the name of a canoe employed by the South Sea islanders for making short excursions to sea. It is wall-sided, flat bottomed, and of different sizes, varying from seventy-two feet to ten; but its breadth is by no means in proportion; for canoes of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two. The fighting ivahai is the longest, and has its head and stern considerably raised. The fishing ivahais are from ten to forty feet in length; those of twenty-five feet and upwards occasionally carry sail. The travelling ivahai is always double, and furnished with a small neat house.
IVER, a town of the county of Buckingham, in the hundred of Stoke, eighteen miles from London. It stands on the river Colne, which turns several corn and some spinning mills. The population amounted in 1801 to 1377, in 1811 to 1635, in 1821 to 1663, and in 1831 to 1870.
IVES, Sr., a borough and market-town of the county of Cornwall, in the hundred of Penwith, 276 miles from London. It is a sea-port, on the west side of the bay of that name, on the Bristol Channel. The government is in a mayor, twelve capital and twenty-four inferior burgesses. It returns two members to the House of Commons, chosen by the householders. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2714, in 1811 to 3281, in 1821 to 3526, and in 1831 to 4776.
IVES, Sr., a market-town of the county of Huntingdon, in the hundred of Hurstingstone, sixty miles from London. It is in a rich plain, through which the navigable river Ouse flows, and is a well-built town, with a good market on Monday. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2099, in 1811 to 2426, in 1821 to 2777, and in 1831 to 3314.
IVISA, or IVICA, one of the Balearic Islands, in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to the crown of Spain. Its inhabitants amount to 15,200. It is about sixteen leagues to the eastward of Cape St Antonio, on the coast of Valencia. Its figure is an irregular polygon, stretching from north-west to south-east twenty-eight miles, and being in breadth fourteen miles. Its capital, of the same name, forms a good port, and is very well fortified. It is well built, and contains, including the suburb called Marina, about 3500 inhabitants. It yields wheat, oil, wine, flax, hemp, figs, almonds, raisins, oranges, lemons, cotton, and esparto, which are exported; but its principal commerce is in salt, which is most copiously formed in the various salt lagoons which surround the coast of the island. There are yearly produced from 130,000 to 170,000 cwt. The inhabitants are more attached to fishing than to agriculture, and the greater portion of the men follow that employment, leaving the care of cultivation to the females, who are robust and industrious. The capital is situated in north latitude 38° 53' 16" and east longitude from London 1° 57' 56".
IVINGHOE, a market-town of the county of Buckingham, in the hundred of Cotslow, thirty-six miles from London. The town is pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, with an extensive prospect over a rich valley. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 452, in 1811 to 508, in 1821 to 551, and in 1831 to 573.
IVORY is the name given to the tusks of the elephant, and of the walrus or sea-horse. Each male elephant arrived at maturity has two tusks. These are extremely diversified in size, which depends principally on the age of the animal; they are hollow at their insertion into the jaw and for a considerable space therefrom, and always taper to an obtuse extremity. The colour externally is yellowish, brownish, and sometimes dark, but internally it is a cream white. The best tusks are large, straight, and light coloured, without flaws; not very hollow in the stump, but, on the contrary, solid and thick. The most esteemed are obtained from Africa, being of a closer texture, and less liable to become yellow, than those imported from the East Indies. The tusks of the sea-horse afford the hardest and whitest of all ivory. They are usually short, and very much curved; the thick end is hollow, as in the tusk of the elephant; a glossy enamel of extreme hardness covers the cortical part; and they vary in weight from three or four pounds to thirty. The horn or tooth of the narwhal, one of the cetaceous tribe, also consists of ivory, which is as hard as that of the elephant, and susceptible of a fine polish. The largest size is ten feet in length, and some inches thick at the lower extremity, forming a slender cone of a twisted or spiral figure. But its texture is in several respects different from that of other ivory; and there is a prejudice against the ordinary use of it amongst those who work in that material.
From the earliest times, the people of all the Asiatic countries, where the elephant is found, have had the art of taming the animal, and applying it to useful purposes; but no such art has ever been possessed by any African nation. Nor has this apparently been owing to any difference between the Asiatic and African elephant in point of docility; the real cause is probably to be found in the inferior intelligence and sagacity of the African people. Alexander the Great is believed to have been the first European who employed elephants in war. With regard to those made use of by the Carthaginians, it has been supposed, though with little probability, that they were mostly, if not wholly, imported from India, and that they were managed by Indian conductors, some of whom were captured by the Romans in the great victory gained by Metellus over Asdrubal. But, in the first place, the name of Indian, as used by the Romans, was so extremely vague, that no safe conclusion can be drawn from it; nor, even if the conductors were of that people, does it follow that the elephants had been brought from India. And, secondly, it is not reasonable to suppose that an active and enterprising people, like the Carthaginians, would have imported from a distant country, and at an enormous expense, an animal which, they must have known, was to be found in equal vigour and perfection in their own. On this subject, however, we beg to refer the reader to some learned and valuable notes in the Ancient Universal History (vol. xvii. p. 529, 8vo); and also to Buffon's article on the elephant, one of the most masterly pieces of composition to be found in his admirable work.
