated with success near Temrouk and Taman. The upper valleys are richly covered with forests abounding in fir, oak, ash, beech, hornbeam, &c. ; the lower parts consist of extensive pasture lands and swamps. The animals include the stag, roe-deer, bear, wild boar, wolf, fox, ibex, and chamois, also the bison (which, however, is very rare) in the virgin forests of the Teberda; numerous water-fowl, such as ducks, geese, swans, pelicans, also the pheasant, partridge, bustard, and moun tain turkey. Th.3 rivers and lakes ar3 plentifully supplied with fish, trout abounding in the mountain streams and the sturgeon at the delta of the river Kuban. The mineral wealth consists of coal, salt, petroleum, and ozokerite. The river Kuban (the ancient Hypanis, see CAUCASUS, vol. v. p. 254) is navigable in flat-bottomed boats over a distance of 100 miles between Temrouk and Ekaterinodar. The delta comprises several lakes. It is on the upper banks of the Kuban that the Ass or Osses, and the enigmatic corner of Asia Propria, are believed to have been located. The history of the original settlements of the various native tribes named below, and their language and worship before the introduction of Mohammedanism, remain a blank page in the legends of the Caucasus. The peninsula of Taman, a land teeming with relics of ancient Greek colonists, has been occupied successively by the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Mongols, and other nations. The Genoese, who had established an extensive trade in the 13th century, were expelled by the Turks in 1484, and in 1784 Eussia obtained by treaty the entire peninsula and the terri tory on the right bank of the Kuban, the latter being granted by Catherine II. in 1792 to the Cossacks of the Dnieper. Then com menced the bloody struggle with the Circassians which continued for more than half a century. The mountaineers were finally sub dued in 1864, and 400,000 of their number expatriated. Those, however, who elected to remain have become more prosperous than they had ever been. The population of Kuban, 862.473, em braces 510,038 Cossacks, 108,346 settlers of Russian origin, 4280 foreigners, and 95,602 natives. Cossack villages are military settle ments, the men carrying arms as well as following the plough. They are exempt from the poll-tax (3 to 4 roubles) to which the others are subjected, but military service is compulsory, as is gratuitous labour in the construction and repair of roads, bridges, &c. Not only domestic but even field work is conducted mostly &amp;gt;j women, remarkable for physical strength and endurance. Corn grow ing, the rearing of cattle, and fishing are the most profitable occupa tions. The native mountaineers, known under the general name of Circassians, but locally distinguished as the Karatchai, Abadsikh, Khakoutchy, Shapsough, have greatly altered their mode of life since the pacification of the Caucasus, still, however, maintaining Mohammedanism, speaking their vernacular, and strictly observing the customs of their ancestors. When during the late liusso-Turkish war insurrections broke out amongst the natives on the Terek, in Dagestan, and Abkhasia, these tribes remained peaceful and perfectly loyal. Their villages, especially those of the Karatchai, are striking examples of human industry, poverty being quite unknown ; for the general emancipation in 18G7 put an end to intestine strife, the predatory expeditions of former times, and the parasitic existence of numerous chiefs on the forced labour of serfs. The native popula tion, as well as the Cossacks, enjoy certain rights of self-govern ment, and are allowed to hold meetings to that end. Exports include wheat, tobacco, leather, wool, petroleum, and live cattle ; imports dry goods, grocery, and hardware. Local industry is limited to a few tanneries, petroleum refineries, and spirit distilleries ; but Russian and foreign capitalists have of late obtained concessions for exploring the petroleum region stretching between Khadaji and Taman, and the coal-mines of Khumarinsky in the upper valley of the Kuban. KUBLAI KHAN (or KAAN, as the supreme ruler de scended from Jenghiz was usually distinctively termed in the 13th century) (1216-1294) was the most eminent of the successors of Jenghiz (Chinghiz), and the founder of the Mongol dynasty in China. He was the second sou of Tuli, youngest of the four sons of Jenghiz by his favourite wife. Jenghiz was succeeded in the khanship by his third son Okkodai, or Ogdai (1229), he by his son Kuyuk (1246), and Kuyuk by Mangku, eldest son of Tuli (1252), Kublai was born in 1216, and, young as he was, took part with his younger brother Hulaku (afterwards conqueror of the caliph and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia) in the list campaign of Jenghiz (1226-27). The Mongol poetical chronicler, Sanang Setzen, records a tradition that Jenghiz himself on his deathbed discerned young Kublai s promise and predicted his distinction. Northern China, Cathay as it was called (vol. v. p. 627), had been partially conquered by Jenghiz himself, and the conquest had been followed up till the Kin or &quot; golden &quot; dynasty of Tartars, reigning at Kai-fung-fu on the Yellow River, were completely subjugated (1234). But China south of the Great Kiang remained many years later subject to the native dynasty of Sung, reigning at ths great city of Linggan, or Kinsai (Kiny-sz &quot; capital &quot;), now known as Hang-chow-fu. Operations to subdue this region had commenced in 1235, but languished till Mangku s accession. Kublai was then named his brother s lieutenant in Cathay, and operations were resumed. By what seems a vast and risky strategy, of which the motives are not