Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/230

IPSWICH in 1633 by John Winthrop. Pop. (1910) 5,777; (1920) 6,201.

IPSWICH, a parliamentary and municipal borough and river-port in England, capital of Suffolk, on the Orwell. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle declivity, and contains many interesting specimens of mediæval architecture. The public buildings include a fine town hall, a new postoffice, a custom house, county court house, cavalry barracks, theater, etc. The industries embrace agricultural implements, machinery, artificial stone, artificial manure, silk, tanning, ropes, lime and cement, brewing, ship-building, etc. Ipswich is a town of great antiquity. It was originally called Gippeswich, from the neighboring river Gipping. King John gave it its first charter. It sends two members to Parliament. Pop. (1917) 72,800.

Also, a town of Queensland, Australia, on the Bremer river, 23 miles W. of Brisbane. It is in a rich coal-mining district. Pop. (1917) 25,000.

 IQUIQUE (ē-kē'kā), the port and capital of the Chilean territory of Tarapacá (Peruvian till 1884). It has amalgamating works in connection with neighboring silver mines, a foundry, and exports saltpeter, borax, and iodine. The climate is hot, and drinking water has to be obtained by distillation. Earthquakes have more than once damaged the town. Pop. (1917) 70,000.

 IQUITOS (ē-kē'tōs), a town in the Peruvian department of Loreto, on the left bank of the Marañon, about 75 miles above the mouth of the Rio Napo. It has an active trade; the imports are exchanged mostly for india-rubber. Pop. of District (1917) 120,000.

 IRAK AJEMI (ē-räk' äj'e-mē) (Persian Irak), a central province of Persia, nearly coincident with ancient Media; area, 138,190 square miles; pop. (estimated) over 1,000,000. A great portion of the surface consists of elevated table lands, but there are also numerous fertile valleys only partly cultivated. The E. parts are occupied by the extensive salt desert of Dasht-i-Kavir. The industries are cloth and carpets, and the making of glass and porcelain. The province contains the principal towns of the kingdom, including Teheran, the capital, and Ispahan.

 IRAN. See.

 IRANIAN (i-rā'ni-an) LANGUAGES, a family of languages belonging to the Indo-European stock, closely allied to the Indian group, and called by some philologists Persian, from the best-known member of the family. The two oldest known Iranian languages are the Old Persian of the cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Bactrian or Zend, the latter the language in which the Zend Avesta or sacred writings of the Parsees is composed. The Middle Iranian languages are the Pehlevi, and still later the Parsee, which are preserved in the commentaries to the Zend Avesta. The latter approaches pretty closely to the modern Persian. The most important of the New Iranian languages is the modern Persian, in which has been produced a very rich and celebrated literature. The Afghan or Pushtu, and the dialects of the Kurds, form separate branches of the Iranian family.

 IRAWADI, or IRRAWADDY (ir-a-wäd'ï), the principal stream in Farther India, E. of the Brahmaputra. It rises in lat. 28° N., lon. 97° 30' E.; and, directing its course W. S. W., passes the cities of Amarapura and Old Ava. In lat. 21° 45' it is joined from the N.W. by the Kyanquayn river; and in lat. 17° 50' it divides into two branches, one of which, running to the S.W., passes the town of Persaim or Bassein; the other, running to the S.E., passes Rangoon. Among the banks of this river the greater part of the Burmese dominions is settled. Length, about 1,200 miles.

 IRBIT (-bit'), a town of the Russian government of Perm, 1,170 miles nearly due E. of St. Petersburg. Its celebrated fair, held in February, is next to that of Nijni-Novgorod, the most important in the empire. Pop. about 20,000.

<section end="Irbit" /> <section begin="Ireland" />IRELAND (in Irish, Erin; in Latin, Hibernia), is separated from Great Britain on the E. by the Irish Sea, and surrounded on all sides by the North Atlantic Ocean. Measured diagonally, the greatest length, from Mizen Head in the S.W., to Fair Head in the N.E., is 300 miles; and the greatest breadth, from Carnsore Point in the S.E., to Benwee Head in the N.W., is 212 miles; the central breadth, nearly between the bays of Dublin and Galway, is 110 miles; area, 32,531 square miles. Pop. about 4,390,000. Ireland is divided into four provinces of Leinster, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, and into 32 counties; capital, Dublin; chief towns, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and Londonderry.

Geology and Minerals.—The mountains are formed of vast masses of Primary and metamorphic rocks, while the Secondary formations spread over the interior. Basaltic rocks are almost entirely confined to the N.E., where they often form colonnades, of which the Giant's Causeway is a celebrated specimen. Granite has its largest <section end="Ireland" />