KALACH, also known as DONSKAYA, a village of S.E. Russia, in the territory of the Don Cossacks, and a river port on the Don, 31 m. N.E. of Nizhne-Chirskaya, in 43 deg. 30' E. and 48 deg. 43' N. Its permanent population, only about 1200, increases greatly in summer. It is the terminus of the railway (45 m.) which connects the Don with Tsaritsyn on the Volga, and all the goods (especially fish, petroleum, cereals and timber) brought from the Caspian Sea up the Volga and destined for middle Russia, or for export through the Sea of Azov, are unloaded at Tsaritsyn and sent over to Kalach on the Don. KALAHANDI (formerly KAROND), a feudatory state of India, which was transferred from the Central Provinces to the Orissa division of Bengal in 1905. A range of the Eastern Ghats runs from N.E. to S.W. through the state, with open undulating country to the north. Area 3745 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 350,529; estimated revenue, L8000; tribute, L800. The inhabitants mostly belong to the aboriginal race of Khonds. A murderous outbreak against Hindu settlers called for armed intervention in 1882. The chief, Raghu Kishor Deo, was murdered by a servant in 1897, and during the minority of his son, Brij Mohan Deo, the state was placed in charge of a British political agent. The capital is Bhawani Patna. KALAHARI DESERT, a region of South Africa, lying mainly between 20 deg. and 28 deg. S. and 19 deg. and 24 deg. E., and covering fully 120,000 sq. m. The greater part of this territory forms the western portion of the (British) Bechuanaland protectorate, but it extends south into that part of Bechuanaland annexed to the Cape and west into German South-West Africa. The Orange river marks its southern limit; westward it reaches to the foot of the Nama and Damara hills, eastward to the cultivable parts of Bechuanaland, northward and north-westward to the valley of the Okavango and the bed of Lake Ngami. The Kalahari, part of the immense inner table-land of South Africa, has an average elevation of over 3000 ft. with a general slope from east to west and a dip northward to Ngami. Described by Robert Moffat as "the southern Sahara," the Kalahari resembles the great desert of North Africa in being generally arid and in being scored by the beds of dried-up rivers. It presents however many points of difference from the Sahara. The surface soil is mainly red sand, but in places limestone overlies shale and conglomerates. The ground is undulating and its appearance is comparable with that of the ocean at times of heavy swell. The crests of the waves are represented by sand dunes, rising from 30 to 100 ft.; the troughs between the dunes vary greatly in breadth. On the eastern border long tongues of sand project into the veld, while the veld in places penetrates far into the desert. There are also, and especially along the river beds, extensive mud flats. After heavy rain these become pans or lakes, and water is