﻿437 



KURTJMAN. 



Ryiak, vrest of Kursk, on the Sein : Starov-OJcd, m the east of the pro- 

 vince, on the Oskol, a feeder of the Donetz : Mikhailofvka, in the 

 south-east : and Obqjan, in the interior, south of Kursk, each with 

 over 0000 inhabitants. 



KUKUMAX. [Betchouana.] 



KL'STEJf LAND (Coast Country), the name of a new province or 

 crownlaad of the Austrian empire, which comprises the circles of 

 Gorz and Istria and the territory of Trieste. It is bounded N. by 

 Camiola, E. by Croatia and the Bay of Quamero, S. by the Adriatic, 

 and W. by the Adriatic and tlie province of Udine or Friuli. Its 



LACONICA. 



433 



area in 8060 square miles. Its population, according to official 

 estimate, in 1851 amounted to 808,016. The geographical and sta- 

 tistical details respecting the crownland are given in the articles 

 Adstria. GiJnz, Istria, and Trieste. 



KCSTRIN. [Braudenbhrg.] 



KUTCH. [CrTCH; Hixdustan.1 



KYBER PASS. [Afghanistan.] 



KYLE. [Ayrshire.] 



KYSHA. [Aleutian IsiJiNns.] 



L 



r AACHEB see. [Eifel.] 



•" LAALAND, an island belonging to Denmark, is situated in the 

 Baltic, between 54° 39' and 54° 57' N. lat., 10° 56' and 11° 50' E. long. ; 

 its length from west to east is about 60 miles, its breadth 20 miles, 

 and its area is 460 square miles. The population is about 60,500. 

 The island is low, flat, and has much marsh ground. The water is 

 bad, and the climate rather unhealthy. The soil is extremely fertile, 

 producing all kinds of com, pulse, flax, hops, potatoes, fruit, timber, 

 &c., for exportation. The inhabitants have great numbers of homed 

 cattle, and fish are very abundant. There are four towns in the island. 

 Mariebof, situated on a lake nearly in the centre of the itiand, has 

 about 1 000 inhabitants. Ntuhov, or TfaX-dcor, with 2300 inhabitants, 

 has a good harbour and considerable trade. Syetttdl, with 800 

 inhabitants. R'idbyt, with 900 inhabitants. Charles X. of Sweden, in 

 his bold march across the frozen Baltic in 1657-8, traversed Laaland in 

 his way. 



LAARVIO. [AooEKHTtns.] 



LABRADOR. [Hddson's Bat TEBRiTomiB.] 



LABREDE. [OiRO>a)E.] 



LABUAN, an island in the Malay Archipelago, and the seat of a 

 British colonial government, is situated near the north-west coast of 

 the island of Borneo, and 80 miles N. from the town of Borneo, in 

 5° 22' N. lat, 116° lO* E. long. The island is about 10 miles in length, 

 5 miles in breadth, and 25 miles in circumference. The population in 

 18S1 was 780, exclusive of aliens and resident strangers (chiefly native 

 labonrers), amounting to 800. The island is well supplied with good 

 water, and contains coal. It was ceded to the British in 1846, and 

 the colonial government was established on it at the beginning of 

 October 1848. 



The locality on which the government establishment was formed 

 consists of a narrow and slightlv-raised ridge on the sea-shore, fomiing 

 the outer edge of a low ftat, called the Plain, which is in many parts 

 lielow the level of the sea, and was converted into a marsh during the 

 rains. The area of the Plain probably does not exceed 1 00 acres. It 

 is bounded on the inland side by swampy tracts of junslt". The 

 harbour is tolerably good. The nnhealthiness of the marshy ground 

 in the Plain has been considerably abated in consequence of the con- 

 stmction of a canal, by which the water is carried off. 



The ooal is wrought on the north-east point of the island. The 

 mines have been taken by the Eastern Archipelngo Company, who in 

 1851 exported 5032 tons of coal, of which 938 tons were supplied to 

 vessels belonging to the British navy. During 1852 there entered 

 inwards 1198 ships and prahua, of an aggregate burden of 6223 tons ; 

 and there cleared outwards 27, of an aggregate burden of 6052 tons. 

 The imports in 1852 were valued at 80,970/. ; the exports at 16,564Z. 

 The principal exports were : — Coal, 5448/. ; sago, 2379/. ; birds' -nests, 

 1937/.; pearls, 1680/.; and camphor, 1559/. The principal item of 

 revenue is the royalty on coal. Farm licences are increasing in value, 

 improved rpiitals b'-iii'.- obtaine-1 at each succeeding fale. 



LACCADIVE ISLANDS, discovered by Vasco de Gama in 1499, 

 are situated in the Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Malabar, be- 

 tween 10° and 13° N. lat., 72° and 75° E. long. They are 17 in 

 number, but only 8 are inhabited, and two sand-banks are yet 

 nncovered with vegetation. The other 7 are uninhabited and over- 

 grown with cocoa-nut trees. They are visited for the coir and nuts 

 by boats from the other islands. The largest of these islnndi are 

 Cabarottoe, Anderof , or Underoo, and Akhatoe, but they are all small, 

 Anderot, one of the largest, being only 3 miles in length, from cast to 

 west, and 1 mile broad. 



