Island
a tract of land encompassed with water, whether of the sea, a river, or a lake-in contradistinction to continent or terra firma. The detached portions of land separated from each other, and from the larger masses or continents, by water spaces more or less wide and deep, are of two very distinct kinds.
Some are elongated and generally parallel to continents, others are detached, rounded, or in groups and systems in open ocean. The former are called continental, and the later pelagic.
Of the continental islands of Europe, the British Islands, the islands between Italy and Spain, and those of the Grecian Archipelago, are the most important. ISLAND NO. 10, an island in the Mississippi river, at the W. extremity of Kentucky, on the border of Tennessee, about 40 miles below Columbus. It was captured by the Union forces under General Pope in April, 1862. ISLAY (i'lä), an island of Argyllshire, Scotland. Deeply indented on the S. by Loch Andail (12 by by 8 miles), Islay has a maximum length and breadth of 252 and 19 miles, and an area of 246 square miles. It contains several small freshwater lakes, and attains a height of 1,444 feet.
ISLE OF FRANCE. See MAURITIUS.