ISLAY, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyllshire, Scotland, 16 m. W. of Kintyre and 34 m. S.W. of Jura, from which it is separated by the Sound of Islay. Pop. (1901) 6857; area, 150,400 acres; maximum breadth 19 m. and maximum length 25 m. The sea-lochs Gruinart and Indaal cut into it so deeply as almost to convert the western portion into a separate island. It is rich and productive, and has been called the “Queen of the Hebrides.” The surface generally is regular, the highest summits being Ben Bheigeir (1609 ft.) and Sgorr nam Faoileann (1407 ft.). There are several freshwater lakes and streams, which provide good fishing. Islay was the ancient seat of the “lord of the Isles,” the first to adopt that title being John Macdonald of Isle of Islay, who died about 1386; but the Macdonalds were ultimately ousted by their rivals, the Campbells, about 1616. Islay House, the ancient seat of the Campbells of Islay, stands at the head of Loch Indaal. The island was formerly occupied by small crofters and tacksmen, but since 1831 it has been gradually developed into large sheep and arable farms and considerable business is done in stock-raising. Dairy-farming is largely followed, and oats, barley and various green crops are raised. The chief difficulty in the way of reclamation is the great area of peat (60 sq. m.), which, at its present rate of consumption, is calculated to last 1500 years. The island contains several whisky distilleries, producing about 400,000 gallons annually. Slate and marble are quarried, and there is a little mining of iron, lead and silver. At Bowmore, the chief town, there is a considerable shipping trade. Port Ellen, the principal village, has a quay with lighthouse, a fishery and a golf-course. Port Askaig is the ferry station for Faolin on Jura. Regular communication with the Clyde is maintained by steamers, and a cable was laid between Lagavulin and Kintyre in 1871.
ISLES OF THE BLEST, or Fortunate Islands (Gr.
αἱ τῶν μακάρων νῆσοι: Lat., Fortunatae Insulae), in Greek
mythology a group of islands near the edge of the Western
Ocean, peopled not by the dead, but by mortals upon whom
the gods had conferred immortality. Like the islands of the
Phaeacians in Homer (Od. viii.) or the Celtic Avalon and St
Brendan’s island, the Isles of the Blest are represented as a
land of perpetual summer and abundance of all good things.
No reference is made to them by Homer, who speaks instead of
the Elysian Plain (Od. iv. and ix.), but they are mentioned by
Hesiod (Works and Days, 168) and Pindar (Ol. ii.). A very old
tradition suggests that the idea of such an earthly paradise
was a reminiscence of some unrecorded voyage to Madeira and
the Canaries, which are sometimes named Fortunatae Insulae
by medieval map-makers. (See Atlantis.)
ISLINGTON (in Domesday and later documents Iseldon,
Isendon and in the 16th century Hisselton), a northern metropolitan
borough of London, England, bounded E. by Stoke
Newington and Hackney, S. by Shoreditch and Finsbury, and
W. by St Pancras, and extending N. to the boundary of the
county of London. Pop. (1901) 334,991. The name is commonly
applied to the southern part of the borough, which, however,
includes the districts of Holloway in the north, Highbury in
the east, part of Kingsland in the south-east, and Barnsbury
and Canonbury in the south-central portion. The districts included
preserve the names of ancient manors, and in Canonbury,
which belonged as early as the 13th century to the priory of
St Bartholomew, Smithfield, traces of the old manor house
remain. The fields and places of entertainment in Islington
were favourite places of resort for the citizens of London in the
17th century and later; the modern Ball’s Pond Road recalls
the sport of duck-hunting practised here and on other ponds
in the parish, and the popularity of the place was increased by
the discovery of chalybeate wells. At Copenhagen Fields, now
covered by the great cattle market (1855) adjoining Caledonian
Road, a great meeting of labourers was held in 1834. They were
suspected of intending to impose their views on parliament by
violence, but a display of military force held them in check.
