city, the other the “Shutait” flowing west. These two branches, which are navigable to within a few miles below Shushter, unite after a run of about 50 m. at Band i Kir, 24 m. S. of Shushter, and there also take up the Ab i Diz (river of Dizful). From Band i Kir to a point two miles above Muhamrah the river is called Karun (Rio Carom of the Portuguese writers of the 16th and 17th centuries) and is navigable all the way with the exception of about two miles at Ahvaz, where a series of cliffs and rocky shelves cross the river and cause rapids. Between Ahvaz and Band i Kir (46 m. by river, 24 m. by road) the river has an average depth of about 20 ft., but below Ahvaz down to a few miles above Muhamrah it is in places very shallow, and vessels with a draught exceeding 3 ft. are liable to ground. About 12 m. above Muhamrah and branching off to the left is a choked-up river bed called the “blind Karun,” by which the Karun found its way to the sea in former days. Ten miles farther a part of the river branches off to the left and due S. by a channel called Bahmashir (from Bahman-Ardashir, the name of the district in the early middle ages) which is navigable to the sea for vessels of little draught. The principal river, here about a quarter of a mile broad and 20 to 30 ft. deep, now flows west, and after passing Muhamrah enters into the Shatt el Arab about 20 m. below Basra. This part of the river, from the Bahmashir to the Shatt, is a little over three miles in length and, as its name, Hafar (“dug”) implies, an artificial channel. It was dug c. A.D. 980 by Azud ed-Dowleh to facilitate communication by water between Basra and Ahvaz, as related by the Arab geographer Mukaddasi A.D. 986. The total length of the river is 460 to 470 m. while the distance from the sources to its junction with the Shatt el Arab is only 160 m. as the crow flies. The Karun up to Ahvaz was opened to international navigation on the 30th of October 1888, and Messrs Lynch of London established a fortnightly steamer service on it immediately after.
To increase the water supply of Isfahan Shah Tahmasp I. (1524–1576) and some of his successors, notably Shah Abbas I. (1587–1629), undertook some works for diverting the Kurang into a valley which drains into the Zayendeh-rud, the river of Isfahan, by tunnelling, or cutting through a narrow rocky ridge separating the two river systems. The result of many years’ work, a cleft 300 yds. long, 15 broad and 18 deep, cut into the rock, probably amounting to no more than one-twentieth of the necessary work, can be seen at the junction of the two principal sources of the Kurang.
On the upper Karun see Mrs Bishop, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (London, 1891); Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question (London, 1892); Lieut.-Colonel H. A. Sawyer, “The Bakhtiari Mountains and Upper Elam,” Geog. Journal (Dec. 1894). (A. H.-S.)
KARWAR, or Carwar, a seaport of British India, administrative
headquarters of North Kanara district in the Bombay
presidency; 295 m. S. of Bombay city. Pop. (1901), 16,847. As
early as 1660 the East India Company had a factory here, with
a trade in muslin and pepper; but it suffered frequently from
Dutch, Portuguese and native attacks, and in 1752 the English
agent was withdrawn. Old Karwar fell into ruins, but a new
town grew up after the transfer of North Kanara to the Bombay
presidency. It is the only safe harbour all the year round
between Bombay and Cochin. In the bay is a cluster of islets
called the Oyster Rocks, on the largest of which is a lighthouse.
Two smaller islands in the bay afford good shelter to native
craft during the strong north-west winds that prevail from
February to April. The commercial importance of Karwar has
declined since the opening of the railway to Marmagao in
Portuguese territory.
KARWI, a town of British India, in the Banda district of the
United Provinces, on a branch of the Indian Midland railway;
pop. (1901), 7743. Before the Mutiny it was the residence of
a Mahratta noble, who lived in great state, and whose accumulations
constituted the treasure afterwards famous as “the
Kirwee and Banda Prize Money.”
KARYOGAMY (Gr. κάρυον, nut or kernel, thus “nucleus,”
and γάμος, marriage), in biology: (1) the fusion of nuclei to
form a single nucleus in syngamic processes (see Reproduction);
(2) the process of pairing in Infusoria (q.v.), in which two migratory
nuclei are interchanged and fuse with two stationary
nuclei, while the cytoplasmic bodies of the two mates are in
intimate temporary union.
