Various

“ The people, like their neighbours of Osaka, are full of manufacturing energy. Not only do they preserve, amid all the progress of the age, their old-time eminence as producers of the finest porcelain, faience, embroidery, brocades, bronze, cloisonné enamel, fans, toys and metal-work of all kinds, but they have also adapted themselves to the foreign market, and weave and dye quantities of silk fabrics, for which a large and constantly growing demand is found in Europe and America. ”

“ Throughout the 6th century Khazaria was the mere highway for the wild hordes to whom the Huns had opened the passage into Europe, and the Khazars took refuge (like the Venetians from Attila) amongst the seventy mouths of the Volga. The pressure of the Turks in Asia precipitated the Avars upon the West. The conquering Turks followed in their footsteps (560-580) . They beat down all opposition, wrested even Bosporus in the Crimea from the empire, and by the annihilation of the Ephthalites completed the ruin of the White Race of the plains from the Oxus to the Don. ”

“ But some species, and especially that which is the type of the family, are not always content to await at rest their victim’s showing itself. They will hover like a hawk over the waters that conceal it, and, in the manner already described, precipitate themselves upon it. This is particularly the way with those that are fishers in fact as well as in name; but no inconsiderable number live almost entirely in forests, feeding on insects, while reptiles furnish the chief sustenance of others. ”

“ The history moves between Judah and Israel according to the date of each accession; as soon as a new king has been introduced, everything that happened in his reign is discussed, and wound up by another stereotyped formula as to the death and burial of the sovereign; and to this mechanical arrangement the natural connexion of events is often sacrificed. In this scheme the elaborate synchronisms between contemporary monarchs of the north and south give an aspect of great precision to the chronology. ”

“ Though not profoundly learned, he was a man of wide and various information, whose interests and sympathies embraced many branches of human knowledge. He was an enthusiastic student in particular of natural history and geology. Sprung on the father’s side from an old English race of country squires, and on his mother’s side from a good West Indian family who had been slaveholders for generations, he had a keen love of sport and a genuine sympathy with country-folk, but he had at the same time something of the scorn for lower races to be found in the members of a dominant race. ”

“ The kingdom dwindled rapidly to its ancient limits between the Caucasus, the Volga and the Don, whilst the Russian traders of Novgorod and Kiev supplanted the Khazars as the carriers between Constantinople and the North. When Ibn Faḍlān visited Khazaria forty years later, Itil was even yet a great city, with baths and market-places and thirty mosques. But there was no domestic product nor manufacture; the kingdom depended solely upon the now precarious transit dues, and administration was in the hands of a major domus also called khakan. ”

“ KENYA, a great volcanic mountain in British East Africa, situated just south of the equator in 37° 20′ E. It is one of the highest mountains of Africa, its highest peak reaching an altitude of 17,007 ft. (with a possible error of 30 ft. either way) . The central core, which consists of several steep pyramids, is that of a very denuded old volcano, which when its crater was complete may have reached 2000 ft. above the present summit. Lavas dip in all directions from the central crystalline core, pointing to the conclusion that the main portion of the mountain represents a single volcanic mass. ”

“ So important was this traffic held at Constantinople that, when the portage to the Don was endangered by the irruption of a fresh horde of Turks (the Petchenegs) , the emperor Theophilus himself despatched the materials and the workmen to build for the Khazars a fortress impregnable to their forays (834) . Famous as the one stone structure is in that stoneless region, the post became known far and wide amongst the hordes of the steppe as Sarkel or the White Abode. Merchants from every nation found protection and good faith in the Khazar cities. ”

“ There are teak forests also in the Mekong drainage area in the south of the state, but there is only a local market for the timber. Rice, as elsewhere in the Shan States, is the chief crop. Next to it is sugar-cane, grown both as a field crop and in gardens. Earth-nuts and tobacco are the only other field crops in the valleys. On the hills, besides rice, cotton, poppy and tea are the chief crops. The tea is carelessly grown, badly prepared, and only consumed locally. A great deal of garden produce is raised in the valleys, especially near the capital. ”

“ Tiring of the monotony of a soldier’s life, yet unwilling to sacrifice his liberty to follow commerce or enter the civil service, Kisfaludy, contrary to his father’s wishes, now threw up his commission and made his home at the house of a married sister at Vörröck, where he could follow his inclinations. In 1812 he studied painting at the Vienna academy and supported himself precariously by his brush and pencil, till the theatre at Vienna proved a still stronger attraction. ”

