150 K U B K U B
to circumnavigate the world. The emperor conferred several honours upon him, and lie ultimately became admiral. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did a great deal to improve the education and the position of the cadets, and in other ways the Russian navy was much indebted to his enlightened exertions. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence the iron in vessels has on the compass was adopted in the navy. He died at Revel, August 24, 1846.
Krusenstern's Voyage Round the World in 1803 was published at St Petersburg in 1810-14 in 3 vols., with folio atlas of 104 plates and maps (English edition, 2 vols., 1813; French edition, 2 vols., and atlas of 30 plates, 1820). His narrative contains a good many important discoveries and rectifications, especially in the region of Japan, and the contributions made by the various savants were of much scientific importance. A work of permanent value is Krusenstern's Atlas of the Pacific Ocean, with its accompanying Recueil des Mémoires Hydrographiques, 3 vols., St Petersburg, 1824-35. See Memoir by his daughter Madame Bernhardi, translated by Sir John Ross, 1856.
KUBA, or Kudial-kala, a town of the Caucasus, in the
government of Baku, Russia, 120 miles north-west from
Baku, and 25 miles west of the Caspian. Its situation
at the foot of the highlands of Caucasus, on a plain
watered by the numberless branches into which the
Kubinka river and other smaller streams divide at their
issue from the mountain valleys, makes the neighbourhood
very suitable for gardening, which is the chief occupation
of the 11,300 inhabitants of Kuba, mostly Mussulman
Shiites. They also make carpets with very bright colours,
and some silks, which are exported to Transcaucasia and
Russia; whilst Jews, who are numerous, carry on an active
trade in rough silk, madder, and silk and woollen goods,
exported to Russia and Persia. The town, which formerly
was a Persian fort, and still is protected on one side by
brick walls, is badly built and dirty; it suffers very much
from fever. An unsuccessful attempt was made by the
military authorities in 1825 to transport the town to New
Kuba, 8 miles distant; the new settlement did not increase,
and the settlers returned to Kuba.
KUBAN, a Russian district and government at the north-west extremity of the Caucasus, comprising the entire basin of the river of that name. It is bounded on the N. by the lands of the Don Cossacks and the steppes of Stavropol, E. by the watershed of the river basins of the Caspian and sea of Azoff, S. and S.W. by the Caucasian Alps, and W. by the Black Sea and Straits of Kertch. Its area comprises 27,728 square miles. Ekaterinodar, the chief town (population 30,000), is the residence of the governor, who, being also ataman in chief of the Kuban Cossacks, is invested with military and civil power. Climate varies greatly, the highest temperature reaching 104° Fahr., the lowest seldom falling below 10° Fahr. The country is very healthy, except in the lowlands, where fever prevails. The soil is of extreme fertility, yielding an abundance of wheat, maize, and tobacco. Fruit, such as apples, pears, cherries, is plentiful, and the vine is cultivated with success near Temrouk and Taman. The upper valleys are richly covered with forests abounding in fir, oak, ash, beech, hornbeam, &c.; the lower parts consist of extensive pasture lands and swamps. The animals include the stag, roe-deer, bear, wild boar, wolf, fox, ibex, and chamois, also the bison (which, however, is very rare) in the virgin forests of the Teberda; numerous water-fowl, such as ducks, geese, swans, pelicans, also the pheasant, partridge, bustard, and moun tain turkey. Th.3 rivers and lakes ar3 plentifully supplied with fish, trout abounding in the mountain streams and the sturgeon at the delta of the river Kuban. The mineral wealth consists of coal, salt, petroleum, and ozokerite. The river Kuban (the ancient Hypanis, see CAUCASUS, vol. v. p. 254) is navigable in flat-bottomed boats over a distance
of 100 miles between Temrouk and Ekaterinodar. The delta comprises several lakes.
