K E F K E I 27 as having furnished Mr Darwin with the typical example of an atoll or lagoon island. 1 There are altogether twenty- three small islands, 9| miles being the greatest width of the whole atoll. 2 The lagoon is very shallow, and the passages between many of the islands of such trifling depth that it is possible to " walk at low tide with some slight wading all the way from Direction island to West island." An opening on the northern side of the reef permits the entrance of vessels into the northern part of the lagoon, which forms a good harbour known as Port Refuge or Port Albion. Since Mr Darwin s visit some of the minor passages have become completely filled up. The cocoa-nut (as the name Cocos Islands indicates) is the char acteristic production, and is cultivated on all the islands. There are a few other trees (Sir E. Owen described seven kinds in 1830) and lesser plants ; but the whole flora, exclusive of recent introduc tions, comprises less than thirty species. Of the twenty species, however, represented in Mr Darwin s collection, " nineteen belonged to different genera, and these again to no less than sixteen families." With the exception of man and the domestic pig, the rat appears to be the only mammal in the islands ; and there are no true land birds, except domestic poultry. One of the commonest living creatures is a monstrous crab which lives on the cocoa-nuts ; and in some places also there are great colonies of the pomegranate crab, which, to quote Mr Forbes, is labouring assiduously to make the soft pure white calcareous mud into tree-inhabitable land. " The climate is temperate and extremely healthy. Terrific storms sometimes break over the island ; and it has been more than once visited by earthquakes. The inhabitants are well developed, strong, and of a wonderfully healthy appearance" ; they belong originally to various parts of the Indian archipelago, Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, &c. The Keeling Islands were discovered in 1609 by William Keeling on his way home from the Moluccas. 3 In 1823 Alexander Hare, an English adventurer, settled on the southmost island with a number of slaves. Some two or three years after, a Scotchman, J. Ross, who had commanded a brig during the English occupation of Java, settled with his family on Direction Island, and his little colony was soon strengthened by Hare s runaway slaves. The Dutch Government had in an informal way claimed the possession of the islands since 1829 ; but they refused to allow Ross to hoist the Dutch flag, and accordingly the place was taken under British protection in 1856. In 1878 it was attached to the government of Ceylon. Besides Mr Darwin s Journal of the Voyages of the Beagle (1SGO) and the work already mentioned, see Henry 0. Forbes in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., December 187!) (with a good map) ; Koner in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., 1881 ; A. van der Jagt in Verh. Bat. Gen. ran K. en IF., xiii. ; J. J. Duintjer in Tindul and Swaart s Zneicezen, iv. ; Voyage of Swedish Frigate " Eugenie " (Berlin, 185G), and Bleeker s papers on ichthyology in Natuurk. Tijdschr. ran Ned. Ind., vii., viii., xv., etc. KEFF, more correctly El-Keff (El Kaf), a town of the regency of Tunis, about 95 miles south-west from the capital, and 75 miles south-east of Bone in Algeria, "on the western declivities of a rocky range of bold lulls," 5 or G miles to the east of the course of the Wady Medjardak. It is considered the third in importance of the Tunisian towns, ranking after Tunis and Kairwan ; and, though distant some twenty-two miles from the Algerian frontier, it is practically a frontier post, and its walls and citadel are kept in a state of defence. Keff is identified with the ancient Roman colony of Sicca Veneria, which appears from the character of its Venus worship (Val. Max., ii. 6, 15) to have been a Phoenician settlement. Remains of ancient buildings (as, for example, of a temple of Hercules), and a considerable number of ancient Latin inscriptions tend to confirm the identification. Population about 12,000. See Barth, Die Kfistcnlandcr des Mittelmeeres, 1849 ; Corpus Imcript. Lat. , vol. viii. ; Sombrun in Bull, de la Soc. de Geog. de Bordeaux, 1878. 1 Geological Observations on Coral Reefs, London, 1851 ; new eel , 1874. 2 The names of the more important are as follows : Horsburgh or North Island (the most northern of the group) ; Direction Island or in Malay Pulu Tikus (Mouse Island) ; Prison Island ; Rice (Rijst) or Water Island, in Malay Pulu Tuwan ; South Island (Selima or Fairlee) ; Long, West, or Ross Island. 3 His narrative is given by Purchas, and epitomized in Astley s Col lection. KEIGHLEY, locally Keithley, anciently Keigheley, a market and manufacturing town in the northern division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, is beautifully situated in a deep valley near the junction of the Worth with the Aire. By the Midland Railway it is 95 miles south-east of Carlisle and 222 north of London. A canal between Liverpool and Hull affords it water communication with both west and east coasts. The town is rather irre gularly built, and a considerable portion of it consists of workmen s cottages. Its growth has of late years been very rapid. Large reservoirs have been constructed for supplying water to the town. The principal buildings are the parish church of St Andrew in the late Perpendicular (dating from the time of Henry I., modernized in 1710, rebuilt with the exception of the tower in 1805, and again rebuilt in 1878), the Craven bank, the court-house, the mechanics institute and school of art, the theatre (in the Gothic style, completed in 1870, at a cost of 5000), the baths, the union workhouse, and the Liberal and Conservative clubs. The educational institutions are the Drake and Tonson s school for girls, the trade school for boys, the national schools, and several board schools. The manufactures consist chiefly of worsted and woollen goods, machinery, machine tools, and sewing and wringing machines. Iron-founding is also extensively carried on. The population of the local board district in 1871 was 19,775, and in 1881 had increased to 25,245. Henry Kigheley, who in the reign of Edward I. possessed the manor of Keighley, obtained for it from that monarch the privilege of a market, a fair, and a free warren. The town in 1645 was the scene of a skirmish between the royal and parliamentary troops. KEI ISLANDS, a group in the East Indian archipelago, consisting of one large and several smaller islands, situated about 5 30 S. lat. and 133 E. long., some 90 miles to the south of the western end of New Guinea, and between the southern Moluccas and the Aru islands. The name, which appears in a great variety of spellings Kee, Ke, Key, Ki, &c. has been in use among Europeans from the days of Valentijn downwards, and may be the Spanish Cayo, a rocky island. The natives call the group Evar, the chief island lut. The Kei islands have been very frequently visited, but in such a cursory fashion for the most part that there is considerable doubt in regard even to their general carto graphy. Of Great Kei the outline and extent are known, but as to the other islands often lumped together under the name of Lesser Kei even the number of the more important has yet to be determined. Cape Borang, the northern point of Great Kei, lies in 5 17 . Dullah- Darat, Dullah-Laut, Letman, and Hodjan are believed to be separate islands, though Dullah-Darat and Letman are parted only by a very narrow passage, and Letman and Hodjan may possibly be one. The seat of the rajah recognized by the Dutch Government as the chief authority in the group is Dullah on the west coast of Dullah-Darat. The inhabitants of the Kei islands are supposed to number 18,000 or 20,000. A certain proportion of them (dis tinguished by the use of a special language and by the pro fession of Mohammedanism) are known to be descendants of natives of the Banda islands who had fled eastward before the encroachments of the Dutch. The great bulk of the people are still pagan, with rude statues of local deities and places of sacrifice indicated by flat-topped cairns. In physique the Kei islander is like the Aru islander, but more strongly built. Cocoa-nuts, sago, fish, limestone, trepang, and timber are the chief production*! of the islands. At Eli, on the east coast of Great Kei, there are extensive potteries which furnish earthenware for export as well as for local use.
