IGUVIUM. See Eugubine Tables and Gubbio.
ILCHESTER, formerly Ivelchester, a market-town of Somersetshire, is situated in the valley of the river Ivel or Yeo, 33 miles south-south-west of Bath, and 5 miles north-north-east of Yeovil railway station. It is connected by a stone bridge with the village of Northover on the other side of the river. The principal buildings are the parish church of St Mary, an old edifice in the Early English style, with a small octagonal tower, and the town-hall. It possesses almshouses, founded in 1426, and national schools. There are no manufactures or trade, and the importance of the town belongs wholly to the past. Under the Romans it was a military station, and bore the name of Ischalis. Anciently it was a place of considerable extent, and was defended by walls and a deep moat. Traces of these fortifications are still to be found, and numerous Roman remains have been discovered at different periods. During a rebellion against William Rufus in 1088, the town was successfully defended against Robert Mowbray, one of the leaders of the insurgents. Before the Reform Act of 1832, when it was disfranchised, Ilchester returned two members to parliament. The county jail was there until 1846. The population of the town in 1871 was 751.
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE, an old district of France, forming a kind of island, bounded by the Marne, the Seine, the Oise, the Aisne, and the Ourcq. Until the end of the Carlovingian dynasty it was included in the domains of the crown. The government of Île-de-France, named after this district, now embraces the department of the Seine, together with the greater part of Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Oise, and Aisne, and a small part of Loiret and Nievre. It was bounded on the N. by Picardy, on the W. by Normandy, on the S. by Orleannais and Nivernais, and on the E. by Champagne. Its capital was Paris.
ILFRACOMBE, a market-town, seaport, and watering-place of Devonshire, is picturesquely situated on the Bristol Channel, and at the terminus of a branch of the London and South-Western Railway, 11 miles north by west of Barnstaple, and 50 miles north-west by west of Exeter. The parish is under the government of a local board of health, established in 1857. The old town, built on the cliffs above the harbour, consists of a principal street about a mile in length, with smaller streets branching off from it. Behind the old town many fine villas and marine residences rise in beautiful terraces commanding picturesque and magnificent views. The heights or torrs overspread with foliage form a sort of semicircle round the town, stretching westwards to a considerable distance; and it is sheltered from the sea by the Capstone Rock. Hillsborough Rock, on the east side of the harbour, with a height of about 500 feet, has near its summit some remains supposed to be of Celtic origin. On Lantern Rock, at the west side of the harbour, a lighthouse has been erected. For access to the bathing ground, which is confined to a few small coves at the foot of the rocks, three tunnels have been cut through the solid rock. Inland the country presents a beautiful variety of hill and dale, clothed with woods and possessing a rich and luxuriant vegetation. The principal public buildings are the parish church, dating from the 12th century, and recently restored, and St Philip and St James’s Church, recently erected at a cost of over £10,000, the town-hall erected in 1860, the market-house of the same date, the baths, and the assembly rooms. Waterworks were completed in 1866 at a cost of £7000. The harbour, formed wholly of a natural basin, admits vessels of more than 200 tons burden, and there is a pier 850 feet in length. Herring fishing is prosecuted, but the shipping trade has considerably declined. The population of the parish, which in 1861 was 3851, was 4721 in 1871.
The name of the town is differently spelt in old documents, the variations being Ilfordscombe, Alfredscombe, Alfrincombe, Ilfarcombe, and Ilfridcombe. In the latter part of the 13th century it obtained a grant for holding a fair and market, and in the reign of Edward III. it was a place of such importance as to supply him with six ships and ninety-six men for his armament against Calais. During the Parliamentary war, being garrisoned for the Roundheads, it was in 1644 captured by the Royalists, but in 1646 it fell into the hands of Fairfa
ILHAVO, a town of Portugal, province of Beira and district of Alveiro, is situated on the Atlantic Ocean, 8 miles south-west of Alveiro and 34 north-west of Coimbra. It is inhabited chiefly by fishermen, but has a celebrated manufactory of glass and porcelain, the Vista-Alegre, at which the art of glass-cutting has reached a high degree of perfection. Salt is largely exported. The population is about 6000.
ILI, one of the principal rivers of Central Asia, in what is now the Russian province of Semiryetchensk. The head-stream, called the Tekes (French form, Tekesse), rises at a height of 11,600 feet in the Ulabas mountains, which lie to the E. of Lake Issyk-kul, about 79° 50′ E. long. and 42° 40′ N. lat. At first it flows eastward and north-eastward through a mountainous gorge which gradually widens into a valley of considerable breadth between the Tian-Shan range on the south and the Kara-Tau and the Temur-lik or Nan-Shan on the north. Meeting the Kunges (French form, Koungesse) from the east, the river takes a westerly direction; and under the name of Ili it continues to hold westward for about 300 miles, to the neighbourhood of the military post of Ili or Ilijsk in 77° 5′ E. long. The valley between 79° 30′ and 82° E. long. is about 50 miles wide, and the portion above the town of Kuldja (Old Kuldja) is fertile and populous, Tarantchi villages following each other in rapid succession, and the pastures being well stocked with sheep and cattle and horses. At Ilijsk the river turns north-west, and at length, after traversing a district of desert and marsh, it falls by at least seven mouths into the Balkhash Lake, the first bifurcation of the delta taking place about 115 miles up the river. From Old Kuldja to New Kuldja, according to Captain Fischer (1871), the Ili is navigable for only two and a half months at most, and even then considerable difficulty is occasioned by the shoals and banks. From New Kuldja to Ilijsk (280 miles) navigation is easy when the water is high, and practicable even at its lowest condition. The section from Ilijsk to Lake Balkhash (about 240 miles) was explored in 1856 at the instance of Mr Kutznezoff, who had a boat built on the lake and towed up stream; he found a passable channel all the way, but no practical use has since been made of it. Except in the deltaic portion, the river has a rapid current and the water is turbid. At Ilijsk there is a ferry on the road from Kopal to Vyernoe. The principal tributaries of the Ili are the Kash, the Belluluko, and the Kur-Tcharyn. A vast number of streams flow towards it from the mountains on both sides, but the great proportion of them are used up by the irrigation canals, and never reach their natural goal. The wealth of coal in the valley is said to be great, and the Chinese worked gold and silver with profit. Fort Ili or Ilijsk, a modern Russian establishment, must not be confounded with Ili, the old capital of the Chinese province of the same name. The latter, otherwise known as Hoi-yuan-tchen, New Kuldja (Gulja), or Mantchu Kuldja, was formerly a city of 70,000 inhabitants, but now lies completely deserted. Old Kuldja, Tatar Kuldja, or Nin Yuan is now the principal town of the district. See Kuldja.