It is on the upper banks of the Kuban that the Ass or Osses, and
the enigmatic corner of Asia Propria, are believed to have been
located. The history of the original settlements of the various
native tribes named below, and their language and worship before
the introduction of Mohammedanism, remain a blank page in the
legends of the Caucasus. The peninsula of Taman, a land teeming
with relics of ancient Greek colonists, has been occupied successively
by the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Mongols, and other
nations. The Genoese, who had established an extensive trade in
the 13th century, were expelled by the Turks in 1484, and in
1784 Eussia obtained by treaty the entire peninsula and the terri
tory on the right bank of the Kuban, – the latter being granted by
Catherine II. in 1792 to the Cossacks of the Dnieper. Then com
menced the bloody struggle with the Circassians which continued
for more than half a century. The mountaineers were finally sub
dued in 1864, and 400,000 of their number expatriated. Those,
however, who elected to remain have become more prosperous than
they had ever been. The population of Kuban, 862.473, em
braces 510,038 Cossacks, 108,346 settlers of Russian origin, 4280
foreigners, and 95,602 natives. Cossack villages are military settle
ments, the men carrying arms as well as following the plough.
They are exempt from the poll-tax (3 to 4 roubles) to which the
others are subjected, but military service is compulsory, as is
gratuitous labour in the construction and repair of roads, bridges,
&c. Not only domestic but even field work is conducted mostly >j
women, remarkable for physical strength and endurance. Corn grow
ing, the rearing of cattle, and fishing are the most profitable occupa
tions. The native mountaineers, known under the general name of
Circassians, but locally distinguished as the Karatchai, Abadsikh,
Khakoutchy, Shapsough, have greatly altered their mode of life
since the pacification of the Caucasus, still, however, maintaining
Mohammedanism, speaking their vernacular, and strictly observing
the customs of their ancestors. When during the late Russo-Turkish
war insurrections broke out amongst the natives on the Terek, in
Dagestan, and Abkhasia, these tribes remained peaceful and perfectly
loyal. Their villages, especially those of the Karatchai, are striking
examples of human industry, poverty being quite unknown; for the
general emancipation in 18G7 put an end to intestine strife, the
predatory expeditions of former times, and the parasitic existence of
numerous chiefs on the forced labour of serfs. The native popula
tion, as well as the Cossacks, enjoy certain rights of self-govern
ment, and are allowed to hold meetings to that end. Exports include
wheat, tobacco, leather, wool, petroleum, and live cattle; imports
dry goods, grocery, and hardware. Local industry is limited to a few
tanneries, petroleum refineries, and spirit distilleries; but Russian
and foreign capitalists have of late obtained concessions for exploring
the petroleum region stretching between Khadaji and Taman, and
the coal-mines of Khumarinsky in the upper valley of the Kuban.
KUBLAI KHAN (or Ḳaan, as the supreme ruler de
scended from Jenghiz was usually distinctively termed in
the 13th century) (1216-1294) was the most eminent of
the successors of Jenghiz (Chinghiz), and the founder of
the Mongol dynasty in China. He was the second sou of
Tuli, youngest of the four sons of Jenghiz by his favourite
wife. Jenghiz was succeeded in the khanship by his third son
Okkodai, or Ogdai (1229), he by his son Kuyuk (1246),
and Kuyuk by Mangku, eldest son of Tuli (1252),
Kublai was born in 1216, and, young as he was, took part
with his younger brother Hulaku (afterwards conqueror
of the caliph and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia)
in the list campaign of Jenghiz (1226-27). The Mongol
poetical chronicler, Sanang Setzen, records a tradition that
Jenghiz himself on his deathbed discerned young Kublai's
promise and predicted his distinction.
Northern China, Cathay as it was called (vol. v. p. 627), had been partially conquered by Jenghiz himself, and the conquest had been followed up till the Kin or "golden" dynasty of Tartars, reigning at Kai-fung-fu on the Yellow River, were completely subjugated (1234). But China south of the Great Kiang remained many years later subject to the native dynasty of Sung, reigning at the great city of Linggan, or Kinsai (King-sz', "capital"), now known as Hang-chow-fu. Operations to subdue this region had commenced in 1235, but languished till Mangku's accession. Kublai was then named his brother's lieutenant in Cathay, and operations were resumed. By what seems a vast and risky strategy, of which the motives are not
