KUSHK, a river of Afghanistan, which also gives its name to the chief town in the Afghan province of Badghis, and to a military post on the border of Russian Turkestan. The river Kushk, during a portion of its course, forms the boundary between Afghan and Russian territory; but the town is some 20 m. from the border. Kushk, or Kushkinski Post, is now a fourth-class Russian fortress, on a Russian branch railway from Merv, the terminus of which is 12 m. to the south, at Chahil Dukteran. It is served by both the Transcaspian and the Orenburg-Tashkent railways. The terminus is only 66 m. from Herat, and in the event of war would become an important base for a Russian advance. Some confusion has arisen through the popular application of the name of Kushk to this terminus, though it is situated neither at the Russian post nor at the old town.
(T. H. H.*)
KUSTANAISK, a town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Turgai, on the Tobol river, 410 m. E.N.E. of Orenburg, in a very fertile part of the steppes. Pop. (1897), 14,065. The first buildings were erected in 1871, and it has since grown with American-like rapidity. The immigrants from Russia built a large village, which became the centre of the district administration in 1884, and a town in 1893, under the name of Nicolaevsk, changed later into Kustanaisk. It is an educational centre, and a cathedral has been built. There are tanneries, tallow works, potteries, and a fair for cattle, while its trade makes it a rival to Orenburg and Troitsk.
KÜSTENLAND (coast-land or littoral), a common name for the three crown-lands of Austria, Görz and Gradisca, Istria and Trieste. Their combined area is 3084 sq. m., and their population in 1900 was 755,183. They are united for certain administrative purposes under the governor of Trieste, the legal and financial authorities of which also exercise jurisdiction over the entire littoral.
KUTAIAH, Kutaya, or Kiutahia, the chief town of a sanjak in the vilayet of Brusa (Khudavendikiar), Asia Minor, is situated on the Pursaksu, an affluent of the Sakaria (anc. Sangarius). The town lies at an important point of the great road across Asia Minor from Constantinople to Aleppo, and is connected by a branch line with the main line from Eski-shehr to Afium Kara-Hissar, of the Anatolian railway. It has a busy trade; pop. estimated at 22,000. Kutaiah has been identified with the ancient Cotiaeum.
See V. Cuinet, Turquie d’Asie, vol. iv. (Paris, 1894).