summer residence of the Austrian Imperial family and of the Austrian nobility since 1822. It has saline and sulphureous drinking springs and numerous brine and brine-vapour baths. The brine used at Ischl contains about 25% of salt and there are also mud, sulphur and pine-cone baths. Ischl is situated at an altitude of 1533 ft. above sea-level and has a very mild climate. Its mean annual temperature is 49.4° F. and its mean summer temperature is 63.5° F. Ischl is an important centre of the salt industry and 4 m. to its W. is a celebrated salt mine, which has been worked as early as the 12th century.
ISEO, LAKE OF (the Lacus Sebinus of the Romans), a lake
in Lombardy, N. Italy, situated at the southern foot of the Alps,
and between the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. It is formed
by the Oglio river, which enters the northern extremity of the
lake of Lovere, and issues from the southern end at Sarnico,
on its way to join the Po. The area of the lake is about 24 sq. m.,
it is 171/2 m. in length, and 3 m. wide in the broadest portion,
while the greatest depth is said to be about 984 ft. and the height
of its surface above sea-level 607 ft. It contains one large island,
that of Siviano, which culminates in the Monte Isola (1965 ft.)
that is crowned by a chapel, while to the south is the islet of San
Paolo, occupied by the buildings of a small Franciscan convent
now abandoned, and to the north the equally tiny island of
Loreto, with a ruined chapel containing frescoes. At the southern
end of the lake are the small towns of Iseo (15 m. by rail N.W. of
Brescia) and of Sarnico. From Paratico, opposite Sarnico, on
the other or left bank of the Oglio, a railway runs in 61/4 m. to
Palazzolo, on the main Brescia-Bergamo line. Towards the
head of the lake, the deep wide valley of the Oglio is seen,
dominated by the glittering snows of the Adamello (11,661 ft.),
a glorious prospect. Along the east shore (the west shore is far
more rugged) a fine carriage road rims from Iseo to the considerable
town of Pisogne (131/2 m.), situated at the northern end of
the lake, and nearly opposite that of Lovere, on the right bank
of the Oglio. The portion of this road some way S. of Pisogne
is cleverly engineered, and is carried through several tunnels.
The lake’s charms were celebrated by Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu,
who spent ten summers (1747–1757) in a villa at Lovere,
then much frequented by reason of an iron spring. The lake
has several sardine and eel fisheries. (W. A. B. C.)
ISÈRE [anc. Isara], one of the chief rivers in France as well
as of those flowing down on the French side of the Alpine chain.
Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhône is
about 180 m., during which it descends a height of about 7550 ft.
Its drainage area is about 4725 sq. m. It flows through the
departments of Savoie, Isère and Drôme. This river rises in
the Galise glaciers in the French Graian Alps and flows, as
a mountain torrent, through a narrow valley past Tignes in
a north-westerly direction to Bourg St Maurice, at the western
foot of the Little St Bernard Pass. It now bends S.W., as far
as Moutiers, the chief town of the Tarentaise, as the upper course
of the Isère is named. Here it again turns N.W. as far as Albertville,
where after receiving the Arly (right) it once more takes a
south-westerly direction, and near St Pierre d’Albigny receives
its first important tributary, the Arc (left), a wild mountain
stream flowing through the Maurienne and past the foot of the
Mont Cenis Pass. A little way below, at Montmélian, it becomes
officially navigable (for about half of its course), though it is
but little used for that purpose owing to the irregular depth of
its bed and the rapidity of its current. Very probably, in ancient
days, it flowed from Montmélian N.W. and, after passing through
or forming the Lac du Bourget, joined the Rhône. But at
present it continues from Montmélian in a south-westerly
direction, flowing through the broad and fertile valley of the
Graisivaudan, though receiving but a single affluent of any
importance, the Bréda (left). At Grenoble, the most important
town on its banks, it bends for a short distance again N.W.
