country is rich in game. On a promontory by the side of the lake is a chapel to which pilgrimages are made on St Bartholomew’s Day. Separated by a narrow strip of land from the Königssee is the Obersee, a smaller lake.
KÖNIGSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony,
situated in a deep valley on the left bank of the Elbe, at the
influx of the Biela, in the centre of Saxon Switzerland, 25 m.
S.E. of Dresden by the railway to Bodenbach and Testchen.
It contains a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a monument
to the composer Julius Otto, and has some small manufactures
of machinery, celluloid, paper, vinegar and buttons.
It is chiefly remarkable for the huge fortress, lying immediately
to the north-west of the town, which crowns a sandstone rock
rising abruptly from the Elbe to a height of 750 ft. Across the
Elbe lies the Lilienstein, a similar formation, but unfortified.
The fortress of Königstein was probably a Slav stronghold as
early as the 12th century, but it is not mentioned in chronicles
before the year 1241, when it was a fief of Bohemia. In 1401 it
passed to the margraves of Meissen and by the treaty of Eger
in 1459 it was formally ceded by Bohemia to Saxony. About
1540 the works were strengthened, and the place was used as
a point d’appui against inroads from Bohemia. Hence the
phrase frequently employed by historians that Königstein is
“the key to Bohemia.” As a fact, the main road from Dresden
into that country lies across the hills several miles to the south-west,
and the fortress has exercised little, if any, influence in
strategic operations, either during the middle ages or in modern
times. It was further strengthened under the electors Christian
I., John George I. and Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony, the
last of whom completed it in its present form. During the
Prussian invasion of Saxony in 1756 it served as a place of
refuge for the King of Poland, Augustus III., as it did also in
1849, during the Dresden insurrection of May in that year, to
the King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus II. and his ministers.
It was occupied by the Prussians in 1867, who retained possession
of it until the peace of 1871. It is garrisoned by detachments
of several Saxon infantry regiments, and serves as a
treasure house for the state and also as a place of detention for
officers sentenced to fortress imprisonment. A remarkable
feature of the place is a well, hewn out of the solid rock to a
depth of 470 ft.
See Klemm, Der Königstein in alter und neuer Zeit (Leipzig, 1905); and Gautsch, Aelteste Geschichte der sächsischen Schweiz (Dresden, 1880).
KÖNIGSWINTER, a town and summer resort of Germany, in
the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine,
24 m. S.S.E. of Cologne by the railway to Frankfort-on-Main,
at the foot of the Siebengebirge. Pop. (1905), 3944. The romantic
Drachenfels (1010 ft.), crowned by the ruins of a castle built
early in the 12th century by the archbishop of Cologne, rises
behind the town. From the summit, to which there is a funicular
railway, there is a magnificent view, celebrated by Byron
in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A cave in the hill is said to
have sheltered the dragon which was slain by the hero Siegfried.
The mountain is quarried, and from 1267 onward supplied stone
(trachyte) for the building of Cologne cathedral. The castle of
Drachenburg, built in 1883, is on the north side of the hill.
Königswinter has a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church,
some small manufactures and a little shipping. It has a monument
to the poet, Wolfgang Müller. Near the town are the
ruins of the abbey of Heisterbach.
KONINCK, LAURENT GUILLAUME DE (1809–1887), Belgian
palaeontologist and chemist, was born at Louvain on the 3rd of
May 1809. He studied medicine in the university of his native
town, and in 1831 he became assistant in the chemical schools.
He pursued the study of chemistry in Paris, Berlin and Giessen,
and was subsequently engaged in teaching the science at Ghent
and Liége. In 1856 he was appointed professor of chemistry in
the Liége University, and he retained this post until the close
of his life. About the year 1835 he began to devote his leisure
to the investigation of the Carboniferous fossils around Liége,
and ultimately he became distinguished for his researches on
the palaeontology of the Palaeozoic rocks, and especially for his
descriptions of the mollusca, brachiopods, crustacea and crinoids
of the Carboniferous limestone of Belgium. In recognition of
this work the Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1875 by
the Geological Society of London, and in 1876 he was appointed
professor of palaeontology at Liége. He died at Liége on the
16th of July 1887.