TIjese i«lands are based on coral reefd. The south-west monsoon is 

 the only wind that prevails with any degree of regularity, the opjiosite 

 or flne-we»thcr monsoon being interrupted in a groat measure by the 

 proximity of the archipelago to the mainland of Hindustan. The 

 coral-reef of Anderot projects to the north-east. Tlie islands arc low, 

 and rise towards the centre with a slicrhtly undulating surface. The 

 chief products are a little rice, a plant not unlike rhubarb, of a most 

 aorid pungent taste, sweet potatoes, cocoa-nuts, plantains, papaus, and 

 betel-nuts. Cows are the only quadruped^ on the islands; they are 

 of small size and not numerous. There is poultry in small quantities, 

 and the sea contnins fish and turtle. 



The total population of the inhabited islands amounts to about 

 10,000. They resemble the inhabitants of the coast of Malabar, and 



are Mohammedans. Tlie four most considerable isknds are subject 

 to the Bebee, or petty sovereign of Cananore in Malabar, and the other 

 four are ostensibly British. They export to Man^alore cocoa-nuts, 

 coir for making cibles, a few cowries, and a kind of coarse sugar or 

 jaggery, made from the cocoa-nut tree. The imports consist of rice 

 and coarse cotton-cloth. The islands have no safe anchorage. Curing 

 the south-west monsoon all intercourse between them is interrupted, 

 and their large boa's are sent to the Malabnr coast for shelter. 

 (Journal o/ the London Oeoffraphical Society, vol. vi) 

 LACCO. [IscniA.] 

 LACED^MON. [Sparta.] 

 LA-CHAtRE. [Indre.] 

 LACHLAN RIVER. [Austraha.] 

 LA-CIOTAT. [BoccHEs-DuRnfiNEj 

 L.iCOCK, [Wiltshire.] 



LACOTIICA, called by the Ttomans Laeonia, a country of ancient 

 Greece, was bounded W. by Messenia, N. by Arcadia and Argolis, 

 and E. and S. by the sea. Laconica is a long narrow valley, nmning 

 from north to south, and lying between two mountain masses which 

 stretch from Arcadia to the southern extremities of the Peloponnesus. 

 The western range, which terminated in the promontory of "Ttcnamm, 

 now M^tApan, the most southerly point of Greece, was called Taygetus, 

 the highest point of which, called Taleton (now St. Elias), is 7902 feet 

 high. The eastern range, termin.ating in Cape Malea, was known by 

 the names of Pamon, Thoraax, and Zarax. The highest point of 

 Mount Pamon, the most northern part of the eastern range, is 8355 

 feet. The whole drainage of the valley is collected in the river 

 Eurotaa, whicli flows from the high lands of Arcadia, and is joined by 

 the river (Enus, a little above Sparta. From its source to its junction 

 with the fEnus the Eurotas flows through a very deep and narrow 

 valley, which near Sparta is so much contracted as to leave room for 

 little more than the channel of the river. After it leaves Sparta the 

 hills recede farther from the river ; but near CEnoe they again approach 

 it for a short distance, and afterwards retire to the west and east 

 towards the capes Ttcnarum and Malea respectively, leaving between 

 them a plain of c )nsiderable breadth and fertility, through which the 

 Eurotas flows to the sea. Between the mountains which form the 

 ea.stem boundary of the valley of the Eurotas and the sea there was a 

 narrow strip of land, which contained the towns of Delium, Minoa, 

 and Epidaurus Limera, belonging to Laconica : PrasiaJ, which was 

 farther north on the same coast, belonged to Argolis. The area of 

 I.<aconica is probably about 1896 square miles. It forms a norae or 

 province of the modem kingdom of Greece, and had iu 1852 a popula- 

 tion of 87,801. 



The district of Tliyreatit, on the borders of Argolis, was an object 

 of early contention between Argos and Licedmmon. (Herod, i. 82.) 

 It originally belonged to Argolis, but was conquered by the Spartans 

 about B.C. 647, in whose possession it remained till the decline of 

 Sparta, when it was recovered by Argos. In the time of Pausanias it 

 was included in Argolis. (Pausan., iu 38, sac. 5.) 



The poutbcrn projection of the Taygetus between the Laconian and 

 Messenian gulfs is now called Mani, the country of the Mauiotea, 

 who always in lintained their independence against the Turks. The 

 slopes of "Taj'getus are clothed with forests of dark green pine. The 

 range is rich in iron, marble, and green porphyry. 



The snow remains on the highest points of Taygetus, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Amycla;, to the month of Juno : the streams on the 

 cistern slope of this mountain range are abundant. The orange-tree 

 flourishes at Mistra, near the ancient Sparta, and fills the air with 

 its perfume at a time when the summits of Taygetus are still wrappe4 

 in snow. 



Colonel Leake describee the soil of Laconica as " in general a poor 

 mixture of white clay and stones, difficult to plough, and better 

 suited to olives than com" ('Morea,' i. 14S). Tliis description is in 

 conformity to that of Euripides, who says that "it possesses much 

 arable land, but difficult to work " (quoted by Strabo, viii. 3CC). 

 Strabo informs us that there were Fome valuable atone-quarrics near 

 Ta;naram and in the mountains of Taygetus (viiL p. 367). Laconica 

 was subject, in common with the southern countries of Greece, to 

 earthquakes, the most remarkable of which occurred B.C. 462, and 

 destroyed the whole of the city of Sparta with the exception of five 

 houses. 