KASAI, or Cassai, a river of Africa, the chief southern
affluent of the Congo. It enters the main stream in 3° 10′ S.,
16° 16′ E. after a course of over 800 m. from its source in the
highlands which form the south-western edge of the Congo
basin—separating the Congo and Zambezi systems. The Kasai
and its many tributaries cover a very large part of the Congo
basin. The Kasai rises in about 12° S., 19° E. and flows first in
a north-easterly direction. About 10° 35′ S., 22° 15′ E. it makes
a rectangular bend northward and then takes a north-westerly
direction. Five rivers—the Luembo, Chiumbo, Luijimo or
Luashimo, Chikapa and Lovua or Lowo—rise west of the
Kasai and run in parallel courses for a considerable distance,
falling successively into the parent stream (between 7° and 6° S.)
as it bends westward in its northern course. The Luembo and
Chiumbo join and enter the Kasai as one river. A number of
rapids occur in these streams. A few miles below the confluence
of the Lowo, the last of the five rivers named to join the Kasai,
the main stream is interrupted by the Wissmann Falls which,
though not very high, bar further navigation from the north.
Below this point the river receives several right-hand (eastern)
tributaries. These also have their source in the Zambezi-Congo
watershed, rising just north of 12° S., flowing north in parallel
lines, and in their lower course bending west to join the Kasai.
The chief of these affluents are the Lulua and the Sankuru, the
Lulua running between the Kasai and the Sankuru. The
Sankuru makes a bold curve westward on reaching 4° S.,
following that parallel of latitude a considerable distance. Its
waters are of a bright yellow colour. After the junction of the
two rivers (in 4° 17′ S., 20° 15′ E.), the united stream of the Kasai
flows N.W. to the Congo. From the south it is joined by the
Loange and the Kwango. The Kwango is a large river rising
a little north of 12° S., and west of the source of the Kasai.
Without any marked bends it flows north—is joined from the
east by the Juma, Wamba and other streams—and has a course
of 600 m. before joining the Kasai in 3° S., 18′ E. The lower
reaches of the Kwango are navigable; the upper course is
interrupted by rapids. On the north (in 3° 8′ S., 17° E.) the
lower Kasai is joined by the Lukenye or Ikatta. This river,
the most northerly affluent of the Kasai, rises between 24° and
25° E., and about 3° S. in swampy land through which the
Lomami (another Congo affluent) flows northward. The
Lukenye has an east to west direction flowing across a level
country once occupied by a lake, of which Lake Leopold II.
(q.v.), connected with the lower course of the Lukenye, is the
scanty remnant. Below the lake the Lukenye is known as the
Mfini. Near its mouth the Kasai, in its lower course generally
a broad stream strewn with islands, is narrowed to about half a
mile on passing through a gap in the inner line of the West African
highlands, by the cutting of which the old lake of the Kasai basin
must have been drained. The Kasai enters the Congo with a
minimum depth of 25 feet and a breadth of about 700 yards,
at a height of 942 ft. above the sea. The confluence is known
as the Kwa mouth, Kwa being an alternative name for the
lower Kasai. The volume of water entering the Congo averages
321,000 cub. ft. per second: far the largest amount discharged by
any of the Congo affluents. In floodtime the current flows at the
rate of 5 or 6 m. an hour. The Kasai and its tributaries are
navigable for over 1500 m. by steamer.
The Kwango affluent of the Kasai was the first of the large affluents of the Congo known to Europeans. It was reached by the Portuguese from their settlements on the west coast in the 16th century. Of its lower course they were ignorant. Portuguese travellers in the 18th century are believed to have reached the upper Kasai, but the first accurate knowledge of the river basin was obtained by David Livingstone, who reached the upper Kasai from the east and explored in part the upper Kwango (1854–1855). V. L. Cameron and Paul Pogge crossed the upper Kasai in the early “seventies.” The Kwa mouth was seen by H. M. Stanley in his journey down the Congo in 1877, and he rightly regarded it as the
