KOLA, a peninsula of northern Russia, lying between the Arctic Ocean on the N. and the White Sea on the S. It forms part of the region of Lapland and belongs administratively to the government of Archangel. The Arctic coast, known as the Murman coast (Murman being a corruption of Norman), is 260 m. long, and being subject to the influence of the North Atlantic drift, is free from ice all the year round. It is a rocky coast, built of granite, and rising to 650 ft., and is broken by several excellent bays. On one of these, Kola Bay, the Russian government founded in 1895 the naval harbour of Alexandrovsk. From May to August a productive fishery is carried on along this coast. Inland the peninsula rises up to a plateau, 1000 ft. in general elevation, and crossed by several ranges of low mountains, which go up to over 3000 ft. in altitude. The lower slopes of these mountains are clothed with forest up to 1300 ft., and in places thickly studded with lakes, some of them of very considerable extent, e.g. Imandra (330 sq. m.), Ump-jaur, Nuorti-järvi, Guolle-jaur or Kola Lake, and Lu-jaur. From these issue streams of appreciable magnitude, such as the Tuloma, Voronya, Yovkyok or Yokanka, and Ponoi, all flowing into the Arctic, and the Varsuga and Umba, into the White Sea. The area of the peninsula is estimated at 50,000 sq. m.
See A. O. Kihlmann and Palmén, Die Expedition nach der Halbinsel Kola (1887-1892) (Helsingfors); A. O. Kihlmann, Bericht einer naturwissenschaftlichen Reise durch Russisch-Lappland (Helsingfors, 1890); and W. Ramsay, Geologische Beobachtungen auf der Halbinsel Kola (Helsingfors, 1899).
KOLABA (or Colaba), a district of British India, in the southern division of Bombay. Area, 2131 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 605,566, showing an increase of 2% in the decade. The headquarters are at Alibagh. Lying between the Western Ghats and the sea, Kolaba district abounds in hills, some being spurs running at right angles to the main range, while others are isolated peaks or lofty detached ridges. The sea frontage, of about 20 m., is throughout the greater part of its length fringed by a belt of coco-nut and betel-nut palms. Behind this belt lies a stretch of flat country devoted to rice cultivation. In many places along the banks of the salt-water creeks there are extensive tracts of salt marshland, some of them reclaimed, some still subject to tidal inundation, and others set apart for the manufacture of salt. The district is traversed by a few small streams. Tidal inlets, of which the principal are the Nagothna on the north, the Roha or Chaul in the west, and the Bankot creek in the south, run inland for 30 or 40 m., forming highways for a brisk trade in rice, salt, firewood, and dried fish. Near the coast especially, the district is well supplied with reservoirs. The Western Ghats have two remarkable peaks—Raigarh, where Sivaji built his capital, and Miradongar. There are extensive teak and black wood forests, the value of which is increased by their proximity to Bombay. The Great Indian Peninsula railway crosses part of the district, and communication with Bombay is maintained by a steam ferry. Owing to its nearness to that city, the district has suffered severely from plague. Kolaba district takes its name from a little island off Alibagh, which was one of the strongholds of Angria, the Mahratta pirate of the 18th century. The same island has given its name to Kolaba Point, the spur of Bombay Island running south that protects the entrance to the harbour. On Kolaba Point are the terminus of the Bombay & Baroda railway, barracks for a European regiment, lunatic asylum and observatory.
KOLAR, a town and district of India, in the state of Mysore. The town is 43 m. E. of Bangalore. Pop. (1901), 12,210. Although of ancient foundation, it has been almost completely modernized. Industries include the weaving of blankets and the breeding of turkeys for export.
The District of Kolar has an area of 3180 sq. m. It occupies the portion of the Mysore table-land immediately bordering the Eastern Ghats. The principal watershed lies in the north-west, around the hill of Nandidrug (4810 ft.), from which rivers radiate in all directions; and the whole country is broken by numerous hill ranges. The chief rivers are the Palar, the South Pinakini or Pennar, the North Pinakini, and the Papagani, which are industriously utilized for irrigation by means of anicuts and tanks. The rocks of the district are mostly syenite or granite, with a small admixture of mica and feldspar. The soil in the valleys consists of a fertile loam; and in the higher levels sand and gravel are found. The hills are covered with scrub, jungle and brushwood. In 1901 the population was 723,600, showing an increase of 22% in the decade. The district is traversed by the Bangalore line of the Madras railway, with a branch 10 m. long, known as the Kolar Goldfields railway. Gold prospecting in this region began in 1876, and the industry is now settled on a secure basis. Here are situated the mines of the Mysore, Champion Reef, Ooregum, and Nandidrug companies. To the end of 1904 the total value of gold produced was 21 millions sterling, and there had been paid in dividends 9 millions, and in royalty to the Mysore state one million. The municipality called the Kolar Gold Fields had in 1901 a population of 38,204; it has suffered severely from plague. Electricity from the falls of the Cauvery (93 m. distant) is utilized as the motive power in the mines. Sugar manufacture and silk and cotton weaving are the other principal industries in the district. The chief historical interest of modern times centres round the hill fort of Nandidrug, which was stormed by the British in 1791, after a bombardment of 21 days.
KOLBE, ADOLPHE WILHELM HERMANN (1818-1884), German chemist, was born on the 27th of September 1818 at Elliehausen, near Göttingen, where in 1838 he began to study chemistry under F. Wöhler. In 1842 he became assistant to R. W. von Bunsen at Marburg, and three years later to Lyon Playfair at London. From 1847 to 1851 he was engaged at Brunswick in editing the Dictionary of Chemistry started by Liebig, but in the latter year he went to Marburg as successor to Bunsen in the chair of chemistry. In 1865 he was called to Leipzig in the same capacity, and he died in that city on the 25th of November 1884. Kolbe had an important share in the great development of chemical theory that occurred about the middle of the 19th century, especially in regard to the constitution of organic compounds, which he viewed as derivatives of inorganic ones, formed from the latter—in some cases directly—by simple processes of substitution. Unable to accept Berzelius’s doctrine of the unalterability of organic radicals, he also gave a new interpretation to the meaning of copulae under the influence of his fellow-worker Edward Frankland’s conception of definite atomic saturation-capacities, and thus contributed in an important degree to the subsequent establishment of the structure theory. Kolbe was a very successful teacher, a ready and vigorous writer, and a brilliant experimentalist whose work revealed the nature of many compounds the composition of which had not previously been understood. He published a Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie in 1854, smaller textbooks of organic and inorganic chemistry in 1877-1883, and Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der theoretischen Chemie in 1881. From 1870 he was editor of the Journal für praktische Chemie, in which many trenchant criticisms of contemporary chemists and their doctrines appeared from his pen.