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forests, now greatly reduced, still cover about 18 per cent. of the surface of the government. The climate is comparatively mild, the mean temperature at Kovno being 44° Fahr. The population (1 156,040 in 1870) is very varied, consisting of Lithuanians proper and Zhmuds, Jews, Slavs, and Germans; 82 per cent. are Catholics, 13 Jews, 3 Protestants, and 2 belong to the Greek Church. The Poles number only 3000, and the Russians (White, Little, and Great) 182,000. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, 60 per cent. of the whole surface being under crops; both grain and potatoes are exported. The yield of com (2,270,000 quarters prior to 1857) is now about 2,879,000 quarters per annum. Flax is also cultivated, and the linseed is exported. Stock-breeding is not carried on to any considerable extent; but, owing to the number of lakes, the fishing industry has some importance. The manufacturing industries, if distillation be left out of account, are trifling. Trade, especially the transit trade, is brisk, from the situation of the government on the Prussian frontier, the custom houses of Yurburg and Taurogen being among the most important in Russia, Kovno has seven districts: – Kovno, Novoalexandrovsk, Ponevyezh, Rossieny, Shavli, Telshi, and Vilkomir. The principal towns are Kovno (32,050 inhabitants), Shavli (15,400), Vilkomir (11,150), Rossieny (10,700), and Novoalexandrovsk (8250).
The territory which now constitutes the government of Kovno was formerly part of Lithuania. During the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries the Livonian and Teutonic knights continually invaded and plundered it, especially the western part which was peopled with Zhmuds. In 1569 it was annexed, along with the rest of the grand principality of Lithuania, to Poland; and it suffered very much from the wars of Russia with Sweden and Poland, and from the invasion of Charles XII. in 1701. In 1795 the principality of Lithuania was annexed to Russia, and until 1872, when the government of Kovno was constituted, the territory now forming it was a part of the government of Vilna.
KOVNO, the Kaune of the Lithuanians, capital of the above government, is situated on the railway between St Petersburg and Berlin, 503 miles south-west from the former. It consists of two parts, the new town, built on the right bank of the Niemen, and an old town, situated on the left bank of the Vilia which here joins the Niemen. By its situation at the confluence of two navigable rivers, some few miles above the mouth of the Nevyaja, and close to a place where the Niemen sharply changes its northern direction into a western one, Kovno, which is supposed to have been built in the 11th century, soon acquired importance both as a fortified place and as a centre for trade. In its early history it often suffered from the attacks of the crusaders, and fell alternately under their dominion and under that of Lithuanians. Its citadel was destroyed in 1400, and from that time it became the centre of an active trade, being visited by German and English merchants. In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries it was the chief emporium for trade with Lithuania, and rivalled Königsberg. Henry of Valois said it was the best jewel of the kingdom. But continuous wars destroyed this commerce, and, when Kovno became a Russian town, in 1795, it was already a very poor place, which numbered in 1817 but two hundred houses. Owing to its advantageous situation, it has again acquired commercial importance. It has several remarkable old churches, two of which have been transferred to the Greek confession, and a beautiful old guild-hall now transformed into an imperial palace. Its population (33,050) is most varied; one half are Jews engaged in petty trades and commerce. Salt, salted fish, coal, and various manufactured wares are brought here from Prussia on vessels which return with cargoes of corn, linseed, timber, rags, bones, and wool, purchased in the governments of Vilna, Minsk, Grodno, and Tchernigoff.
KOVROFF, a town in Russia, situated in the government of Vladimir, on the railway between Moscow and Nijni Novgorod, 40 miles east-north-east of the capital of the province, on the right bank of the Klazrna river. It has become, of late years, an important manufacturing centre, – cottons, machinery, and railway carriages being the principal items. It also carries on an active trade in the export of wooden wares and in the import of grain, salt, and fish, brought from the Volga provinces for the use of the government of Vladimir. Population 5000.
KOZELSK, a district town of the government of Kaluga in European Russia, situated 43 miles south-west of Kaluga, on the left bank of the river Zhizdra. The principal building is the cathedral, erected in 1700, and rebuilt by Catherine II. after the fire of 1777. In the first half of the present century sailcloth was largely manufactured in the town; but this industry has declined, and, though there are oil-mills, tanneries, rope-walks, and breweries, many of the working classes have to seek employment elsewhere. Population in 1870, 13,400.
Kozelsk emerges in the middle of the 12th century. In 1238 it was utterly destroyed, and all its inhabitants put to the sword by the Tartar invaders. During the 15th century it formed a bone of contention between the Lithuanian princes and the grand-dukes of Moscow. Ivan the Terrible surrounded it with a wooden palisade. Captured by Dolgorukolf in 1607, it withstood a heavy siege at the hands of Ismailoff.
KRAFFT, or Kraft, Adam (c. 1455-1507), sculptor of the Nuremberg school, was born, probably at Nuremberg, about the middle of the 15th century, and died, some say in the hospital, at Schwabach, about 1507. Of his life few particulars are known beyond the dates of several of his works. He seems to have emerged as sculptor about 1490, the date of the seven reliefs of scenes from the life of Christ, which, like almost every other specimen of his work, are at Nuremberg. The date of his last work, an Entombment, with fifteen life-size figures, in the Holzschuher chapel of the St John's cemetery, is 1507.
Besides these, Krafft's chief works are several monumental reliefs in the various churches of Nuremberg; the alto-rilievo Entombment outside St Sebald's church; Christ Bearing the Cross, above the altar of the same church; and various works made for public and private buildings, as the relief over the door of the Wagehaus, a St George and the Dragon, several Madonnas, and some purely decorative pieces, as coats of arms. His masterpiece is perhaps the magnificent tabernacle, 62 feet high, in the church of St Laurence, 1493-1500. See Wanderer's Adam Kraft und seine Schule, 1869.
KRAJOVA, or Crajova, a town in the circle of Dolschi, Roumania, is situated near the Schyl, a tributary of the Danube, about 110 miles west of Bucharest. There are prosperous salt-works situated in the town; and from its position at the junction of the Carpathian high-roads with the route from Bucharest to Widdin its trade (largely in the hands of Jews) is important. In 1873 its population was 22,764.
Krajova was the former capital of Little Wallachia. In 1397 it was the scene of a victory of the waiwode Marcea over the Turkish sultan Bajazet; and there, in October 1853, a fight between the Russians and Turks took place.
KRANTZ, or Crantz, Albert (c. 1450-1517), German historian, was a native of Hamburg. He studied law, theology, and history at Rostock and Cologne, and after travelling through western and southern Europe was appointed professor, first of philosophy and subsequently of theology, in the university of Rostock, of which he was rector in 1482. In 1492 he returned to Hamburg as theological lecturer, canon, and prebendary in the cathedral. By the senate of Hamburg he was employed on more than one diplomatic mission abroad, and in 1500 he was chosen by the king of Denmark and the duke of Holstein as arbiter in their dispute regarding the province of Dithmarschen. As dean of the cathedral chapter, to which office he was appointed in 1508, Krantz applied himself with zeal to the reform of ecclesiastical abuses, but, though opposed to