The most noteworthy modern institutions in Islington are the
Agricultural Hall, Liverpool Road, erected in 1862, and used
for cattle and horse shows and other exhibitions; Pentonville
Prison, Caledonian Road (1842), a vast pile of buildings radiating
from a centre, and Holloway Prison. The borough has only some
40 acres of public grounds, the principal of which is Highbury
Fields. Among its institutions are the Great Northern Central
Hospital, Holloway, the London Fever Hospital, the Northern
Polytechnic, and the London School of Divinity, St John’s
Hall Highbury. Islington is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese
of London. The parliamentary borough of Islington has north,
south, east and west divisions, each returning one member.
The borough council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and
60 councillors. Area, 3091.5 acres.
ISLIP, a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A.,
in the central part of the S. side of Long Island. Pop. (1905,
state census) 13,721; (1910) 18,346. The township is 16 m. long
from E. to W., and 8 m. wide in its widest part. It is bounded
on the S. by the Atlantic Ocean; between the ocean and the
Great South Bay, here 5-7 m. wide, is a long narrow strip of
beach, called Fire Island, at the W. end of which is Fire Island
Inlet. The “Island” beach and the Inlet, both very dangerous
for shipping, are protected by the Fire Island Lighthouse,
the Fire Island Lightship, and a Life Saving Station near the
Lighthouse and another at Point o’ Woods. Near the Lighthouse
there are a United States Wireless Telegraph Station and
a station of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which
announces to New York incoming steamships; and a little
farther E., on the site formerly occupied by the Surf House, a
well-known resort for hay-fever patients, is a state park. Along
the “Island” beach there is excellent surf-bathing. The
township is served by two parallel branches of the Long Island
railroad about 4 m. apart. On the main (northern) division
are the villages of Brentwood (first settled as Modern Times,
a quasi free-love community), which now has the Convent and
School of St Joseph and a large private sanitarium; Central
Islip, the seat of the Central Islip State Hospital for the Insane;
and Ronkonkoma, on the edge of a lake of the same name (with
no visible outlet or inlet and suffering remarkable changes in area).
On the S. division of the Long Island railroad are the villages
of Bay Shore (to the W. of which is West Islip); Oakdale; West
Sayville, originally a Dutch settlement; Sayville and Bayport.
The “South Country Road” of crushed clam or oyster shells
runs through these villages, which are famous for oyster and
clam fisheries. About one-half of the present township was
patented in 1684, 1686, 1688 and 1697 by William Nicolls
(1657–1723), the son of Matthias Nicolls, who came from Islip in
Oxfordshire, England; this large estate (on either side of the
Connetquot or Great river) was kept intact until 1786; the W.
part of Islip was mostly included in the Moubray patent of 1708;
and the township was incorporated in 1710.
ISLY, the name of a small river on the Moroccan-Algerian
frontier, a sub-tributary of the Tafna, famous as the scene of
the greatest victory of the French army in the Algerian wars.
The intervention of Morocco on the side of Abd-el-Kader led
at once to the bombardment of Tangier by the French fleet under
the prince de Joinville, and the advance of the French army
of General Bugeaud (1844). The enemy, 45,000 strong, was
found to be encamped on the Isly river near Kudiat-el-Khodra.
Bugeaud disposed of some 6500 infantry and 1500 cavalry,
with a few pieces of artillery. In his own words, the formation
adopted was “a boar’s head.” With the army were Lamoricière,
Pélissier and other officers destined to achieve distinction. On
the 14th of August the “boar’s head” crossed the river about
9 m. to the N.W. of Kudiat and advanced upon the Moorish
camp; it was immediately attacked on all sides by great masses
of cavalry; but the volleys of the steady French infantry broke
the force of every charge, and at the right moment the French
cavalry in two bodies, each of the strength of a brigade, broke
out and charged. One brigade stormed the Moorish camp
(near Kudiat) in the face of artillery fire, the other sustained a
desperate conflict on the right wing with a large body of Moorish
horse which had not charged; and only the arrival of infantry
put an end to the resistance in this quarter. A general rally
of the Moorish forces was followed by another action in which
