Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/17

ISLAND. Island Fauna. For the general character- istics of the fauna of islands, see Isolation. E.ainples of individual peculiarities in island faunas will be found under Galapagos I.slands, etc.

BiBLlOGRAPnT. Suess, Das Antlitz der Erde (Stuttgart, 1885, 1888); de la Noe and de Jlar- gerie. Lcs formes du Terrain (Paris, 1888); Wal- lace, Island Life (London, 1891).

ISLAND CITY, The. A name for Montreal.

ISLAND NUMBER TEN. An island which existed, until shortly after the Civil War, in the Mississippi River, about 40 miles below Columbus, Ky. (near the boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee), thus named from its position in the series of islands below Cairo, 111. After the first Confederate line in the West had been broken by the capture of Forts Henry pnd Donelson (q.v.), the garrison at Columbus, Ky., constituting the Confederate left tlank. was withdrawn to Xew Madrid (q.v.) and Island Jfumber Ten and placed in command of General McCown, who was later replaced by General Mackall. Early in Marcli, 1S(J2. a Federal army under General Pope and a Federal fleet under Commodore Foote advanced against these posi- tions. On the 16th New Madrid surrendered to Pope, who then marched about 2.5 miles down the river, and with the assistance of transports which had been brought through a laboriously con- structed channel, across a peninsula formed by a loop in the Mississippi, from a point above the island to New Madrid, succeeded in attaining the Confederate rear at Tiptonville, the Confederate batteries along the east bank having been pre- viously silenced by the gunboats Carondelet and Pittsburgh, which, under Captain Walke and Lieutenant-Commander Thompson, had success- fully run by the island on April 3d and April 7th, respectively. Meanwhile Foote's fleet had kept up a fairly continuous though ineflfeetive bom- bardment. The Confederate garrison, which num- bered between 6000 and 7000, threatened in front and rear, and completely cut off from retreat by the Federal forces and impenetrable swamps, finally surrendered on April 7th. The Federal loss was less than a dozen men. The cutting of the channel across the peninsula fonned by the kop in the river required great labor and con- siderable engineering skill, while the running of the batteries by Henry Walke (q.v.) was not only one of the most dramatic deeds of the war, but completely overcame the Confederate defense of this position. After the war the old Island Number Ten was gradually washed away by the river, and a new one was slowly formed on the opposite shore. Consult: Johnson and Buel (edi- tors). Battles and Leaders of the Ciril ^Var. vol. i. (4 vols.. New York. 1887): Mahan, The Gulf and fnlaiid ^^atcrs (New York. 1883).

ISLAND OF SAINTS (Lat. Tiisnla Saneto- rum). A name given to Ireland in the ^Middle Ages, from her great number of ecclesiastics and missionaries.

ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED (Lat. For- iunatw Insula', Gk. ai tSiv iJ.aKa.pwv vijaoi. hai Ion makaron nesoi). .ccording tn an old Greek myth, certain islands situated toward the edge of the western ocean, where was the abode, not of de- parted spirits, but of certain favored mortals. rescued from death by the gods. Here life was most easy, the climate soft and springlike, and there was abundance of all things. Homer calls the spot the Elysian Plain (Od., iv., 563), but Hesiod, Works and Days, 168, and Pindar, OL, ii., with later poets, speak of islands. Later authors identified the islands with the Canaries, lying outside the Pillars of Hercules, in the Atlantic Ocean.

ISLAND OF THE SEVEN CITIES. A legendary island .settled by seven bishops and refugees from Spain and Portugal at the time of the Moorish Conquest.

ISLAY, i'la. A Scottish island, one of the Inner Hebrides, included in Argyllshire, 15 miles west of the Peninsula of Cantire, and southwest of the island of Jura, from which it is sepa- rated by the Sound of Islay (Map: Scotland, B 4). Area, 220 square miles, of which about 22.000 acres are under cultivation. The north of the island is hilly, and along the eastern shore runs a ridge rising from 800 to 1400 feet in height. The central and western districts are undulating or flat. Whisky-distilling is the principal industry. Population, in 1901, 6891. ISLE'BIUS, Magister. A name sometimes applied to Luther's disciple Johann Agricola (q.v.). ISLE OF LADIES. A poem attributed to Chaucer, which first appeared in Speght's edition (1597) of Chaucer. It is also called "Chaucer's Dream." ISLE OF LANTERNS. In Rabelais's Pan- 1a<jruel. an island peopled by pretended wise men.

ISLE OF MAN. See Man, Isle of.

ISLE OF PINES, or Sp., Isla de Pinos, e'sla da pe'nos. An island belonging to Cuba, situated about 40 miles southeast of the southern coast of the Province of Pinar del Rfo (Map: Cuba, B 5). It is almost circular in outline, with a diameter of about 40 miles and an area of 1214 square miles. It is hilly and well forested with pine, cedar, and mahogany in the northern part, while the south- ern consists of a low marsh, similar to the Ever- glades of Florida, covered with mangrove thickets and presenting a luxuriant wealth of native flora and fauna. The soil of the northern part is sandy and favorable to the growth of pineapples and potatoes, the latter being of excellent quality. There are some mineral deposits, of which only the marble-quarries are exploited. Cattle-raising is. however, the chief source of wealth of the in- habitants, who in 1899 numbered 3199. chiefly concentrated in the town of Santa Fo and the capital, Nueva Gerona, situated near the northern coast. See Brvan, Our Islands and Their People (New York, 1899). ISLE OF WIGHT. See Wight, Isle of. ISLES, Lords of the. A line of Scottish chiefs, celebrated in poetry and romance. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes" to The Lord of the Isles, speaks of Somerled as Lord of the Isles; but it is probably more correct to speak of him as King of the Isles. The later lords of the isles traced "their descent from him. He appears prominently in Scottish history in the middle of the twelfth century, during the reigns of David I. and his grandson and successor, ^lalcolm TV. The race to which he belonged is uncertain; probably, like most of his subjects, he was of mixed descent, Norwegian and Celtic. Barbftui savs that one of his descendants, Angus of the