at Benguella, runs generally from north to south through four degrees of latitude, but finally flows west to the sea through a break in the outer highlands. A little south of 16° S. it receives the Kulonga from the east, and in about 16° 50′ the Kakulovar from the west. The Kakulovar has its sources in the Serra da Chella and other ranges of the Humpata district behind Mossamedes, but, though the longest tributary of the Kunene, is but a small river in its lower course, which traverses the arid region comprised within the lower basin of the Kunene. Between the mouths of the Kulonga and Kakulovar the Kunene traverses a swampy plain, inundated during high water, and containing several small lakes at other parts of the year. From this swampy region divergent branches run S.E. They are mainly intermittent, but the Kwamatuo, which leaves the main stream in about 15° 8′ E., 17° 15′ S., flows into a large marsh or lake called Etosha, which occupies a depression in the inner table-land about 3400 ft. above sea-level. From the S.E. end of the Etosha lake streams issue in the direction of the Okavango, to which in times of great flood they contribute some water. From the existence of this divergent system it is conjectured that at one time the Kunene formed part of the Okavango, and thus of the Zambezi basin. (See Ngami.)
On leaving the swampy region the Kunene turns decidedly to the west, and descends to the coast plain by a number of cataracts, of which the chief (in 17° 25′ S., 14° 20′ E.) has a fall of 330 ft. The river becomes smaller in volume as it passes through an almost desert region with little or no vegetation. The stream is sometimes shallow and fordable, at others confined to a narrow rocky channel. Near the sea the Kunene traverses a region of sand-hills, its mouth being completely blocked at low water. The river enters the Atlantic in 17° 18′ S., 11° 40′ E. There are indications that a former branch of the river once entered a bay to the south.
KUNERSDORF, a village of Prussia, 4 m. E. of Frankfurt-on-Oder, the scene of a great battle, fought on the 12th of August 1759, between the Prussian army commanded by Frederick the Great and the allied Russians under Soltykov and Austrians
under Loudon, in which Frederick was defeated with enormous
losses and his army temporarily ruined. (See Seven Years’ War.)
KUNGRAD, a trading town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Syr-darya, in the delta of the Amu-darya, 50 m. S. of Lake Aral; altitude 260 ft. It is the centre of caravan routes leading to the Caspian Sea and the Uralsk province.
KUNGUR, a town of eastern Russia, in the government of Perm, on the highway to Siberia, 58 m. S.S.E. of the city of
Perm. Pop. (1892), 12,400; (1897), 14,324. Tanneries and the
manufacture of boots, gloves, leather, overcoats, iron castings
and machinery are the chief industries. It has trade in boots,
iron wares, cereals, tallow and linseed exported, and in tea
imported direct from China.
KUNKEL (or Kunckel) VON LOWENSTJERN, JOHANN (1630–1703), German chemist, was born in 1630 (or 1638), near Rendsburg, his father being alchemist to the court of Holstein. He became chemist and apothecary to the dukes of Lauenburg, and then to the elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II., who put him in charge of the royal laboratory at Dresden. Intrigues engineered against him caused him to resign this position in 1677,
and for a time he lectured on chemistry at Annaberg and Wittenberg. Invited to Berlin by Frederick William, in 1679 he became director of the laboratory and glass works of Brandenburg, and in 1688 Charles XI. brought him to Stockholm, giving him
the title of Baron von Lowenstjern in 1693 and making him a
member of the council of mines. He died on the 20th of March
1703 (others say 1702) at Dreissighufen, his country house near
Pernau. Kunkel shares with Boyle the honour of having discovered
the secret of the process by which Brand of Hamburg
had prepared phosphorus in 1669, and he found how to make
artificial ruby (red glass) by the incorporation of purple of Cassius.
