KAROSS, a cloak made of sheepskin, or the hide of other animals, with the hair left on. It is properly confined to the coat of skin without sleeves worn by the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa. These karosses are now often replaced by a blanket. Their chiefs wore karosses of the skin of the wild cat, leopard or caracal. The word is also loosely applied to the cloaks of leopard-skin worn by the chiefs and principal men of the Kaffir tribes. Kaross is probably either a genuine Hottentot word, or else an adaptation of the Dutch kuras (Portuguese couraça), a cuirass. In a vocabulary dated 1673 karos is described as a “corrupt Dutch word.”
KARR, JEAN BAPTISTE ALPHONSE (1808–1890), French critic and novelist, was born in Paris, on the 24th of November 1808, and after being educated at the Collège Bourbon, became a teacher there. In 1832 he published a novel, Sous les tilleuls, characterized by an attractive originality and a delightful freshness of personal sentiment. A second novel, Une heure trop tard, followed next year, and was succeeded by many other popular works. His Vendredi soir (1835) and Le Chemin le plus court (1836) continued the vein of autobiographical romance with which he had made his first success. Géneviève (1838) is one of his best stories, and his Voyage autour de mon jardin (1845) was deservedly popular. Others were Feu Bressier (1848), and Fort en thème (1853), which had some influence in stimulating educational reform. In 1839 Alphonse Karr, who was essentially a brilliant journalist, became editor of Le Figaro, to which he had been a constant contributor; and he also started a monthly journal, Les Guêpes, of a keenly satirical tone, a publication which brought him the reputation of a somewhat bitter wit. His epigrams were frequently quoted; e.g. “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” and, on the proposal to abolish capital punishment, “je veux bien que messieurs les assassins commencent.” In 1848 he founded Le Journal. In 1855 he went to live at Nice, where he indulged his predilections for floriculture, and gave his name to more than one new variety. Indeed he practically founded the trade in cut flowers on the Riviera. He was also devoted to fishing, and in Les Soirées de Sainte-Adresse (1853) and Au bord de la mer (1860) he made use of his experiences. His reminiscences, Livre de bord, were published in 1879–1880. He died at St Raphaël (Var), on the 29th of September 1890.
KARRER, FELIX (1825–1903), Austrian geologist, was born in Venice on the 11th of March 1825. He was educated in Vienna, and served for a time in the war department, but he retired from the public service at the age of thirty-two, and devoted himself to science. He made especial studies of the Tertiary formations and fossils of the Vienna Basin, and investigated the geological relations of the thermal and other springs in that region. He became an authority on the foraminifera, on which subject he published numerous papers. He wrote also a little book entitled Der Boden der Hauptstädte Europas (1881). He died in Vienna on the 19th of April 1903.
KARROO, two extensive plateaus in the Cape province, South Africa, known respectively as the Great and Little Karroo. Karroo is a corruption of Karusa, a Hottentot word meaning dry, barren, and its use as a place-name indicates the character of the plateaus so designated. They form the two intermediate “steps” between the coast-lands and the inner plateau which constitutes the largest part of South Africa. The Little (also called Southern) Karroo is the table-land nearest the southern coast-line of the Cape, and is bounded north by the Zwaarteberg, which separates it from the Great Karroo. From west to east the Little Karroo has a length of some 200 m., whilst its average width is 30 m. West of the Zwaarteberg the Little Karroo merges into the Great Karroo. Eastward it is limited by the hills which almost reach the sea in the direction of St Francis and Algoa Bays. The Great Karroo is of much larger extent. Bounded south, as stated, by the Zwaarteberg, further east by the Zuurberg (of the coast chain), its northern limit is the mountain range which, under various names, such as Nieuwveld and Sneeuwberg, forms the wall of the inner plateau. To the south-west and west it is bounded by the Hex River Mountains and the Cold