KAMCHATKA, or Kamtchatka, a peninsular portion of eastern Siberia, Russia, stretching south between the Sea of Okhotsk on the west and Behring’s Sea on the east, and finding its physical continuation first in the Kurile Islands (of which Shunshu is only 7 miles distant from the terminal Cape Lopatka) and then in the larger islands of the empire of Japan. The area is estimated at 237,266 square miles. The range of mountains which forms the backbone of the peninsula opens up towards the middle into two distinct branches, and gives the whole the general outline of an oval leaf. The western branch is the higher of the two. Southwards from 57° N. lat. there are no fewer than twelve active and twenty-six extinct craters,—all, however, except five on 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 sedimentary 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 ...

KAMENETS (Polish, Kamieniecj, usually distinguished as Podolian Karnenets 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, <fcc.; 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 mentioned 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 Government gymnasium, Orthodox and Roman Catholic seminaries, 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....

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 Brandenburg; in 1319 it went to the king of Bohemia; and in 1635, after suffering much in the Hussite auα Thirty Years’ wars, it came into Art of Thinking, which appeared in 1761, was followed in 1762 by Elements of Criticism, an ingenious and in some respects suggestive discussion of the principles of taste, but in many ways imperfect and unsatisfactory. In 1774 he published, in two volumes, Sketches of the History of Man, a somewhat heterogeneous medley of opinions and speculations on a great variety of subjects, but containing many shrewd suggestions and much curious observation. The works of Kames as a whole are more remarkable for superficial fertility and varied learning than for real originality, and his reasoning is clever and ingenious rather than subtle and comprehensive. His style is loose, frequently incorrect and awkward in construction, and abounds in expressions which border on slang.

See Life of Lord Kames, by A. F. Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, in 2 vols., 1807

KAMMIN, or Cammin, the chief town of a circle in the government district of Stettin, Prussia, is situated 2 j miles from the Baltic coast, on the Kamminsche Bodden, a lake connected with the sea by the Dievenow. It is the seat of a local court The venerable cathedral and the church of St Mary are noteworthy. Portland cement and knitted goods are produced in the town, which has also some fishing and shipping industry. There is daily steamer communication with Stettin, about 40 miles south-south-west. Kammin is of Wendish origin. From 1175 till 1628 it was the seat of a bishopric, which at the latter date became a secular principality, afterwards incorporated with Brandenburg. Population in 1875, 5499.

KAMPEN, a town of Holland, in the province of Overyssel, stretches for nearly a mile along the left bank of the Yssel, about 3∣ miles above the mouth of the river. It is connected by railway with Zwolle. The town is traversed in its whole length by a canal, and the old walls have been transformed into promenades and drives. Three of the town gates are good examples of the style of such architecture in the 16th and 17th centuries. Of the seven churches the most noteworthy is St Nicholas, which ranks with the cathedral of Utrecht and St John’s of Bois-le-Due as one of the three great mediaeval churches in the Netherlands. The town-hall, dating partly from the 16th century and partly from the 18th, is of interest both from its architecture and decorations and for the value of the archives. There are a theological seminary, a gymnasium, an upper burgher school, and a municipal school of design; among the beneficent foundations the most notable is the Great Orphanage. The pasture land of the vicinity fosters a considerable trade in dairy produce; and there are shipyards, rope-walks, a tool factory, cigar factories, paper mills, &c. The inhabitants numbered 7760 in 1840, 11,903 in 1870, and 16,454 in 1876....

KAMPTULICON. See Floor Cloth,

KAMTHÍ, or Kamptee, a large town and cantonment in Nâgpur district, Central Provinces, India, 21° 13' 30" N. lat., 79° 14' 30" E. long. Population (1877), 48,831. Considerable trade is carried on here in cattle, country cloth, salt, European piece goods, and timber. The town contains a large market-place, a dispensary, schools, travellers’ rest-houses, a Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, five Mahometan mosques, and seventy Hindu temples. An extensive parade ground separates the cantonment from the town, which is built in broad and regular streets.

KAMUISHIN, or Kamyshin, a town of Russia, in the Saratoff government, on the right bank of the Volga, 120 miles south-south-west of Saratoff", on the highway to Astrakhan. The inhabitants carry on a good river-trade in wood, tar, grain, fish, tallow, and garden produce,—the Kamuishin melons especially being sent to various parts of Russia, and forming the raw material for a kind of syrup (nardelc) manufactured in the town. The population in 1861 was 8644; the St Petersburg calendar for 1873 gives the number as 15,698.

Kamuishin, it is said, was founded in 1668 on the left bank of the Kamuishinka, for the suppression of the brigandage carried on in the district. Peter I., intending to make a canal from the stream to the Ilovyla, erected a fort on its right bank; and in 1710 the inhabitants of the older settlement removed to the same side, and the town took the name of Dmitrievsk. The present name dates from 1780, when the place became the chief town of a district.

KÁMALÁ, a red powder used in medicine as an anthelminthic. It is obtained from Mallotus Philip-ρinensis, Müll., a large shrub or small tree from 20 to 45 feet in height, widely distributed in Asia, from southern Arabia in the west to North Australia and the Philippines in the east. The fruit of this species, as of many other Euphorbiaceous plants, is covered with stellate hairs, among which are intermixed ruby-coloured glands. These are found also on other parts of the plant, especially among the down with which the under surface of the leaf is covered. Kâmalâ is collected in many parts of India, and forms one of the lesser products of the Government forests in the Madras presidency at Naini Tai, where the Mallotus is found growing in immense quantities at the foot of the hills. According to Mr F. E. G. Matthews, numbers of people, chiefly women and children, are engaged in collecting the powder for exportation. A quantity of the berries is thrown into a large basket, and rubbed with the hand until the powder is removed and falls through the basket, as through a sieve, on a cloth spread below it to receive it....

KÁMRÚP, a district of Assam, India, extending along both banks of the Brahmaputra, between 25° 50' and 26° 53' N. lai, and 90° 40' and 92° 2' E. long., bounded on the N. by Bhutân state, on the E. by Darrang and Nowgong districts, on the S. by the Khâsi hills, and on the W. by Goálpárá district.

The general physical characteristics of Kámrúp are those common to the whole valley of Assam. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Brahmaputra the land is low, and exposed to annual inundation. In this marshy tract reeds and canes flourish luxuriantly, and the only cultivation is that of rice. At a comparatively short distance from the river banks, the ground begins to rise in undulating knolls towards the mountains of Bhutân on the north, and towards the Khâsi territory on the south. The hills south of the Brahmaputra in some parts reach the height of 800 feet. It is on the slopes of these hills, amid the primeval jungle, that European planters have set out their trim tea-gardens. The general scenery of Kâmrùp is thus agreeably diversified; and the villages are described as very picturesque. The Brahmaputra, which divides the district into two nearly equal portions, is navigable by river steamers and large cargo boats throughout the year, and receives several tributaries navigable by large native boats in the rainy season. The chief of these are the Manâs, Châul Khoyâ, and Barnadi on the north, and the Kulsi and Dibru on the south bank. Forests cover about 130 square miles of the district, of which 49 square miles have been reserved by the forest department. There is also a plantation reserve, where seedlings of teak, sdl i sissu, sum, and nahor are reared, and experiments are being made with the caoutchouc tree....