“ KITE,1 the Falco milvus of Linnaeus and Milvus ictinus of modern ornithologists, once probably the most familiar bird of prey in Great Britain, and now one of the rarest. Three or four hundred years ago foreigners were struck with its abundance in the streets of London. It was doubtless the scavenger in ordinary of that and other large towns (as kindred species now are in Eastern lands) , except where its place was taken by the raven; for Sir Thomas Browne (c. 1662) wrote of the latter at Norwich—“in good plentie about the citty which makes so few kites to be seen hereabout.” ”

“ But horsemanship is the great amusement of all true Kazaks, who may almost be said to be born in the saddle. Hence, though excellent riders, they are bad walkers. Though hardy and long-lived, they are uncleanly in their habits and often decimated by small-pox and Siberian plague. They have no fixed meals, and live mainly on mutton and goat and horse flesh, and instead of bread use the so-called balamyk, a mess of flour fried in dripping and diluted in water. ”

“ These cliffs continue round the South Foreland to Folkestone, where they fall away, and are succeeded west of Sandgate by a flat shingly shore. To the south of Hythe this shore borders the wide expanse of Romney Marsh, which, immediately west of Hythe, is overlooked by a line of abrupt hills, but for the rest is divided on the north from the drainage system of the Stour only by a slight uplift. The marsh, drained by many channels, seldom rises over a dozen feet above sea-level. At its south-eastern extremity, and at the extreme south of the county, is the shingly promontory of Dungeness. ”

“ Barley is the principal crop, and oats also is grown largely, but the acreage under wheat is small. Turnips and potatoes are the chief green crops, the former the more important. The raising of livestock is pursued with great enterprise, the hilly land being well suited for this industry, although many cattle are pastured on the lowland farms. The cattle are mainly a native breed, which has been much improved by crossing. The number of sheep is high for the area. Although most of the horses are used for agricultural work, a considerable proportion are kept solely for breeding. ”

“ The coast-line is extremely irregular, and the fjords, at least on the north, east and south, form a series of well-sheltered harbours. As the prevailing winds are westerly, the safest anchorage is on the north-east. Christmas Harbour on the north and Royal Sound on the south are noble harbours, the latter with a labyrinth of islets interspersed over upwards of 20 m. of land-locked waters. The scenery is generally magnificent. A district of considerable extent in the centre of the island is occupied 755 by snowfields, whence glaciers descend east and west to the sea. ”

“ The county is roughly triangular in form, London lying at the apex of the western angle, the North Foreland at that of the eastern and Dungeness at that of the southern. The county is divided centrally, from west to east, by the well-marked range of hills known as the North Downs, entering Kent from Surrey. In the west above Westerham these hills exceed 800 ft.; to the east the height is much less, but even in Kent (for in Surrey they are higher) the North Downs form a more striking physical feature than their height would indicate. ”

“ The wide suburbs are remarkable for their gardens, which produce great quantities of fruits (especially plums, which are dried and exported) , tobacco, mulberry leaves for silkworms, and wine. The buildings of the town are sombre, shabby and low, but built of stone; and the streets, though wide and shaded by acacias, are mostly unpaved. Kishinev is the seat of the archbishop of Bessarabia, and has a cathedral, an ecclesiastical seminary with 800 students, a college, and a gardening school, a museum, a public library, a botanic garden, and a sanatorium with sulphur springs. ”

“ In the chronic form the kidney may be large or small, and is usually white or mottled. If large, the cortex is thickened, pale and waxy, and the pyramids are congested; if small, the fibrous change has advanced and the cortex is diminished. Bright’s disease, both acute and chronic, is essentially a disease of the cortical secreting portion of the kidney. The true granular kidney, classified by some as a third variety, is usually part of a general arterial degeneration, the overgrowth of fibrous tissue in the kidney and the lesions in the arteries being well marked. ”

“ Cattle are grazed in considerable numbers on the marsh lands, and dairy farms are numerous in the neighbourhood of London. For the rearing of sheep Kent is one of the chief counties in England. A breed peculiar to the district, known as Kents, is grazed on Romney Marsh, but Southdowns are the principal breed raised on the uplands. Bee-keeping is extensively practised. Dairy schools are maintained by the technical education committee of the county council. The South-eastern Agricultural College at Wye is under the control of the county councils of Kent and Surrey. ”