But just below that town it receives by far its most important
affluent (left) the Drac, which itself drains the entire S. slope of
the lofty snow-clad Dauphiné Alps, and which, 11 m. above
Grenoble, had received the Romanche (right), a mountain
stream which drains the entire central and N. portion of the same
Alps. Hence the Drac is, at its junction with the Isère, a stream
of nearly the same volume, while these two rivers, with the
Durance, drain practically the entire French slope of the Alpine
chain, the basins of the Arve and of the Var forming the sole
exceptions. A short distance below Moirans the Isère changes its
direction for the last time and now flows S.W. past Romans before
joining the Rhône on the left, as its principal affluent after the
Saône and the Durance, between Tournon and Valence. The
Isère is remarkable for the way in which it changes its direction,
forming three great loops of which the apex is respectively at
Bourg St Maurice, Albertville and Moirans. For some way
after its junction with the Rhône the grey troubled current of
the Isère can be distinguished in the broad and peaceful stream
of the Rhône. (W. A. B. C.)
ISÈRE, a department of S.E. France, formed in 1790 out of the
northern part of the old province of Dauphiné. Pop. (1906)
562,315. It is bounded N. by the department of the Ain, E. by
that of Savoie, S. by those of the Hautes Alpes and the Drôme
and W. by those of the Loire and the Rhône. Its area is 3179
sq. m. (surpassed only by 7 other departments), while its greatest
length is 93 m. and its greatest breadth 53 m. The river Isère
runs for nearly half its course through this department, to which
it gives its name. The southern portion of the department is
very mountainous, the loftiest summit being the Pic Lory
(13,396 ft.) in the extensive snow-clad Oisans group (drained
by the Drac and Romanche, two mighty mountain torrents),
while minor groups are those of Belledonne, of Allevard, of the
Grandes Rousses, of the Dévoluy, of the Trièves, of the Royannais,
of the Vercors and, slightly to the north of the rest, that
of the Grande Chartreuse. The northern portion of the department
is composed of plateaux, low hills and plains, while on every
side but the south it is bounded by the course of the Rhône. It
forms the bishopric of Grenoble (dating from the 4th century),
till 1790 in the ecclesiastical province of Vienne, and now in that
of Lyons. The department is divided into four arrondissements
(Grenoble, St Marcellin, La Tour du Pin and Vienne), 45 cantons
and 563 communes. Its capital is Grenoble, while other important
towns in it are the towns of Vienne, St Marcellin and La Tour du
Pin. It is well supplied with railways (total length 342 m.),
which give access to Gap, to Chambéry, to Lyons, to St Rambert
and to Valence, while it also possesses many tramways (total
length over 200 m.). It contains silver, lead, coal and iron mines,
as well as extensive slate, stone and marble quarries, besides
several mineral springs (Allevard, Uriage and La Motte). The
forests cover much ground, while among the most flourishing
industries are those of glove making, cement, silk weaving and
paper making. The area devoted to agriculture (largely in the
fertile valley of the Graisivaudan, or Isère, N.E. of Grenoble) is
about 1211 sq. m.
(W. A. B. C.)
ISERLOHN, a town in the Prussian province of Westphalia,
on the Baar, in a bleak and hilly region, 17 m. W. of Arnsberg,
and 30 m. E.N.E. from Barmen by rail. Pop. (1900) 27,265.
Iserlohn is one of the most important manufacturing towns
in Westphalia. Both in the town and neighbourhood there are
numerous foundries and works for iron, brass, steel and bronze
goods, while other manufactures include wire, needles and
pins, fish-hooks, machinery, umbrella-frames, thimbles, bits,
furniture, chemicals, coffee-mills, and pinchbeck and britannia-metal
goods. Iserlohn is a very old town, its gild of armourers
being referred to as “ancient” in 1443.
ISFAHĀN (older form Ispahān), the name of a Persian province
and town. The province is situated in the centre of the country,
and bounded S. by Fars, E. by Yezd, N. by Kashān, Natanz
and Irāk, and W. by the Bakhtiāri district and Arabistān. It
pays a yearly revenue of about £100,000, and its population
exceeds 500,000. It is divided into twenty-five districts, its
capital, the town of Isfahān, forming one of them. These
twenty-five districts, some very small and consisting of only a
little township and a few hamlets, are Isfahān, Jai, Barkhār,
Kahāb, Kararaj, Baraān, Rūdasht, Marbin, Lenjān, Kerven,
Rār, Kiar, Mizdej, Ganduman, Somairam, Jarkūyeh, Ardistan,
Kūhpāyeh, Najafabad, Komisheh, Chadugan, Varzek, Tokhmaklu,