Ivory is applied to a variety of purposes in the arts. In England, the chief consumption of that commodity is in the manufacture of handles for knives; but it is also extensively used in the manufacture of musical and mathematical instruments, chess-pieces, billiard-balls, thin plates for miniatures, toys, and small works of vertu. Articles in ivory, however, are said to be manufactured to a greater extent, and with much more success, at Dieppe, than at any other place in Europe. But the art of working in this beautiful material is far better understood by the Chinese than by any other nation. No European artist has hitherto succeeded in cutting concentric balls after the manner of this people; nor have their boxes, chess-pieces, and other articles manufactured in ivory, been approached, far less rivalled, by any similar productions that are to be met with in other countries.
Ivory, in the rough state, is a very considerable article of commerce. The importation of elephants' tusks into Great Britain, for twelve years from 1788 to 1799 inclusively, amounted to 18,914 cwts. or, on an average, to 1576 cwts. annually. Since that period, however, the trade has much increased. The imports in 1831 and 1832 were, at an average, 4130 cwts., of which 2950 cwts. were retained for home consumption. But as the medium weight of a tusk is about sixty lbs. it follows that the yearly imports of 1831 and 1832 must be taken at 7709 tusks, and that, to obtain these, 3854 male elephants must have been destroyed. But, supposing the tusks could only be obtained by killing the animal, the destruction would really be a good deal greater, and must probably have amounted to 4500 or 5000 elephants. Occasionally, however, tusks are accidentally broken, one lost in this way being replaced by a new one; and a good many are also obtained from elephants which have died a natural death. Still it is obvious that the supply from these sources cannot be very large; and if to the quantity of ivory required for Great Britain be added that required for the other countries of Europe, as well as for America and Asia, the slaughter of elephants must, after every deduction, be immense; nor can it fail to excite surprise that the breed of this magnificent animal, and consequently the supply of tusks, has not been more diminished. The western and eastern coasts of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, India, and the countries to the eastward of the Straits of Malacca, are the great mart whence supplies of ivory are obtained. The imports into Great Britain from Western Africa in 1831 amounted to 2575 cwts. whilst the Cape of Good Hope only furnished 198 cwts. During the same year, the imports from India, Ceylon, and other eastern countries, amounted to 2173 cwts. The price per cwt. duty (£1 per cwt.) included, of elephants' tusks in the London market, in December 1833, was as follows:
| Sort | Weight Range | Price | |------|--------------|-------| | 1st sort | 79 to 90 lbs. per tusk | £29 0 0 to £31 0 0 | | 2nd do. | 56 to 60 | £25 0 0 to £23 0 0 | | 3rd do. | 38 to 55 | £23 0 0 to £26 0 0 | | 4th do. | 28 to 37 | £20 0 0 to £24 0 0 | | 5th do. | 18 to 27 | £18 0 0 to £21 0 0 | | Scrimmelloes | 14 | £14 0 0 to £15 0 0 | | Sea-horse teeth | | £5 0 0 |
IVRY, a market-town of the arrondissement of Eve-reux, in the department of the Eure, in France, remarkable for the victory gained there by Henry IV. over the Duke of Mayenne in 1590. It is situated on the banks of the Eure, and contains about 1250 inhabitants, who are occupied in tanneries, and in twist spinning.
IVY. See Hedera, Botany, Index.
IXIA, a genus of plants belonging to the triandria class, and in the natural method ranking under the sixth order, Esculatae. See Botany, Index.
IXION, in fabulous history, the king of the Lapithae, who, having married Dia, the daughter of Deionius, refused to give her the customary nuptial presents. Deionius in revenge took from him his horses; when Ixion, dissembling his resentment, invited his father-in-law to a feast, and contrived that the latter should fall through a trap-door into a burning furnace, in which he was immediately consumed. Ixion being afterwards stung with remorse for his cruelty, ran mad; upon which Jupiter, in compassion, not only forgave him, but took him up into heaven, where he had the impiety to endeavour to seduce Juno. Jupiter, to be assured of his guilt, formed a cloud in the resemblance of the goddess, upon which Ixion begat the centaurs; but having boasted of his happiness, Jove hurled him down to Tartarus, where he remains fixed on an ever-revolving wheel encompassed with serpents.
IXORA, a genus of plants belonging to the tetrandria class, and in the natural method ranking under the forty-seventh order, Stellateae. See Botany, Index.
IXWORTH, a market-town of the county of Suffolk, in the hundred of Blackburn, seventy-seven miles from London. It is a neat town, with a market on Friday. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 827, in 1811 to 846, in 1821 to 952, and in 1831 to 1061.