“ In the hill country the share tenant could usually plant and cultivate only four acres of tobacco, had to spend 120 days working the crop, and could use the same land for tobacco only once in six years. So, although a price of 6.5 cents a pound covered expenses of the planter of Burley in the Blue Grass, who could use the same land for tobacco once in four years, this price did not repay the hill planter. The additional production of the Blue Grass Region sent the price of Burley tobacco down to this figure and below it. ”

“ Although the majority of the people sympathized with the Union, the emancipation of the slaves without compensation even to loyal owners, the arming of negro troops, the arbitrary imprisonment of citizens and the interference of Federal military officials in purely civil affairs aroused so much feeling that the state became strongly Democratic, and has remained so almost uniformly since the war. ”

“ The hydronephrosis produced by obstruction of the ureter may be intermittent; and when a certain degree of distension is produced, either as a result of the shifting of the calculus or of some other cause, the obstruction is temporarily relieved in a great outflow of urine, and the urinary discharge is re-established. When the hydronephrosis has long existed the kidney is converted into a sac, the remains of the renal tissues being spread out as a thin layer. ”

“ In the centre and east the country is level, save for some low ranges of barren hills, and has in general an arid, unfertile appearance. Towards the north and west, the plain rises into a difficult and rugged country, thickly wooded, and inhabited by wild tribes of Bhils, who chiefly support themselves on the fruits of the forests and by wood-cutting. The drainage of the district centres in the Tapti, which receives thirteen principal tributaries in its course through Khandesh. None of the rivers is navigable, and the Tapti flows in too deep a bed to be useful for irrigation. ”

“ Nevertheless, though overpowered in the end, the Khazars had protected the plains of Europe from the Mahommedans, and made the Caucasus the limit of their conquests.
In the interval between the decline of the Mahommedan empire and the rise of Russia the Khazars reached the zenith of their power. The merchants of Byzantium, Armenia and Bagdad met in the markets of Itil (whither since the raids of the Mahommedans the capital had been transferred from Semender) , and traded for the wax, furs, leather and honey that came down the Volga. ”

“ The island is notable for its tropical vegetation and climate. The jasmine, almond, banana, cork and coco-nut palm are among the trees. The oleander grows here to be a tree, and there is a banyan tree, said to be the only one growing out of doors in the United States. There are many species of plants in Key West not found elsewhere in North America. The mean annual temperature is 76° F., and the mean of the hottest months is 82.2° F.; that of the coldest months is 69° F.; thus the mean range of temperature is only 13°. ”

“ Besides the Sundarbans, the north-east part of the district is swampy; the north-west is more elevated and drier, while the central part, though low-lying, is cultivated. The whole is alluvial. In 1901 the population was 1,253,043, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. Rice is the principal crop; mustard, jute and tobacco are also grown, and the fisheries are important. Sugar is manufactured from the date palm. The district is entered by the Bengal Central railway, but by far the greater part of the traffic is carried by water. ”

“ There are, however, no grounds for the assumption that the supposed coast-line between America and Europe synchronized with that between Europe and south Asia. King-crabs do not appear to differ from each other in habits. Except in the breeding season they live in water ranging in depth from about two to six fathoms, and creep about the bottom or bury themselves in the sand. Their food consists for the most part of soft marine worms, which are picked up in the nippers, thrust into the mouth, and masticated by the basal segments of the appendages between which the mouth lies. ”

“ In the Act of 1776 for dividing Fincastle county, Virginia, the ridge of the Cumberland Mountains was named as a part of the east boundary of Kentucky; and now that this ridge had become a part of the boundary between the states of Virginia and Kentucky they, in 1799, appointed a joint commission to run the boundary line on this ridge. A dispute with Tennessee over the southern boundary was settled in a similar manner in 1820.8 The constitution of 1792 provided for manhood suffrage and for the election of the governor and of senators by an electoral college. ”

“ In the northern parts the land is generally coarse and poor, except in the valleys, where a rich soil has been formed by rocky deposits. In the Old Red Sandstone valleys there are many very fertile regions, and several extensive districts now covered by bog admit of easy reclamation so as to form very fruitful soil, but other tracts of boggy land scarcely promise a profitable return for labour expended on their reclamation. Over one-third of the total area is quite barren. The numbers of live stock of every kind are generally increased or sustained. Dairy-farming is very largely followed. ”