﻿«SI 



KRAIV. 



KUBAN. 



tn 



•mdallT thoM of Uit S»t« and it* faeden, aDd the Wippoch. The 

 pnoeipM roads that eroa the Juliaa Alp* in Carniola lead from 

 Ijaybafh to Idria, and from Laj-baeh by the AdelaberK l*au (2160 

 tout) acriMs the Kant to Trieste. This last is interaectod bjr a road 

 from Qorx through St.-Veit and Svnoaeteoh to Fiume. 



Kxcept in the rirer-Tallfj* which form a oomparatirely small 

 portion of the surface, the soil is very unfruitful, nnked mountiunB, 

 rocky levels, marshn, or sandy flats being the prurailiug characters of 

 the country. The olimato ou the mouutaios and uplands is sharp ; 

 the wint«rs severe and long ; snow disappears from the moimtain tops 

 only in the height of summer. The Bora, or north-east winds, at times 

 sweep the Kant and the more exposed parts of the country with 

 furious Tiolenoe. In the glens and Tullcys the soil is better, in many 

 parts fertile, the climate much milder, and the vine, the chestnut, and 

 maise flourish. Rye, barley, oats, some wheat, potatoes, pulse, flax, 

 hops, and fruit are grown. In some parts the mouutaiu slopes are 

 clothed with pine, oak, and beech forests, but they have been consider- 

 ably thinned for the use of the smeltiug-fumoces. On the mountains 

 many rare Alpide plants, medidnal herbs and roots are found. Uomod 

 cattle and horses are small ; swioe and poultry abound. Among the 

 wild animals are deer, wild boars, the chamois goat, foxes, &c. Bears 

 and wolves are rare. Birds of prey are numerous. Of game fowl the 

 principal kinds are pheasants, bustards, partridges, snipes, and water- 

 fowl. Among the minends the most importaut are iron, quicksilver, 

 copper, load, cinnabar, alum, coal, marble, gypsum, rock-crystal, &c. 

 The great quicksilver mines of Idria in the west of the crown land, 

 have been lonK famous ; the entrance to them is in the middle of 

 the town of Idria ; they formerly yielded 16,000 cwt. yearly. The 

 industrial products comprise chiefly bar-iron, iron and steel articles, 

 such OS scythes, sickles, nails, files, &c ; copper articles, woollen-cloth, 

 leather, Imen, lace, pottery, paper, straw-bats, canvass, horse-hair 

 rieves, tiles, Qerman tinder, Sx. A good number of the population 

 is employed in mining and metallurgy. There is a considerable trade 

 in timber and firewood. 