His work also included observations on putrefaction and fermentation,
which he spoke of as sisters, on the nature of salts,
and on the preparation of pure metals. Though he lived in an
atmosphere of alchemy, he derided the notion of the alkahest
or universal solvent, and denounced the deceptions of the adepts
who pretended to effect the transmutation of metals; but he
believed mercury to be a constituent of all metals and heavy
minerals, though he held there was no proof of the presence of
“sulphur comburens.”
His chief works were Oeffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil (1678); Ars vitriaria experimentalis (1689) and Laboratorium chymicum (1716).
KUNLONG, the name of a district and ferry on the Salween, in the northern Shan States of Burma. Both are insignificant,
but the place has gained notoriety from being the nominal
terminus in British territory of the railway across the northern
Shan States to the borders of Yunnan, with its present terminus
at Lashio. In point of fact, however, this terminus will be 7 m.
below the ferry and outside of Kunlong circle. At present
Kunlong ferry is little used, and the village was burnt by Kachins
in 1893. It is served by dug-outs, three in number in 1899, and
capable of carrying about fifteen men on a trip. Formerly the
trade was very considerable, and the Burmese had a customs
station on the island, from which the place takes its name; but
the rebellion in the great state of Theinni, and the southward
movement of the Kachins, as well as the Mahommedan rebellion
in Yunnan, diverted the caravans to the northern route to Bhamo,
which is still chiefly followed. The Wa, who inhabit the hills
immediately overlooking the Nam Ting valley, now make the
route dangerous for traders. The great majority of these Wa
live in unadministered British territory.
KUNZITE, a transparent lilac-coloured variety of spodumene,
used as a gem-stone. It was discovered in 1902 near Pala, in
San Diego county, California, not far from the locality which yields
the fine specimens of rubellite and lepidolite, well known to
mineralogists. The mineral was named by Dr C. Baskerville
after Dr George F. Kunz, the gem expert of New York, who
first described it. Analysis by R. O. E. Davis showed it to be
a spodumene. Kunzite occurs in large crystals, some weighing
as much as 1000 grams each, and presents delicate hues from
rosy lilac to deep pink. It is strongly dichroic. Near the
surface it may lose colour by exposure. Kunzite becomes
strongly phosphorescent under the Röntgen rays, or by the
action of radium or on exposure to ultra-violet rays. (See
Spodumene.)
KUOPIO, a province of Finland, which includes northern
Karelia, bounded on the N.W. and N. by Uleåborg, on the E. by
Olonets, on the S.E. by Viborg, on the S. by St Michel and on the
W. by Vasa. Its area covers 16,500 sq. m., and the population
(1900) was 313,951, of whom 312,875 were Finnish-speaking.
The surface is hilly, reaching from 600 to 800 ft. of altitude in
the north (Suomenselkä hills), and from 300 to 400 ft. in the south.
It is built up of gneisso-granites, which are covered, especially
in the middle and east, with younger granites, and partly of
gneisses, quartzite, and talc schists and augitic rocks. The
whole is covered with glacial and later lacustrine deposits.
The soil is of moderate fertility, but often full of boulders.
Large lakes cover 16% of surface, marshes and peat bogs
over 29% of the area, and forests occupy 2,672,240 hectares.
Steamers ply along the lakes as far as Joensuu. The climate
is severe, the average temperature being for the year 36° F.,
for January 13° and for July 63°. Only 2.3% of the whole
surface is under cultivation. Rye, barley, oats and potatoes
are the chief crops, and in good years these meet the needs
of the population. Dairy farming and cattle breeding are of
rapidly increasing importance. Nearly 38,800 tons of iron ore
are extracted every year, and nearly 12,000 tons of pig iron
and 6420 tons of iron and steel are obtained in ten iron-works.
Engineering and chemical works, tanneries, saw-mills,
paper-mills and distilleries are the chief industrial establishments.
The preparation of carts, sledges and other wooden
goods is an important domestic industry. Timber, iron,
butter, furs and game are exported. The chief towns of the
government are Kuopio (13,519), Joensuu (3954) and Iisalmi
(1871).
