KOLABA, a district of British India, in the southern division of Bombay. Area, 2,169 sq.m. ; pop. (1931), 628,721. The head quarters are at Alibagh. Lying between the Western Ghats and the sea, Kolaba district is very hilly. The sea frontage, of about 20 m., is throughout the greater part of its length fringed by a belt of coconut 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, and salt is largely manufactured. The district is traversed by a few small streams. Tidal inlets, of which the prin cipal are the Nagothna on the north, the Roha or Chaul in the west, and the Bankot creek in the south, run inland for 3o or 4o m., forming highways for a brisk trade in rice, salt, firewood, and dried fish and the fishing is of considerable value. 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. 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.
KOLAe EK, FRANTISEK (1851-1913), Czech physicist, studied in Prague under E. Mach and in Vienna under Stefan. In 2882 he was appointed lecturer at the Brno (Brunn) Polytechnic, and in 1891 became professor of mathematical physics at the Charles university in Prague. His numerous publications (mostly in Czech and German) dealing with electromagnetic and optical theory and hydrodynamics include a paper "Zur Theorie der elektro-magnetischen Gleichungen in bewegten Medien" (Ann. der Physik., 2907), which derives electromagnetic equations for moving media independently of the electron theory, and arrives at Lorentz equations which are related to a system of co-ordinates connected with the observer, thus satisfying the relativity criterion. Kola6ek died in Dec. 1913.