Publications.—Éléments de chimie inorganique (1839); Description des animaux fossiles qui se trouvent dans le terrain Carbonifère de Belgique (1842–1844, supp. 1851); Recherches sur les animaux fossiles (1847, 1873). See Notice sur L. G. de Koninck, by E. Dupont; Annuaire de l’Acad. roy. de Belgique (1891), with portrait and bibliography.
KONINCK, PHILIP DE [de Coninck, de Koningh, van Koening] (1619–1688), Dutch landscape painter, was born in Amsterdam in 1619. Little is known of his history, except that he was a pupil of Rembrandt, whose influence is to be seen in all his work. He painted chiefly broad sunny landscapes, full of space, light and atmosphere. Portraits by him, somewhat in the manner of Rembrandt, also exist; there are examples of these in the galleries at Copenhagen and Christiania. Of his landscapes the principal are “Vue de l’embouchure d’une rivière,” at the Hague; a slightly larger replica is in the National
Gallery, London; “Lisière d’un bois,” and “Paysage” (with
figures by A. Vandevelde) at Amsterdam; and landscapes in
Brussels, Florence (Uffizi), Berlin and Cologne.
Several of his works have been falsely attributed to Rembrandt, and many more to his namesake and fellow-townsman Salomon de Koninck (1609–1656), who was also a disciple of Rembrandt; his paintings and etchings consist mainly of portraits and biblical scenes.
Both these painters are to be distinguished from David de Koninck (1636–?1687), who is also known as “Rammelaar.” He was born in Antwerp. He studied there under Jan Fyt, and later settled in Rome, where he is stated to have died in 1687; this is, however, doubtful. His pictures are chiefly landscapes with animals, and still-life.
KONITZ, a town of Germany, in the province of West Prussia,
at the junction of railways to Schneidemühl and Gnesen, 68 m.
S.W. of Danzig. Pop. (1905), 11,014. It is still surrounded
by its old fortifications, has two Evangelical and two Roman
Catholic churches, a new town-hall, handsome public offices,
and a prison. It has iron-foundries, saw-mills, electrical works,
and manufactures of bricks. Konitz was the first fortified post
established in Prussia by Hermann Balk, who in 1230 had been
commissioned as Landmeister, by the grand-master of the
Teutonic order, to reduce the heathen Prussians. For a long
time it continued to be a place of military importance.
See Uppenkamp, Geschichte der Stadt Konitz (Konitz, 1873).
KONKAN, or Concan, a maritime tract of Western India, situated within the limits of the Presidency of Bombay, and extending from the Portuguese settlement of Goa on the S. to the territory of Daman, belonging to the same nation, on the N. On the E. it is bounded by the Western Ghats, and on
the W. by the Indian Ocean. This tract comprises the three
British districts of Thana, Ratnagiri and Kolaba, and the native
states of Janjira and Sawantwari. It may be estimated at
300 m. in length, with an average breadth of about 40. From
the mountains on its eastern frontier, which in one place attain
a height of 4700 ft., the surface, marked by a succession of
irregular hilly spurs from the Ghats, slopes to the westward,
where the mean elevation of the coast is not more than 100 ft.
above the level of the sea. Several mountain streams, but none
of any magnitude, traverse the country in the same direction.
One of the most striking characteristics of the climate is the violence
of the monsoon rains—the mean annual fall at Mahabaleshwar
amounting to 239 in. The coast has a straight general
outline, but is much broken into small bays and harbours.
This, with the uninterrupted view along the shore, and the
land and sea breezes, which force vessels steering along the
coast to be always within sight of it, rendered this country
from time immemorial the seat of piracy; and so formidable
