See Berendt, Geologie des Kurischen Haffs (Königsberg, 1869); Sommer, Das Kurische Haff (Danzig, 1889); A. Bezzenberger, Die Kurische Nehrung und ihre Bewohner (Stuttgart, 1889); and Lindner, Die Preussische Wüste einst und jetzt, Bilder von der Kurischen Nehrung (Osterwieck, 1898).
KURNOOL, or Karnul, a town and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The town is built on a rocky soil at the junction of the Hindri and Tungabhadra rivers 33 m. from a railway station. The old Hindu fort was levelled in 1865, with the exception of one of the gates, which was preserved as a specimen of ancient architecture. Cotton cloth and carpets are manufactured. Pop. (1901), 25,376, of whom half are Mussulmans.
The District of Kurnool has an area of 7578 sq. m., pop. (1901), 872,055, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. Two long mountain ranges, the Nallamalais and the Yellamalais, extend in parallel lines, north and south, through its centre. The principal heights of the Nallamalai range are Biranikonda (3149 ft.), Gundlabrahmeswaram (3055 ft.), and Durugapukonda (3086 ft.). The Yellamalai is a low range, generally flat-topped with scarped sides; the highest point is about 2000 ft. Several low ridges run parallel to the Nallamalais, broken here and there by gorges, through which mountain streams take their course. Several of these gaps were dammed across under native rule, to form tanks for purposes of irrigation. The principal rivers are the Tungabhadra and Kistna, which bound the district on the north. When in flood, the Tungabhadra averages 900 yards broad and 15 ft. deep. The Kistna here flows chiefly through uninhabited jungles, sometimes in long smooth reaches, with intervening shingly rapids. The Bhavanasi rises on the Nallamalais, and falls into the Kistna at Sungameswaram, a place of pilgrimage. During the 18th century Kurnool formed the jagir of a semi-independent Pathan Nawab, whose descendant was dispossessed by the British government for treason in 1838. The principal crops are millets, cotton, oil-seeds, and rice, with a little indigo and tobacco. Kurnool suffered very severely from the famine of 1876-1877, and to a slight extent in 1896-1897. It is the chief scene of the operations of the Madras Irrigation Company taken over by government in 1882. The canal, which starts from the Tungabhadra river near Kurnool town, was constructed at a total cost of two millions sterling, but has not been a financial success. A more successful work is the Cumbum tank, formed under native rule by damming a gorge of the Gundlakamma river. Apart from the weaving of coarse cotton cloth, the chief industrial establishments are cotton presses, indigo vats, and saltpetre refineries. The district is served by the Southern Mahratta railway.
KUROKI, ITEI, Count (1844- ), Japanese general, was born in Satsuma. He distinguished himself in the Chino-Japanese War of 1894-95. He commanded the I. Army in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), when he won the opening battle of the war at the Yalu river, and afterwards advanced through the mountains and took part with the other armies in the battles of Liao-Yang, Shaho and Mukden (see [Russo-japanese War]). He was created baron for his services in the former war, and count for his services in the latter.
KUROPATKIN, ALEXEI NIKOLAIEVICH (1848- ), Russian general, was born in 1848 and entered the army in 1864. From 1872 to 1874 he studied at the Nicholas staff college, after which he spent a short time with the French troops in Algiers. In 1875 he was employed in diplomatic work in Kashgaria and in 1876 he took part in military operations in Turkistan, Kokan and Samerkand. In the war of 1877-78 against Turkey he earned a great reputation as chief of staff to the younger Skobelev, and after the war he wrote a detailed and critical history of the operations which is still regarded as the classical work on the subject and is available for other nations in the German translation by Major Krahmer. After the war he served again on the south-eastern borders in command of the Turkestan Rifle Brigade, and in 1881 he won further fame by a march of 500 miles from Tashkent to Geok-Tēpē, taking part in the storming of the latter place. In 1882 he was promoted major-general, at the early age of 34, and he henceforth was regarded by the army as the natural successor of Skobelev. In 1890 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and thirteen years later, having acquired in peace and war the reputation of being one of the foremost soldiers in Europe, he quitted the post of minister of war which he then held and took command of the Russian army then gathering in Manchuria for the contest with Japan. His ill-success in the great war of 1904-5, astonishing as it seemed at the time, was largely attributable to his subjection to the superior command of Admiral Alexeiev, the tsar’s viceroy in the Far East, and to internal friction amongst the generals, though in his history of the war (Eng. trans., 1909) he frankly admitted his own mistakes and paid the highest tribute to the gallantry of the troops who had been committed to battle under conditions unfavourable to success. After the defeat of Mukden and the retirement of the whole army to Tieling he resigned the command to General Linievich, taking the latter officer’s place at the head of one of the three armies in Manchuria. (See [Russo-Japanese War].)
KURO SIWO, or Kuro Shio (literally blue salt), a stream current in the Pacific Ocean, easily distinguishable by the warm temperature and blue colour of its waters, flowing north-eastwards along the east coast of Japan, and separated from it by a strip of cold water. The current persists as a stream to about 40 N., between the meridians of 150° E. and 160° E., when it merges in the general easterly drift of the North Pacific. The Kuro Siwo is the analogue of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic.