KIRK-KILLISSEH, a town located in what was formerly European Turkey but now belonging to Bulgaria. About 35 miles northeast of Adrianople. The Bulgarians won a notable victory over the Turks here in October, 1912, but the city was later re-captured by Turkey in July, 1918. The Turks were finally ousted in 1919 by the victory of the Entente allies.
KIRKLAND, JOSEPH, an American author; born in Geneva, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1830; removed to Chicago, Ill., in 1853; entered the volunteer service at the outbreak of the Civil War, serving as private, lieutenant, and captain of the 12th Illinois Volunteer Infantry; was promoted major in 1863; and served in the Army of the Potomac. After the war he engaged in mining, law practice, and later in literary work. His publications include: "Zury, the Meanest Man in Spring County" (1887); "The Captain of Company K" (1891); with Caroline Kirkland, "The Chicago Massacre of 1812"; and "The Story of Chicago" (1892-1894). He died in Chicago, Ill., April 29, 1894.
KIRKSVILLE, a city of Missouri, the county seat of Adair co. It is on the Wabash and the Quincy, Omaha, and Kansas City railroads. It is the center of an important agricultural and coal mining region. The chief industry is the manufacture of shoes. There is a court house, a government building, and a State normal school. Pop. (1910) 6,347; (1920) 7,213.
KIRMOAB (ker-mo'ab), a fortified city of Palestine, in the territory of Moab, mentioned in Isaiah xv: 1, was noticed in an act of the Council of Jerusalem in 536. In 1131, Fulk, Count of Anjou, and Latin king of Jerusalem, erected a castle here, which successfully resisted a siege by Saladin in 1183.
KIRWANITE, a soft, fibrous, green mineral, found in the basalt of Antrim, Ireland. Composition: A hydrated silicate of alumina, protoxide of iron and lime.
KISHINEFF, capital of the former Russian province of Bessarabia, now part of Rumania, on a tributary of the Dneister. It came into the possession of Russia in 1812. Fruit, the vine, and tobacco are grown; and tobacco and flour are manufactured. Kishineff is an important trading center for Bessarabian native products. In 1903 the town was the scene of a massacre of the Jews. Pop. about 130,000.
KISHON, a river in Palestine. Here Elijah slaughtered the priests of Baal, and Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera.
KISSINGEN, a watering-place of Bavaria, Germany, on the Saale, 30 miles N. of Würzburg. The springs, five in number, and all saline, contain a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, and are used both internally and as baths.
KISTNA, a river of Southern India, rises in the Western Ghats within 40 miles of the Arabian Sea, at a height of 4,500 feet, and, flowing E. across the peninsula, falls into the Bay of Bengal after a course of 800 miles. The river forms for a considerable distance the boundary between the Nizam's dominions and Madras presidency, and has a delta extending 100 miles inland.
KIT-CAT CLUB, a society formed in London about 1700, consisting of 39 noblemen and gentlemen favorable to the succession of the House of Hanover, and whose ostensible object was the encouragement of literature and the fine arts. Jacob Tonson, an eminent publisher, was founder and secretary; and, not to mention dukes and earls, it included Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Addison, Steele, and Garth. Before the club was dissolved (about 1720) each of the members presented to Tonson his half-length portrait, painted a uniform size, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Hence the term is now applied generally to any portrait of kit-cat size—i.e., about 36 inches long by 28 or 29 wide.
KITCHEN MIDDENS, refuse heaps, or shell mounds—the name given to what were formerly considered to be raised beaches on the coast of Denmark, but which are now proved to have been deposited by early man. It was first observed by Steenstrup that, in these supposed beaches, the shells belonged entirely to full-grown or nearly full-grown individuals; that they consisted of four species—the oyster, the cockle, the mussel, and the periwinkle—which do not live together. The discovery of flint implements and of bones bearing the marks of knives made it evident that these beds were the sites of ancient villages, the population of which lived principally on shell-fish, but partly on the produce of the chase. Kitchen middens are by no means limited to Denmark. They exist in England, in Australia, in Tierra del Fuego, in the Malay Peninsula, and in North and South America.
With regard to the time when these kitchen middens were formed. Sir John Lubbock dates them from the early part of the Neolithic Stone Age.
