KEE 



411 



KER 



KANGAR'OO, \ An animal peculiar to 

 KANGUR'OO. j New Holland. The kan- 

 garoos form the genus Macropus, Shaw, 

 and Halmaturus, Illiger. The 31. major, 

 Shaw, sometimes six feet in height, is the 

 largest of the New Holland animals. It 

 was discovered in 1779 by Cooke, and is 

 now bred in Europe. 



KANGARO'O BAT, the potoroo of New- 

 Holland. 



KA'OLIN, the porcelain earth of the 

 Chinese, analogous to the clay produced 

 from the felspar of decomposed granite. 

 Besides kaolin, the Chinese use petunse in 

 the manufacture of their porcelain. 

 Kaolin is essentially composed of silex 

 and alumine ; the proportions are variable, 

 but the silex usually predominates. When 

 pure kaolin is employed in the manufac- 

 ture of porcelain, some ingredient must 

 be added as a flux, as when pure it is in- 

 fusible. There is satisfactory evidence 

 thatkaolin has in most cases, if not in all, 

 originated from the decomposition of rocks 

 abounding in felspar, more particularly 

 from graphic granite, which consists al- 

 most entirely of quartz and felspar. 



KARA, a Tartar word, signifying black: 

 frequently used as a prefix to geographi- 

 cal names. 



KARM'ATHIANS or KARMATIANS, a Mo- 

 hammedan sect, which arose in Irak 

 during the 9th century A.D. 



KA'VA, the name given among oriental 

 tribes to the juice of a root of the pepper 

 family (the Piper methysticum} , diluted 

 with water. The juice is extracted by 

 chewing. 



KEB'LAH, the name given by Moham- 

 medans to that point of the compass 

 -where the temple of Mecca stands. See 

 CAABA. 



KECK'LING. Among seamen, the opera- 

 tion of twining small ropes about a cable 

 or bolt rope, to preserve its surface from 

 being fretted by friction against a rocky 

 bottom, ice, &c. 



KEDGE, i Among seamen, a small an- 

 KEDGER. j chor, used to keep a ship 

 steady when riding in a river, &c., and 

 particularly at the turn of the tide to keep 

 her clear of her bower anchor ; also to re- 

 move her from one part of a harbour to 

 another, being carried out in a boat and 

 let go, a process called hedging. The term 

 is also used when a vessel is brought up 

 or down a narrow river (stern foremost, 

 and dragging the anchor) , by the force of 

 the tide, although the wind be contrary. 

 KEEL, Sax. ctele, Germ, and Dut. kiel. 

 1 . The principal timber of a ship, extending 

 from stem to stern at the bottom, and 

 supporting the whole frame. Sometimes 

 a. false-keel is put under the first or main 

 keel, and bolted to it to preserve it from 

 injury. Keel is also the name of a de- 

 scription of small vessel, used for carry ing 



coal on the river Tyne, from Newcastle, 



for loading the colliers. 2. In botany, 



the lower petals of a papilionaceous corol, 

 inclosing the stamens and pistil. 



KEELHA'UL, to haul under the keel of a 

 ship. Keelhauling is a punishment in- 

 flicted in the Dutch navy for certain of- 

 fences. The offender is suspended by a 

 rope from one yard-arm with weights to 

 his legs, and a rope fastened to him, lead- 

 ing under the ship's bottom to the oppo- 

 site yard-arm, and being let fall into the 

 water, he is drawn under the ship's bot- 

 tom and raised on the other side. 



KEEL'SON, \& piece of timber forming 



KELSON, j the interior or counterpart 

 of the keel of a ship, being laid upon the 

 middle of the floor timbers, immediately 

 over the keel, fastened with long bolts 

 and clinched, and thus serving to bind 

 the floor timbers upon the keel. 



KEEP. In old castles, a. strong tower into 

 which the besieged retreated in cases of 

 extremity. 



KEEP'ER. The keeper of the great seal is 

 a lord by his office, and a member of the 

 privy council. He is constituted lord- 

 keeper by the delivery of the great seal. 

 The keeper of the privy seal is also a lord 

 by his office, and a member of the privy 

 council. 



KEEPING. In painting, a term denoting 

 the representation of objects in the same 

 manner that they appear to the eye, at 

 different distances from it. For this the 

 painter ha?, --ecourse to the rules of per- 

 spective. 



KEESH. In metallurgy, a name for the 

 flakes of carburet of iron which sometimes 

 cover the surface of the bars of pig-iron. 



KELP, the crude alkaline matter pro- 

 duced by incinerating various species of 

 fuci or sea- weed. It yields about five per 

 cent, of soda. 



KE'LSON (of a ship), see KEELSON. 



KENT'LEDGE, the name sometimes given 

 to the iron pigs cast in a particular form 

 for ballasting ships, and employed for that 

 purpose. 



KEP'LER'S LAWS, certain analogies be- 

 tween the distances of the planetary bodies 

 and their times of periodic revolution ; as 

 also between the rate of motion of any 

 revolving body, whether primary or se- 

 condary, and its distance from the central 

 body about which it revolves : first dis- 

 cussed by John Kepler of "Wirtemberg, 

 the celebrated astronomer and mathema- 

 tician. 



KEP'LER'S PROBLEM, the determining of 

 the true from the mean anomaly of a 

 planet, or the determining its place in 

 the elliptic orbit, answering to any given 

 time, first proposed by Kepler. 



KERI-CHETIB (Heb.), what is read and 

 written. In philology, the various read- 

 ings in the HebreT "ible. 



