audience hall of the emir’s palace—25 ft. sq. and 18 ft. high—is decorated with designs in black, white, green and yellow, the yellow designs (formed of micaceous sand) glistening like gold. The dome-shaped roof is supported by twenty arches.
The city is divided into fourteen quarters, each presided over by a headman, and inhabited by separate sections of the community. It is probably the greatest commercial city in the central Sudan. Other towns, like Zaria, may do as much trade, but Kano is pre-eminent as a manufacturing centre. The chief industry is the weaving of cloth from native grown cotton. Leather goods of all kinds are also manufactured, and from Kano come most of the “morocco leather” goods on the European markets. Dyeing is another large trade, as is the preparation of indigo. Of traders there are four distinct classes. They are: (1) Arabs from Tripoli, who export ostrich feathers, skins and ivory, and bring in burnouses, scents, sweets, tea, sugar, &c.; (2) Salaga merchants who import kola nuts from the hinterland of the Guinea Coast, taking in exchange cloth and live stock and leather and other goods; (3) the Asbenawa traders, who come from the oases of Asben or Air with camels laden with salt and “potash” (i.e. sodium carbonates), and with herds of cattle and sheep, receiving in return cotton and hardware and kolas; (4) the Hausa merchants. This last class trades with the other three and despatches caravans to Illorin and other places, where the Kano goods, the “potash” and other merchandise are exchanged for kolas and European goods. The “potash” finds a ready sale among the Yorubas, being largely used for cooking purposes. In Kano itself is a great market for livestock: camels, horses, oxen, asses and goats being on sale.
Besides Hausa, who represent the indigenous population, there are large colonies of Kanuri (from Bornu) and Nupians in Kano. The Fula form the aristocratic class. The population is said to amount to 100,000. About a mile and a half east of Kano is Nassarawa, formerly the emir’s suburban residence, but since 1902 the British Residency and barracks.
The city of Kano appears on the map of the Arab geographer, Idrisi, A.D. 1145, and the hill of Dala is mentioned in the earliest records as the original site of Kano. Barth, however, concluded that the present town does not date earlier than the second half of the 16th century, and that before the rise of the Fula power (c. 1800) scarcely any great Arab merchant ever visited Kano. The present town may be the successor of an older town occupying a position of similar pre-eminence. Kano submitted to the Fula without much resistance, and under them in the first half of the 19th century flourished greatly. It was visited by Hugh Clapperton, an English officer, in 1824, and in it Barth lived some time in 1851 and again in 1854. Barth’s descriptions of the wealth and importance of the city attracted great attention in Europe, and Kano was subsequently visited by several travellers, missionaries, and students of Hausa, but none was permitted to live permanently in the city. In the closing years of the century, Kano became the centre of resistance to British influence, and the emir, Alieu, was the most inveterate of Fula slave raiders. In February 1903 the city was captured by a British force under Colonel T. L. N. Morland, and a new emir, Abbas, a brother of Alieu, installed.
After the occupation by the British in 1903 the province was organized for administration on the same system as that adopted throughout northern Nigeria. The emir on his installation takes an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, and accepts the position of a chief of the first class under British rule. A resident is placed at his court, and assistant residents have their headquarters in the administrative districts of the province. British courts of justice are established side by side with the native courts throughout the province. Taxation is assessed under British supervision and paid into the native treasury. A fixed portion is paid by the emir to the British government. The emir is not allowed to maintain a standing army, and the city of Kano is the headquarters of the British garrison. The conditions of appointment of the emirs are fully laid down in the terms accepted at Sokoto on the close of the Sokoto-Kano campaign of 1903. Since the introduction of British rule there has been no serious trouble in the province. The emir Abbas worked loyally with the British and proved himself a ruler of remarkable ability and intelligence. He was indefatigable in dispensing justice, and himself presided over a native court in which he disposed of from fifty to a hundred cases a month. He also took an active interest in the reform and reorganization of the system of taxation, and in the opening of the country to trade. He further showed himself helpful in arranging difficulties which at times arose in connexion with the lesser chiefs of his province.
