Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/403

I 8 I I S M 387 Ebert, Gcschichte d. Littcratur d. Mittelaltcrs im Abcndlande, i. 555 sy. Also Pouchet, Histoirc dcs Sciences Naturellcs au Moycn Ay, 1845, and the general histories of Latin literature. ISINGLASS. See GELATIN. ISKELIB, or ESKILUP, a town in the province of Kasta- muui, Asiatic Turkey, is situated near the left bank of the Kizil Irmak, at an elevation of 2542 feet above sea- level. The population is estimated by Hitter at 9000. ISLA, JOSE FKANCISCO DE (1703-1781), Spanish satirist, was bora at Segovia iu 1703, and became a member of the Society of Jesus, in which he distinguished himself both as a teacher and as a preacher ; on the expul sion of his order from Spain in 1707 he betook himself to Bologna, where after some years of impaired health he died in 1783. His first literary experiment was the Juventud Triunfante ("Triumph of Youth," Salamanca, 1727), a cleverly disguised satirical account of a festival celebrated in 1727 at Salamanca in honour of two young Jesuits who had recently been canonized by Benedict XIII., in which he was assisted by a brother priest named Losada ; it was followed in 1746 by his Triunfo del Amor y de la Lealtad: Dia Grande de Navarra, being an account of the extravagant ceremonies with which the accession of Ferdinand VI. of Castile had been celebrated in Pampe- lona. This was written in so delicate a vein of satire that at first the parties chiefly ridiculed felt really flattered, and expressed their gratitude to the author ; ultimately, however, its true meaning was discerned, and so strong was the reaction that he had to leave the locality. The work on which Isla s claim to a place in the history of the literature of his country rests, however, is his Ilistoria del Fame/so Predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas, in which in course of an imaginary biography of a preaching friar named Gerundio many of the absurdities that deformed the Spanish pulpit at that time are ably held up to ridicule. The first volume appeared at Madrid in 1758, duly approved by the ecclesiastical authorities, who probably were not unwilling that the faults then glaringly prevalent among preachers should be chastized and if possible corrected ; so great was the offence given, however, to the religious orders, and especially to the Dominicans, by the causticity of Fray Gerundio, that the royal authority was at last called in to prohibit the book. The second volume, which therefore could only appear surreptitiously, is dated "Campazas" (i.e., Madrid), 1770, and like the first bears on the title page the name of Don Francisco Lobon de Salazar as its author. An anonymous translation by Thomas Nugent (The History of the famous preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas, othenvise Gerund Zotes) appeared in London, in two volumes, in 1772. Six volumes of JSer- mones, written between 1729 and 1754, and published in 1792, show that Isla s own high reputation as a preacher was not undeserved; and his C arias Familiares (6 vols., Madrid, 1785-86) are written in an easy and attractive style. He is also Avell known iu the Peninsula as the eminently successful translator of Gil Bias (Gil Bias de Smtillana vuelto d su pafria, printed at Madrid in 1787), although his strenuously asserted theory that La Sage had borrowed that popular story wholesale from a Spanish source is now entirely exploded. ISLAMABAD, a town in Kashmir state, Punjab, lies in 33 43 N. lat., 75 17 E. long., on the north bank of the Jhelum (Jhilam), there about 80 yards wide, and crossed by a wooden bridge. The town crowns the summit of a long low ridge, extending from the mountains east ward. Below is a reservoir containing a spring of clear water called the Anat Nag, slightly sulphurous, from which volumes of gas continually arise. The water swarms with sacred fish. There are large manufactures of Kashmir shawls, also of chintzes, cotton, and woollen goods. IS LAY, an island on the west coast of Scotland, the most southern of the Hebrides group, is situated in the county of Argyll, between 55 30 and 55 58 N. lat. and 6 2 and 6 35 W. long., 17 miles west of Cantire and 2 miles south-west of Jura. It has an area of 220 square miles, or more than 140,000 acres, and its rental is nearly 38,000. It is the richest and most productive of the group, and on that account has been called the " Queen of the Hebrides." The surface generally is regular, the highest summits being Ben Yarn (1500 feet) and Ben Ronastel (1050 feet). Islay House, the ancient seat of the Campbells of Islay, stands at the head of Loch-in-daaL The island is chiefly possessed by three proprietors : G. Morrison, 67,000 acres; J. Ramsay of Kildalton, 54,250; and K. Finlay of Dunlossit, 17,676. Formerly it was occupied by small crofters and tacksmen, but since 1831 it has been gradually rearranged into large sheep and arable farms. About two-thirds of the sheep are black- faced, the others being mostly Cheviots. Dairy farming is largely followed, and oats, barley, and the various green crops are raised. The chief difficulty in the way of reclamation of the land is the large extent occupied by peat, which has an area of 60 square miles, and is calcu- culated at its present rate of consumption to last 1500 years. The island has long been famous for the distilla tion of whisky, and at present contains seven distilleries, which produce about 400,000 gallons annually. Port Ellen, the principal village, had 974 inhabitants in 1881. While the population of Islay in 1831 was 14,992, it had decreased in 1851 to 12,334, in 1871 to 8143, and in 1881 to 7512. 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. See HEBRIDES. ISMAIL, a town of Roumania, at the head of a district of the same name, on the left bank of the Kilia branch of the Danube, 30 miles to the east of Galatz, with a river frontage of about 2J miles. It is the seat of a con siderable trade, mainly in grain, but also in wool, leather, and tallow. The population of the town, inclusive of Tutchkoff, was 16,000 in 1856, 31,779 in 1866, and 21,000 in 1876. In 1872 794 ships with a total burden of 81,445 tons entered, and 790 with 81,711 tons cleared. Originally a Turkish fortified post, Ismail had by the end of the 18th century grown into a place of about 30,000 inhabitants, having 4000 dwelling-houses inside and 2500 outside the enceinte, and numbering among its public buildings four mosques, two churches for the Moldavians, one for the Armenians, and one for the Greeks (see account by a Russian officer in Bernoulli, Sammluny kurzer lleiscbcscliTcibuwjcn, Berlin, 1781). The inhabitants vere mainry Turks and Tartars, but not far from the town there was a settlement of Easkolniks, who had fled from the persecution of Peter I. Ismail was occupied by the Russians in 1770, and twenty years later its capture was one of the brilliant achievements of the celebrated Suwarofl . On this occasion the garrison was 40,000 strong, and tli assault cost the invaders 10,000 and the defenders 30,000 men. "Never," wrote Suwaroff to Potemkin, the Russian minister, " was a fortress stronger than Ismail, and never was a defence more desperate. But Ismail is taken." The victory was the thenie of one of Derzhavin s odes. In 1809 the town was again captured by the Russians ; and, when in 1812 it was assigned to them by the Bucharest peace, they chose it as the central station for the fleet cf the Danube. It was about this time that the town of Tutchkoff, with which it was incorporated in 1830, grew up outside of the fortifications. These were dismantled in accordance with the treaty of Paris (1856), by which that part of Bessarabia in which Ismail was included was made over to Roumania. On the other side of a small lake not far from the town lies the village of Matrasofka ; and 4 miles to the east is another village, Old Nikrasofka, with the following inscription : Terminus australis arcus meridionalis 25 20 quern inde aflmio Danubio ad Oceanum Ardicum usque per liossiam, Sueciam, et Norwegian, jussu ct auspiciis impcratorum augustissimorum Alcxandri I. atquc re.gis augustissimi Oscaris I., Annis MDCCCVI oil AfDCCCLIl continue hiborc cmcnsi sunt CCC gcometrse. Latitude 45 20" 28" .