ISHPEMING 



3070 



ISLAND 



thirst, they cried to God, who sent an angel to 

 direct them to a spring hidden among the 

 shrubs. Ishmael married an Egyptian woman 

 and their twelve sons established the tribe 

 called Ishmaelites, as God had promised Abra- 

 ham (Genesis XVII, 20). 



ISHPEMING, ish'peming, MICH., a city in 

 Marquette County, near the center of the 

 Upper Peninsula, fifteen miles southwest of 

 Marquette and Lake Superior. It is on the 

 Chicago & North Western, the Lake Superior 

 & Ishpeming and the Duluth, South Shore & 

 Atlantic railroads, and ships large amounts of 

 iron ore from mines within the city limits and 

 those of the Marquette Range. Gold, marble 

 and building stone are an important part of 

 the city's natural wealth. Ishpeming was set- 

 tled about 1857, chartered as a city in 1873 

 and rechartered in 1891. It has the Ishpeming 

 and Lindgren hospitals and a Carnegie Library, 

 and near the city is Lake Michigamme, a sum- 

 mer resort. The area of the city exceeds eight 

 square miles. Population, 1916, 12,448. 



ISINGLASS, i'zinglas, a tough, whitish, 

 semitransparent substance prepared from the 

 air bladders of certain species of fish and con- 

 stituting the purest form of animal gelatin (see 

 GELATIN). The best quality of isinglass comes 

 from the Russian sturgeon, but the substance is 

 yielded also by the cod, hake and other fish. 

 In the preparation of isinglass the air bladder 

 is torn from the fish and washed in cold water. 

 Then the black outer skin is removed; the 

 rest is washed and spread on a board to dry, 

 the shiny, inner membrane being turned out- 

 ward. Best results are obtained when the dry- 

 ing takes place in the sun. 



When dry, the bladder is moistened in warm 

 water, and the inner skin removed by rubbing 

 and beating. It is then passed between iron 

 rollers, which reduce it to a thin, partly-trans- 

 parent ribbon having somewhat the appear- 

 ance of watered silk. The semitransparent 

 sheets used in the panels of stove dpors, and 

 incorrectly known as isinglass, are made of 

 a mineral called mica (which see). 



Isinglass is used principally for refining beer 

 and wines. In cooking it is employed as a 

 stiffening for jams and as a basis for jellies and 

 soups. Manufacturers mix it with gum to give 

 luster to ribbons and silk, and an India ink 

 is made by incorporating it with water, Spanish 

 liquorice and lampblack. Isinglass has stick- 

 ing qualities which make it useful in the manu- 

 facture of glue, court plaster, and a cement for 

 mending glass and porcelain. 



I 'SIS, the chief female deity in Egyptian 

 mythology, the sister and wife of Osiris and 

 the mother of Horus. She w"as believed to 

 have first instructed the Egyptians in agricul- 

 ture, and was also credited with the possession 

 of skill in magic 

 and in the art of 

 healing. She is 

 variously repre- 

 sented in art; 

 sometimes 

 crowned with the 

 horns of a cow, 

 her sacred ani- 

 mal, and some- 

 times wearing 

 upon her head 

 the sun's disk or 

 a small throne, 

 and carrying the 

 lotus scepter. Isis 

 was an object of 

 especial venera- 

 tion in Memphis 

 and at a later 

 period became 



excellent 



ISIS 



A bas-relief, an 



popular through- exam P le of Egyptian art. 

 out all of Egypt, Greece and Rome. In the 

 latter place her cult was intrpduced about 86 

 B. c., but was brought into disrepute by the mis- 

 conduct of the priests, and the authorities made 

 several attempts to suppress it. See OSIRIS. 



ISLAM, is' lam, or iz'lam, the name applied 

 by Mohammedans to their religion, which 

 originated with Mohammed. Its literal mean- 

 ing is causing to . be sound or safe, or that 

 which makes safe. However, it is generally ac- 

 cepted as meaning complete submission of 

 body and soul to the will of God, or Allah, as 

 set forth in the precepts believed to have been 

 revealed by Allah to his prophet, Mohammed. 

 Western peoples refer to this religion as M< 

 hammedanism. See MOHAMMEDANISM. 



ISLAND, i'land, a tract of land completely 

 surrounded by the water of an ocean, lake, 

 gulf, bay or river, usually similar to the near 

 land mass in respect to physical characteristic 

 and plant and animal life. 



Oceanic Islands, such as the Hawaiian group, 

 lie in the open ocean far distant from a conti- 

 nent, and not connected in any way with it. 

 They are either composed of coral reefs, built 

 of the limy framework of coral animals, or are 

 masses of land and lava thrown up by the 

 deep-sea volcanoes. The former occur only 

 in warm regions, but the latter may be found 