The princi|>al rivers are the Save and the Isonzo. The Save, or 

 Sau, rises on the northern flank of Mount Terglou, and runs first east- 

 ward along that mountain mass, and then southward for a short 

 difitance to its junction with the Savenitza ; its course is then south- 

 south-east to the neighbourhood of Laybach, in which the river 

 Laybaoh joins it on its right bank. The river then runs eastward till 

 it reaches the boundary, along which it runs in a south-east direction 

 till it enten Croatia a few miles below its junction with the Qurk, 

 which passes NeustadtL The Itomo (the ancient Sontttu) rises on the 

 southern slope of Mount Terglou, from which it runs southward 

 through the western part of Carniola and the circle of Gortz in the 

 Kustenland. At a short distance above Aquileia the Isonzo divides 

 into two branches, the Isouzato and the Sdobbo, which inclose the isle 

 of Morosina, and after their re-union enter the Qulf of Trieste. The 

 principal feedere of the Isonzo are, on the right, the Torre, which 

 drains a part of the province of Friuli, and on the left the Idria and 

 the Wippach, both of which flow in a north-west direction, the former 

 passing the town of Idria and entering the Isonzo above Canal, the 

 latter falling into it between Gorez and Gradisca. Both the Save and 

 the Isonzo are subject to inundations on the melting of the snow in 

 spring and after the autumnal rains. The Save is navigable in 

 Carniola, and a river-port has been formed at Steinbruck, a station on 

 the Vienna-Trieste railway to the south of CiUi. The Isonzo is 

 navigable for small vessels for about 10 miles above its mouth. Both 

 streams are available for floating timber down from the mountain 

 forests. The Isonzo formed part of the eastern boundary of Italy 

 under the French empire. The Lai/bach, above mcutioned, rises near 

 Adelsberg under the name of Puik; this stream loses itself in the 

 grotto of Adelsbei-g and re-appeare in the Um, which again sinks below 

 the surface, but re-appears at the village of Ober-Laybaoh, where it 

 becomes navigable for boats. The remarkable Lake of Czirknitz, or 

 Zirknitz, is noticed in a separate artiola. [Czirknitz.] 



The crownland is divided into 10 cireles. With the exception of 

 Laybadi and Idria the towns are small Laybach, or Laibach, the 

 capital of the crownland, is situated in id' V 48' N. lat., 14° 80' 

 K. long., 268 mile* S. by E. from Vienna by the Vienna-Trieste 

 railway ; in an extensive valley near the mouth of the navigable river 

 Laybach, which divides the city into two parts, connected by five 

 bridges ; and has with its eight suburb* about 13,000 inhabitant*. It 

 ia a bishop's see, and has a fine cathedral, twelve other churches, a 

 lyosum, a gymnasium, and many other public institutions. The chief 

 iadustrial products of Laybach are porcelain, linen, and refined sugar ; 

 tlisce is an active tranait-tnule from the interior to Trieste, in which 

 diraetioo a railway is in course of construction. The citadel, situated 

 on • eomma nd l n g eminence, ia now used as a prison. At a short 

 dtstanos to the north of the town there is a stone bridge of 11 arches, 

 540 paoa* hi length, over the Save. Laybaoh is celebrated for the 

 eon gi e** held there in 1821. The other towns are Stein, which gives 

 Ha name to the Steiner Alps, from the summits of which, 10,274 fset 

 above the level of the sea, there is a magnificent prospeot over 

 Carniola; Krainburg, with the castle of Kieaehrteen; Neumarktl, 

 famous for the manufacture of scythes, aicklcs, dbc. : none of theea 

 towns have so many as 2000 inhabitants. 

 NtMiUM, Um capital of a cird*^ is beautifully situated on the river 



Qurk, 38 miles E.S.E. from Laybaoh. It is a very pretty regularly- 

 built town, with three churehea, a gymnasium, a Franciscan oonvant, 

 and about 2000 inhabitants. 



The only other place of importance is Idria, a mining town, famous 

 for its quicksilver mines, which were accidentally ducovered by a 

 pouaot in the year 14i)7. It is situate<l partly nt the bottom of a 

 narrow valley, surrounded by high mountains, 22 miles W. f^m 

 Laybach, on the banks of the little river Idria, and partly on several 

 low hills, of which that called Hoont OUvary is distinguished by it* 

 height and picturesque form. The town consists of between 400 and 

 Sou houses, and has about 5000 inhabitants, who subsist partly by 

 lace-makiug and straw-plaiting ; but the greater part are employed in 

 the mines and works. A large building called Schloss, in the middh 

 of the town, contains the oSicea of the managen of the mines ; close 

 to it is the entrance to the mine by a large iron gate, which opens to 

 a horizontal passage hewn in the solid rock, leading to a flight of 76T 

 steps cut in the limestone rock, which are kept in perfect order and 

 provided with a hand-rail At the foot of this staircase there is a 

 small aisle serving as a cha|>el where the minora perform their 

 devotions before they proceed into the mine, and where a couple 

 of tapera burning ou the altar help to cheer the gloom that reigns 

 in these subterranean caverns. The visitor proceeding from this 

 chapel soon reaches various adits runniug in all directions, and would 

 soon be bewildered in the labyrinth without a guida This miue is 

 one of the greatest curiosities in the Austrian empire, and unequalled 

 for the order, beauty, and safety which are remarked in every part. 

