ISLAND ISMAIL. 



157 



brides, Orkneys, Shetlands, &c. But the great world 

 of islands is in the Pacific, and modern writers have 

 considered them as forming a fifth division of the 

 world, including the Eastern Archipelago, Polynesia, 

 and Australia, to which they have given the name 

 of Oceanica. (See Oceanica.') A large island is a 

 continent in miniature, with its chains of mountains, 

 its rivers, lakes, and is often surrounded by a train of 

 islets. The rivers of islands are in general little 

 more than streams or torrents, and the smaller islands 

 are often uninhabitable from want of water; but they 

 serve as haunts and breeding-places of innumerable 

 sea-birds. There are islands in rivers and lakes, as 

 well as in the sea. In rivers, they are often formed 

 by the division of the stream into various branches, 

 and often by accumulations of earth brought down 

 and deposited around a rocky base. Examples are 

 not wanting of floating islands, which are formed by 

 the roots of plants and trees interlacing with each 

 other, and thus constituting a support for deposits of' 

 successive layers of earth. Chains of islands in the 

 neighbourhood of continents seem to be often formed 

 by the action of the waters washing away the less 

 solid parts, which once occupied the .spaces between 

 the mountains and rocks which still appear above the 

 surface of the waves. Single islands in the ocean, 

 such as St Helena, Ascension, &c., and some clusters, 

 as the Canaries, the Azores, &c., appear to owe their 

 origin to the action of submarine fire, which has 

 raised them above the. level of the sea. Considerable 

 islands have been known to be suddenly raised from 

 the bed of waters, and soon after to have as suddenly 

 disappeared in the ocean. The Pacific contains a 

 great number of low islands formed of coral reefs, 

 which are sometimes covered with sand, on which a 

 few plants find nourishment. These reefs are formed 

 by the labours of innumerable zoophytes. Submarine 

 islands, as they have been sometimes called, or 

 immense banks of sand, above which there is no 

 great depth of water, are not unfrequent. It has 

 been remarked that islanders have generally some 

 peculiar traits of character, which distinguish them 

 from the inhabitants of continents : it is true that 

 they have often been distinguished by their com- 

 mercial activity, and their naval skill ; but this trait 

 is common to other inhabitants of countries bordering 

 on the sea. The great commercial powers of ancient 

 times were the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and 

 continental Greeks ; of the middle ages, the Italian 

 republics; and the Normans were the most distin- 

 guished naval warriors of their time. 



A portion of country nearly included between 

 several rivers, is sometimes called an island, as the 

 ancient province of the Isle de France. The Greeks 

 called such a district by the expressive name of 

 Mesopotamia. The Greek word for island is twos, 

 the Latin insula, Italian isola, Spanish isla, 

 French tie, Hot, German inset and eiland, Danish, 

 oe, and ey, Swedish a?, Russian ostrov. 



ISLAND or ICELAND SPAR. See Lime. 



ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED, or FORTU- 

 NATE ISLANDS (Insula; Beatorum, Fortunate 

 Insulee, Nue-oi Maxajwv); the Elysium of 'Homer; 

 according to the Grecian mythology, the happy 

 islands which were supposed to lie westward in the 

 ocean, where the favourites of Jupiter, snatched 

 from death, lived in the midst of happiness. Accord- 

 ing to Hesiod, they were the residence of the fourth 

 race of heroes. In the earliest mythology, the 

 Islands of the Blessed, the Elysian Fields, and the lower 

 world, were in general confounded with each other. 



ISLAY or ILAY, a large island in Argyleshire, 

 the most southern of the Hebrides. Its extreme 

 length from the point or Mull of Oe to Rumhail, that 

 is, from south to north, is nearly thirty-one English 



miles, and its breadth, from the point of Ardmore on 

 the east to the form of Saraig, and the opposite ex- 

 tremity of the Rinns on the west, is about twenty- 

 four miles. Its total superficies is about 154,000 

 acres. It is divided into three parishes, namely, 

 Bowmore or Killarow, Kilchoman, and Kildalton. It 

 is separated from the island of Jura, on the north-east, 

 by a narrow sound formed by the Atlantic Ocean, 

 which bounds it on every side, and is said to have 

 derived its name either from Isla, the daughter of a 

 king of Lochlin, whose ashes repose at Kildalton, 01 

 Isla, i. e. the isle, from its having been the chief seat 

 of the Lords of the Isles, till their sovereignty was 

 overthrown by James III. A feu duty of 500 per 

 annum was paid to the crown for this island by the 

 family of Calder, who possessed it from 1626 to 1719. 

 In the latter year, it was purchased, with the excep- 

 tion of a farm or two, by Mr Campbell of Shawfield, 

 for .12,000, and still remains in the hands of his 

 descendants. Its annual rental must now exceed its 

 original purchase money. The last proprietor has 

 done much for the improvement of the island ; but 

 of late years an excessive increase of rent has caused 

 the emigration of many old tenants. The coast, 

 though rocky and dangerous, is indented by several 

 safe Days and harbours, that of Loch Indal, affording 

 secure anchorage, off the populous village of Bow- 

 more, for ships of large burden, and having a com- 

 modious quay, with good landing places. In the 

 centre of the island is Loch Finlaghan, three miles 

 in circuit, surrounding an islet or the same name, 

 where are vestiges of the palace in which the Mac- 

 donalds, lords of the isles, once resided in all the 

 pomp and splendour of royalty, and who were here 

 crowned, anointed, and enthroned on a square stone 

 by the bishops of Argyle, in the presence of their 

 subordinate chieftains. There are several other lakes, 

 besides numerous streams, all abounding with salmon 

 and trout. The crops raised in Islay are principally 

 of barley and oats, and much of the grain is used in 

 the distillation of whiskey. Agriculture is practised 

 here with as much skill and success as in the Low- 

 lands, and good roads and good farm houses are 

 abundant. The island is rich in minerals. Lead, 

 copper, and iron ores, with quicksilver, limestone, 

 and marl, are obtained here. It is a favourite resort 

 for eagles, falcons, geese, ducks, and various other 

 species of birds ; and otters, hares, weasels, vipers, 

 &c., are frequently found upon the island. Islay has 

 long been celebrated for the excellence of its distil- 

 lation of whiskey. Population in 1831, 19,700. See 

 Hebrides. 



ISLE OF FRANCE. See France, Isle of. 



ISLINGTON, a village of England, in the county 

 of Middlesex, and neighbourhood of London, is 

 chiefly composed of the dwellings of retired citizens, 

 and other persons connected with the capital. The 

 neighbourhood abounds with pleasant walks, the fields 

 being unenclosed, and intersected by the meanders 

 of the New river, while the adjacent tea-gardens and 

 taverns, all in fine open situations, and furnished with 

 bowling-greens, are much visited from the metropons. 

 Population of the parish, 37,316. See London. 



ISMAIL, or ISMAILOW ; a town in Russia, in 

 Bessarabia, on the north side of the Danube, about 

 thirty-three miles from the Black sea; 144 S. W. 

 Otchakov, 268 N. Constantinople ; Ion. 28 50' E. ; 

 lat. 45 21' N. Population 10,000. The town of 

 Ismail contains seventeen mosques, and measures 

 about a mile towards the land, and half a mile by the 

 side of the Danube, and was fortified by eight bas- 

 tions. The ramparts are, in general, eighteen feet in 

 height, in some parts twenty-five. This place was 

 taken by storm (December 22, 1790), by the Russians, 

 under general Suwarrow. The Russians were several 



