Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/992

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
958
KWEI-CHOW—KYD

especially the Luando from the east. In about 10°, and at intervals during its westerly passage through the outer plateau escarpments, its course is broken by rapids, the river flowing in a well-defined valley flanked by higher ground. The lowest fall is that of Kambamba, or Livingstone, with a drop of 70 ft. Thence to the sea, a distance of some 160 m., it is navigable by small steamers, though very shallow in the dry season. The river enters the sea in 9° 15′ S., 13° 20′ E., 40 m. S. of Loanda. There is a shifting bar at its mouth, difficult to cross, but the river as a waterway has become of less importance since the fertile district in its middle basin has been served by the railway from Loanda to Ambaca (see Angola).


KWEI-CHOW, a south-western province of China, bounded N. by Sze-ch‛uen, E. by Hu-nan, S. by Kwang-si, and W. by Yun-nan. It contains 67,000 sq. m., and has a population of about 8,000,000. Kwei-yang Fu is the provincial capital, and besides this there are eleven prefectural cities in the province. With the exception of plains in the neighbourhood of Kwei-yang Fu, Ta-ting Fu, and Tsun-i Fu, in the central and northern regions, the province may be described as mountainous. The mountain ranges in the south are largely inhabited by Miao-tsze, who are the original owners of the soil and have been constantly goaded into a state of rebellion by the oppression to which they have been subjected by the Chinese officials. To this disturbing cause was added another in 1861 by the spread of the Mahommedan rebellion in Yun-nan into some of the south-western districts of the province. The devastating effects of these civil wars were most disastrous to the trade and the prosperity of Kwei-chow. The climate is by nature unhealthy, the supply of running water being small, and that of stagnant water, from which arises a fatal malaria, being considerable. The agricultural products of the province are very limited, and its chief wealth lies in its minerals. Copper, silver, lead, and zinc are found in considerable quantities, and as regards quicksilver, Kwei-chow is probably the richest country in the world. This has been from of old the chief product of the province, and the belt in which it occurs extends through the whole district from south-west to north-east. One of the principal mining districts is K‛ai Chow, in the prefecture of Kwei-yang Fu, and this district has the advantage of being situated near Hwang-p‛ing Chow, from which place the products can be conveniently and cheaply shipped to Hankow. Cinnabar, realgar, orpiment and coal form the rest of the mineral products of Kwei-chow. Wild silk is another valuable article of export. It is chiefly manufactured in the prefecture of Tsun-i Fu.


KYAUKPYU, a district in the Arakan division of Lower Burma, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. It consists of, first, a strip of mainland along the Bay of Bengal, extending from the An pass, across the main range, to the Ma-ī River, and, secondly, the large islands of Ramree and Cheduba, with many others to the south, lying off the coast of Sandoway. The mainland in the north and east is highly mountainous and forest-clad, and the lower portion is cut up into numerous islands by a network of tidal creeks. Between the mainland and Ramree lies a group of islands separated by deep, narrow, salt-water inlets, forming the north-eastern shore of Kyaukpyu harbour, which extends for nearly 30 m. along Ramree in a south-easterly direction, and has an average breadth of 3 m. The principal mountains are the Arakan Yomas, which send out spurs and sub-spurs almost to the sea-coast. The An pass, an important trade route, rises to a height of 4664 ft. above sea-level. The Dha-let and the An rivers are navigable by large boats for 25 and 45 m. respectively. Above these distances they are mere mountain torrents. Large forests of valuable timber cover an area of about 650 sq. m. Kyaukpyu contains numerous “mud volcanoes,” from which marsh gas is frequently discharged, with occasional issue of flame. The largest of these is situated in the centre of Cheduba island. Earth-oil wells exist in several places in the district. The oil when brought to the surface has the appearance of a whitish-blue water, which gives out brilliant straw-coloured rays, and emits a strong pungent odour. Limestone, iron and coal are also found. Area 4387 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 168,827, showing an increase in the decade of 2.3%.

The chief town, Kyaukpyu, had a population in 1901 of 3145. It has a municipal committee of twelve members, three ex officio and nine appointed by the local government, and there is a third-class district gaol. Kyaukpyu is a port under the Indian Ports Act (X. of 1889), and the steamers of the British India Navigation Company call there once a week going and coming between Rangoon and Calcutta.


KYAUKSĒ, a district in the Meiktila division of Upper Burma, with an area of 1274 sq. m., and a population in 1901 of 141,253. It is also known as the Ko-kayaing, so called from the original nine canals of the district. It consists of a generally level strip running north and south at the foot of the Shan Hills, and of a hilly region rising up these hills to the east, and including the Yeyaman tract, which lies between 21° 30′ and 21° 40′ N. and 96° 15′ and 96° 45′ E., with peaks rising to between 4500 and 5000 ft. This tract is rugged and scored by ravines, and is very sparsely inhabited. The Panlaung and Zawgyi rivers from the Shan States flow through the district and are utilized for the numerous irrigation canals. Notwithstanding this, much timber is floated down, and the Panlaung is navigable for small boats all the year round. Rain is very scarce, but the canals supply ample water for cultivation and all other purposes. They are said to have been dug by King Nawrahtā in 1092. He is alleged to have completed the system of nine canals and weirs in three years’ time. Others have been constructed since the annexation of Upper Burma. At that time many were in serious disrepair, but most of them have been greatly improved by the construction of proper regulators and sluices. Two-thirds of the population are dependent entirely on cultivation for their support, and this is mainly rice on irrigated land. In the Yeyaman tract the chief crop is rice. The great majority of the population is pure Burmese, but in the hills there are a good many Danus, a cross between Shans and Burmese. The railway runs through the centre of the rice-producing area, and feeder roads open up the country as far as the Shan foot-hills. The greater part of the district consists of state land, the cultivators being tenants of government, but there is a certain amount of hereditary freehold.

Kyauksē town is situated on the Zawgyi River and on the Rangoon-Mandalay railway line, and is well laid out in regular streets, covering an area of about a square mile. It has a population (1901) of 5420, mostly Burmese, with a colony of Indian traders. Above it are some bare rocky hillocks, picturesquely studded with pagodas.


KYD, THOMAS (1558–1594), one of the most important of the English Elizabethan dramatists who preceded Shakespeare. Kyd remained until the last decade of the 19th century in what appeared likely to be impenetrable obscurity. Even his name was forgotten until Thomas Hawkins about 1773 discovered it in connexion with The Spanish Tragedy in Thomas Heywood’s Apologie for Actors. But by the industry of English and German scholars a great deal of light has since been thrown on his life and writings. He was the son of Francis Kyd, citizen and scrivener of London, and was baptized in the church of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, on the 6th of November 1558. His mother, who survived her son, was named Agnes, or Anna. In October 1565 Kyd entered the newly founded Merchant Taylors’ School, where Edmund Spenser and perhaps Thomas Lodge were at different times his school-fellows. It is thought that Kyd did not proceed to either of the universities; he apparently followed, soon after leaving school, his father’s business as a scrivener. But Nashe describes him as a “shifting companion that ran through every art and throve by none.” He showed a fairly wide range of reading in Latin. The author on whom he draws most freely is Seneca, but there are many reminiscences, and occasionally mistranslations of other authors. Nashe contemptuously said that “English Seneca read by candlelight yeeldes many good sentences,” no doubt exaggerating his indebtedness to Thomas Newton’s translation. John Lyly had a more marked influence on his manner than any of his contemporaries. It is believed that he produced his famous play, The Spanish Tragedy, between 1584