Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/29

 K A V K A Y 19 was founded by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, who was born in the town in 1769. The population is about 5000. Kavala has been identified with Xeapolis, at which St Paul landed on his way from Samothrace to Philippi, 10 miles to the north (Acts xvi. 11). Neapolia was the port of Philippi, as Kavala now is of Seres ; and in the bay on which it stands the fleet of Brutus and Cassius was moored during the battle of Philippi. Some authorities identify Xeapolis with Datum (Aarov), mentioned by Herodotus as famous for its gold mines. KAVANAGH, JULIA (1824-1877), novelist, was born at Thurles in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1824. She was the daughter of Morgan Kavanagh, author of various philo logical works, and she spent several years of her early life with her parents in Normandy, laying there the founda tion of a perfect mastery of the French language and practical insight into French modes of thought, which was perfected by her later frequent and long residences in France. Miss Kavanagh s literary career began with her arrival in London about her twentieth year, and, beyond the publication of her successive works, her uneventful life with her widowed mother affords few incidents to the chronicler. On the outbreak of the Franco-German war the two ladies removed from Paris, where they were living, to Rouen. Thence they subsequently passed to Nice, where on October 28, 1877, Julia Kavanagh died, in her fifty- fourth year. She is described as having been in person extremely small, with large, luminous, brown eyes, and a wealth of splendid hair. She was a devout Roman Catholic. Julia Kavanagh s first book was Three Paths, 1847, a story for the young ; but her first work to attract notice was Madeleine, a tale of Auvergne, 1848. A Summer and Winter in the Two Sicilies, 2 vols., 1858, was the fruit of a journey made about 1853 to France, Switzerland, and Italy. French Women of Letters, 2 vols., 1862, and English Women of Letters, 2 vols., 1863, are collections of slight biographical essays on lady novelists. She wrote also Woman in France during the 18th century, 2 vols., 1850, and Women of Christianity, 1852. But Miss Kavanagh is better known by her numerous novels and tales contributed to various magazines. The scenes of these are almost always laid in France, and the authoress handles her French themes with fidelity and skill. Her style is simple and pleasing rather than striking ; her characters are interesting without being strongly individualized ; and the paucity of incident in the unravelling of her plots sometimes seems to threaten monotony. Her most popular novels are perhaps Adele, 1857 ; Queen Mab, 1863 ; and John Dorrien, 1875. Others are Nathalie, 1850 ; Daisy Burns, 1853 ; Grace Lee, 1855 ; Rachel Gray, 1855 ; Seven Years, &c., 1859; Beatrice, 1865 ; Sibyl s Second Lore, 1867; Dora, 1868; Silvia, 1870; Bessie, 1872; The Pearl Fountain, &c. (written along with her mother), 1876; and Two Lilies, 1877. Forget-me-nots, 2 volumes of shorter tales, appeared after her death. IvAVERT, or CAUVBRY, a great river of southern India, famous for its traditional sanctity, its picturesque scenery, and its utility for irrigation. Rising in Coorg, high up amid the Western Ghats, in 12 25 N. lat, and 75 34 E. long., it flows with a generally south-eastern direction across the plateau of Mysore, and finally pours itself into the Bay of Bengal through two principal mouths in Tanjore district. Its total length is about 475 miles ; the estimated area of its basin, 28,000 square miles. It is known to devout Hindus as Dakshini Ganga, or the Ganges of the South, and the whole of its course is holy ground. According to the legend there was once born upon earth a girl named Vishnumaya or Lopamudra, the daughter of Brahma ; but her divine father permitted her to be regarded as the child of a mortal, called Kavera-muni. In order to obtain beatitude for her adoptive father, she resolved to become a river whose waters should purify from all sin. Hence it is that even the holy Ganges resorts underground once in the year to the source of the Kaveri, to purge herself from the pollution contracted from the crowd of sinners who have bathed in her waters. The course of the Kaveri in Coorg is very tortuous. Its bed is generally rocky; its banks are high and covered with luxuriant vegetation. On entering Mysore it passes through a narrow gorge, but pre sently widens to an average breadth of from 300 to 400 yards. Its bed continues rocky, so as to forbid all naviga tion ; but its banks are here bordered with a rich strip of cultivation. In its course through Mysore, the channel is interrupted by twelve anicuts or dams for the purpose of irrigation. From the most important of these, known as the Madadkatte, an artificial channel is led to a distance of 72 miles, irrigating an area of 10,000 acres, yielding a revenue of 7000, and ultimately bringing a water-supply into the town of Mysore. In Mysore state the Kaveri forms the two islands of Seringapatam and Sivasamudram, which vie in sanctity with the island of Srirangam lower down in Trichinopoli district. Around the island of Sivasamudram are the celebrated falls of the Kaveri, un rivalled for romantic beauty. The river here branches into two channels, each of which makes a descent of about 200 miles in a succession of rapids and broken cascades. After entering the Madras presidency, the Kaveri forms the boundary between the Coimbatore and Salem districts, until it strikes into Trichinopoli district. Sweeping past the historic rock of Trichinopoli, it breaks at the island of Srirangam into two channels, which enclose between them the delta of Tanjore, the garden of southern India. The northern channel is called the Coleroon (Kolidam) ; the other preserves the name of Kaveri. On the seaward face of its delta are the open roadsteads of Negapatam and French Karikal. The only navigation on any portion of its course is carried on in boats of basket-work. It is in the delta that the real value of the river for irrigation be comes conspicuous. The most ancient irrigation work is a massive dam of unhewn stone, 1080 feet long, and from 40 to 60 feet broad, across the stream of the Kaveri proper, which is supposed to date back to the 4th century, is still in excellent repair, and has supplied a model to British engineers. The chief modern work is the anicut across the Coleroon, 2250 feet long, constructed by Sir Arthur Cotton between 1836 and 1838. KAY, JOHN (1742-1826), Scottish caricaturist, was born in April 1742, near Dalkeith, where his father was a mason. At thirteen he was apprenticed to a barber, whom he served for six years. He then went to Edinburgh, where in 1771 he obtained the freedom of the city by join ing the corporation of barber-surgeons. For some years he practised his craft with success; but in 1785, induced by the favour which greeted certain attempts of his to etch in aquafortis, he took down his barber s pole and opened a small print shop in Parliament Square. There he con tinued to flourish, painting miniatures, and publishing at short intervals his sketches and caricatures of local cele brities and oddities, who abounded at that period in Edin burgh society. He died on February 21, 1826. Kay s portraits were collected b.y Hugh Paton and published under the title A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings by the late John Kay, with Biographical Sketches and Illustrative Anecdotes (Edin., 2 vols. 4to, 1838 ; 8vo ed., 4 vols., 1842; new 4to ed., with additional plates, 2 vols., 1877), forming a unique record of the social life and popular habits of Edinburgh at its most interesting epoch. The caricatures have little strictly artistic merit, beyond their graphic power ; the drawing is always stiff and often false ; but they are admitted to have been accu rate likenesses, and they possess the evident recommenda tion of abundant and sly humour. KAYE, SIB JOHN WILLIAM (1814-1876), historian, was born in 1814, the son of a solicitor. Educated at Eton and Addiscombe Royal Military College, he served as an officer in the Bengal artillery till 1841, when he exchanged his sword for the pen. In 1856 he entered the service of the East India Company in England ; and, when next year the crown assumed the government of India, Kaye sue-