 The noxious exhalations of the quicksilver, which sensibly affect 

 respiration, and the suffocating heat, soon make the visitor anxious to 

 return to the light of day, to which he ascends by a perpendicular 

 shaft in a kind of box or case, which lands him ou the surboe of the 

 earth at a great distance from the spot at which he entered. The 

 greatest depth of the mine is 760 feet About 150 tons of meroury 

 are produced annually. The stampiug-mills, washing-houses, furnaces, 

 and roasting-houses for the refinement of the mereurial ore are at a 

 short distance below the town. Besides the quicksilver-works there is 

 a manufactory of cinnabar, which produces 1800 cwt. annually, in 

 the vicinity there are marble, jasper, and freestone. All the establish- 

 ments for smelting, refining, &o., are admirably arranged, and there 

 are various benevolent institutions for the pour miners, whose health 

 is most dreadfully impaired by the deleterious atmosphere in which 

 they ply their sickly trade. These mines, the grottoes of Adelsboi^, 

 and the Lake of Czirknitz, are celebrated as 'the three sights of 

 Carniola.' 



Carniola was, until the recent political arrangement of the Austrian 

 empire in 1849, divided into the thi'ee circles of Laybach, NeustiidU, 

 and Adelsberg, which corresponded with the older divisions of Upper, 

 Lower, and Inner Krain respectively, and formed the government of 

 Laybach. Krain was early inhabited by a people of SUivonic stock, 

 and formed in the 10th coutury an independent inargraviate, which at 

 a later period the dukes of Austria and Cariuthia divided between 

 them, and which was raided in the 12th century to a dukedom. 

 The duchy on the death of the Karl of Tyrol in 1836 fell to the 

 Earl of Oorz, from whom it came, through failure of male issue, to 

 the house of Austria in 1864. By the treaty of Vienna in 1809 

 Krain was ceded to France, and constituted port of the Illyrian 

 provinces. In 1818 it again came into the possession of Austria, and 

 farmed part of the kingdom of lUyria. [iLLYUia.] 



Turkish Croatia is sometimes (wo know not whether correctly) 

 called Krain, or Kraina. [Bosnia.] 



KUASNOI-YAI. [ASTRAKHAM.] 



KKKMNITZ. [UuNciARr.] 



KRliJlS, KKEMSMCNSTEB. [Eks.] 



KItEUZNACU. [Crkuznach.] 



KUYSI ISLANDS. [Aleuiiak Islanim.] 



KUBA. [Uaqhestan.J 



KUBAN (called KvJbm by the Abassians, PtiuU by the Cit- 

 cassiaus), ia a river in Russia, which originates in Mount Cauoasua, 

 between the principal range and Mount KIbrooz. Having skirted the 

 Bouthem and weston deoUvitiea of that snow-capped peak, it turus to 

 the north, and afterwards to the west, and again to the north before 

 it leaves the mountain range near Origoriopol It then turns sgain to 

 the west and flows along the northern ofl'sets of the Caucasus, which 

 it divides from the steppes of the Tchernomoruui Cosaaka. Toward* 

 its mouth it eutera a low flat country, and along its banks s^ilt read' 

 marahe* extend to a oonaideiable distance. In this plain the river 

 divides into two branches, and forma an island called the Island of 

 Taman. Ouo shallow branch, coiled by the Russians Tchemaya 

 Protoka, runs nearly due north, and falls into the Sea of Azof. The 

 other branch, which preserves the name of Kuban, continues its 

 westei-n course and falls into the shore-lake called Kuhanakoi Limau, 

 which is united to the Black Sea by a shallow passage scaraely 1 00 

 fathoms wide. The Kuban runs nearly 400 miles, and with a rapid 

 current between steep rooky banks in the mountains ; in the plain too 

 the bed of the river is conaidenbly (12 to 18 feet) below the surround- 

 ing surface, so that the river never overflows its bauks. The Kuban 

 oarrios down all the drainage of the northern slope of the western 

 CSauoasoa, from which a huge number of streams flow into it on the 

 left bank. Among them ore the Zuleuchuk, the Ourup, the Xjaba 