The province of Kano is generally fertile. For a radius of 30 m. round the capital the country is closely cultivated and densely populated, with some 40 walled towns and with villages and hamlets hardly half a mile apart. Kano district proper contains 170 walled towns and about 450 villages. There are many streams, but water is chiefly obtained from wells 15 to 40 ft. deep. The principal crops are African grains, wheat, onions, cotton, tobacco, indigo, with sugar-cane, cassava, &c. The population is chiefly agricultural, but also commercial and industrial. The chief industries are weaving, leather-making, dyeing and working in iron and pottery. Cattle are abundant. (See Nigeria: History; and Sokoto.)
Consult the Travels of Heinrich Barth (new ed., London, 1890); Hausaland, by C. H. Robinson (London, 1896); Northern Nigeria, by Sir F. D. Lugard, in vol. xxii. Geographical Journal (London, 1904); A Tropical Dependency, by Lady Lugard (London, 1905); the Colonial Office Reports on Northern Nigeria from 1902 onward, and other works cited under Nigeria. (F. L. L.)
KANSAS (known as the “Sunflower State”), the central
commonwealth of the United States of America, lying between
37° and 40° N. lat. and between 94° 38′ and 102° 1′ 34″ W. long.
(i.e. 25° W. long, from Washington). It is bounded on the N.
by Nebraska, on the E. by Missouri, on the S. by Oklahoma, and
on the W. by Colorado. The state is nearly rectangular in shape,
with a breadth of about 210 m. from N. to S. and a length of
about 410 m. from E. to W. It contains an area of 82,158 sq. m.
(including 384 sq. m. of water surface).
Physiography.—Three physiographic regions may be distinguished within the state—the first, a small portion of the Ozark uplift in the extreme south-east corner; the second, the Prairie Plains, covering approximately the east third of the state; the third, the Great Plains, covering the remaining area. Between the latter two there is only the most gradual transition. The entire state is indeed practically an undulating plain, gently sloping from west to east at an average of about 7 ft. per mile. There is also an inclination in the eastern half from north to south, as indicated by the course of the rivers, most of which flow south-easterly (the Kansas, with its general easterly course, is the principal exception), the north-west corner being the highest portion of the state. The lowest point in the state in its south-east part, in Montgomery county, is 725 ft. above sea level. The average elevation of the east boundary is about 850 ft., while contour lines of 3500–3900 ft. run near the west border. Somewhat more than half the total area is below 2000 ft. The gently rolling prairie surface is diversified by an endless succession of broad plains, isolated hills and ridges, and moderate valleys. In places there are terraced uplands, and in others the undulating plain is cut by erosion into low escarpments. The bluffs on the Missouri are in places 200 ft. high, and the valley of the Cimarron, in the south-west, has deep cuts, almost gorges. The west central portion has considerable irregularities of contour, and the north-west is distinctively hilly. In the south-west, below the Arkansas river, is an area of sandhills, and the Ozark Plateau region, as above stated, extends into the south-east corner, though not there much elevated. The great central valley is traversed by the Kansas (or Kaw) river, which, inclusive of the Smoky Hill Branch, extends the entire length of the state, with lateral valleys on the north. Another broad valley is formed in the south half of the state by the Arkansas river, with lateral valleys on the north and south. The south-east portion contains the important Neosho and smaller valleys. In the extreme south-west is the valley of the Cimarron, and along the south boundary is a network of the south tributaries of the Arkansas. Numerous small affluents of the Missouri enrich and diversify the north-east quarter. The streams of Kansas are usually fed by perennial springs, and, as a rule, the east and middle portions of the state are well watered. Most of the streams maintain a good flow of water in the driest seasons, and in case of heavy rains many of them “underflow” the adjacent bottom lands, saturating the permeable substratum of the country with the surplus water, which in time drains out and feeds the subsiding streams. This feature is particularly true of the Saline, Solomon and Smoky Hill rivers. The west part is more elevated and water is less abundant.
Climate.—The climate of Kansas is exceptionally salubrious. Extremes of heat and cold occur, but as a rule the winters are dry and mild, while the summer heats are tempered by the perpetual prairie breezes, and the summer nights are usually cool and refreshing. The average annual temperature of the state for seventeen years preceding 1903 was 54.3° F., the warmest mean being 56.0°, the
