ISHMAEL
ISOCRAfES
the sea. It is subject to earthquakes. The island produces fruits, wines and olive oil, and the inhabitants carry on extensive fisheries. See Earthquakes of Ischia by Johnston-Lavis.
Ish'mael ("God will hear"), the son of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah. His story is told in Genesis. Mohammed claimed descent from Ishmael.
Ish'peming, a city of Michigan, 15 miles west from Marquette and 367 miles north of Chicago. It is in the center of the Marquette Range of iron ore deposits. The ore is both hard and soft. The soft ore is known as the red hematite and the hard as black band. (Some of these mines run under the city and are famous for their high percentage of iron.) Gold deposits are also found (in close proximity to the city limits). Marble quarries are also being opened. A small part of the ore from this region is reduced to pig iron at Marquette and Gladstone, but most of it passes through the big furnaces at Buffalo and Pittsburg. About 3,000 men are underground every day. r4ine nationalities are represented among the miners. The most numerous are Scandinavians, Cornishmen and Fin-landers. The population (1910) is 12,835. The Cleveland Cliffs Company of this section received the first prize from the Louisiana Purchase Fair — gold medal for housing the working classes and general welfare. This award was made from the department of social economy, and all countries competed. Ishpeming is said to be the best mining city in the U. S. It is famous for its public schools and the high moral standing of its people.
Isinglass (if zin-glass) is the purest commercial form of gelatine. It was formerly obtained only from the common sturgeon, and consisted of the dried air bladder of the fish. The same part in other fishes is also used in its preparation. The commerce in this article was at one time confined to Russia, where the sturgeon is taken, but large quantities are now brought from South America and some from the East Indies, New York and Canada. An inferior kind is made of cod sounds and soleskins or even from skins, hoofs and horns. Isinglass is extensively used in cookery for the preparation of jellies, creams etc. It is also used in refining beer and other liquids and for making the finer kinds of glues and cements. Isinglass is the popular name for mica, a mineral found in large quantities, having a bright luster. It is remarkable for the readiness with which it splits into thin, elastic plates, which are generally transparent. The plates are sometimes not more than the 3oo,oooth part of an inch in thickness, usually very clear. This substance is much used in the manufacture of stoves, its transparency making it valuable. Plates of mica of large size
are also used in Siberia, Peru and Mexico as a substitute for glass in windows. Mica is often substituted for glass in lanterns, as it bears sudden changes of temperature better, and in ships of war, as it does not break so easily upon the discharge of cannon.
Isis (i-sis), an Egyptian goddess, was the sister and wife of Osiris. Osiris was murdered by Seb, and the corpse placed in a coffin and thrown into the Nile Isis discovered it, and in her grief was herself discovered. Isis lamented so deeply that the youngest of Queen Astarte's sons died of fright. Having buried the coffin in a retired place, Seb discovered the body during her absence, and cut it into pieces which he scattered far and wide. These Isis collected and buried in a stately tomb at Philae. When she died, her soul was believed to have passed into the star Sirius. Isis is one of the principal figures in Egyptian mythology, and her worship was universal through all Egypt, where her tears were supposed to cause the yearly overflow of of the Nile. In the monuments she is called the goddess-mother, the mistress of heaven, the eye of the sun and the queen of the gods.
Is'lam. See MOHAMMEDANISM.
Isle of Pines (Spanish Isla de Pinos), is a fertile island 38 miles from the Cuban coast, lying to the south It is under Cuban government. The island is of a nearly circular shape, its average diameter being over 30 miles. Cattle form the chief article of produce. Good marble is obtained from the quarries. Area: over 1,200 square miles; population: between 3,000 and 4,000.
Isles of Shoals, a cluster of nine barren, rocky islands in the Atlantic off New Hampshire. The largest two are Appledore, containing 400 acres, and Star, with 150 acres. On these are large hotels for visitors, who resort there for the sea air, bathing and fishing. A steamer runs daily to the islands from Portsmouth. On White Island is a revolving light, 87 feet above the sea. The inhabitants are fishermen. See Celia Thaxter's Among the Isles of Shoals.
Isocrates (i-sok'rd-tez), one of the ten Attic orators and one of the most remarkable men in the literary history of Greece, was born at Athens in 436 B. C., and died in 338 B. C. Isocrates took no active part in public life. During the Peloponnesian war he lost his fortune, and about 392 adopted the profession of a teacher. He deserves the credit of having been the first to discover this resource. His real vocation was discovered the moment he devoted himself to the work of a teacher and writer. The instruction was based on rhetorical composition, but was by no means merely rhetorical. The celebrity of the school is strikingly attested by ancient writers. It drew disciples from every Greek state. During his later years he wrote on public