Bokkeveld, eastward by the Great Fish River. West to east it extends fully 350 m. in a straight line, varying in breadth from more than 80 to less than 40 m. Whilst the Little Karroo is divided by a chain of hills which run across it from east to west, and varies in altitude from 1000 to 2000 ft., the Great Karroo has more the aspect of a vast plain and has a level of from 2000 to 3000 ft. The total area of the Karroo plateaus is stated to be over 100,000 sq. m. The plains are dotted with low ranges of kopjes. The chief characteristics of the Karroo are the absence of running water during a great part of the year and the consequent parched aspect of the country. There is little vegetation save stunted shrubs, such as the mimosa (which generally marks the river beds), wild pomegranate, and wax heaths, known collectively as Karroo bush. After the early rains the bush bursts into gorgeous purple and yellow blossoms and vivid greens, affording striking evidence of the fertility of the soil. Such parts of the Karroo as are under perennial irrigation are among the most productive lands in South Africa. Even the parched bush provides sufficient nourishment for millions of sheep and goats. There are also numerous ostrich farms, in particular in the districts of Oudtshoorn and Ladismith in the Little Karroo, where lucerne grows with extraordinary luxuriance. The Karroo is admirably adapted to sufferers from pulmonary complaints. The dryness of the air tempers the heat of summer, which reaches in January a mean maximum of 87° F., whilst July, the coldest month, has a mean minimum of 36° F. A marked feature of the climate is the great daily range (nearly 30°) in temperature; the Karroo towns are also subject to violent dust storms. Game, formerly plentiful, has been, with the exception of buck, almost exterminated. In a looser sense the term Karroo is also used of the vast northern plains of the Cape which are part of the inner table-land of the continent. (See Cape Colony.)
KARS, a province of Russian Transcaucasia, having the governments of Kutais and Tiflis on the N., those of Tiflis and Erivan on the E., and Asiatic Turkey on the S. and W. Its area amounts to 7410 sq. m. It is a mountainous, or rather a highland, country, being in reality a plateau, with ranges of mountains running across it. The northern border is formed by the Arzyan range, a branch of the Ajari Mts., which attains altitudes of over 9000 ft. In the south the Kara-dagh reach 10,270 ft. in Mount Ala-dagh, and the Agry-dagh 10,720 ft. in Mount Ashakh; and in the middle Allah-akhbar rises to 10,215 ft. The passes which connect valley with valley often lie at considerable altitudes, the average of those in the S.E. being 9000 ft. Chaldir-gol (altitude 6520 ft.) and one or two other smaller lakes lie towards the N.E.; the Chaldir-gol is overhung on the S.W. by the Kysyr-dagh (10,470 ft.). The east side of the province is throughout demarcated by the Arpa-chai, which receives from the right the Kars river, and as it leaves the province at its S.E. corner joins the Aras. The Kura rises within the province not far from the Kysyr-dagh and flows across it westwards, then eastwards and north-eastwards, quitting it in the north-east. The winters are very severe. The towns of Kaghyshman (4620 ft.) and Sarykamish (7800 ft.) have a winter temperature like that of Finland, and at the latter place, with an annual mean (35° F.) equal to that of Hammerfest in the extreme north of Norway, the thermometer goes down in winter to 40° below zero and rises in summer to 99°. The annual mean temperature at Kars is 40.5° and at Ardahan, farther north, 37°. The Alpine meadows (yailas) reach up to 1000 ft. and afford excellent pasturage in spring and summer. The province is almost everywhere heavily forested. Firs and birches flourish as high as 7000 ft., and the vine up to above 3000 ft. Cereals ripen well, and barley and maize grow up to considerable altitudes. Large numbers of cattle and sheep are bred. Extensive deposits of salt occur at Kaghyshman and Olty. The population was 167,610 in 1883 and 292,863 in 1897. The estimated population in 1906 was 349,100. It is mixed. In remote antiquity the province was inhabited by Armenians, the ruins of whose capital, Ani, attest the ancient prosperity of the country. To the Armenians succeeded the Turks, while
