inly of a plateau of slight
elevation, rarely exceeding 100 ft., and comprises the parishes of
Althorpe, Belton, Epworth, Haxey, Luddington, Owston and Crowle; the total
area being about 47,000 acres. At a very early period it would appear to
have been covered with forest; but this having been in great measure
destroyed, it became in great part a swamp. In 1627 King Charles I., who
was lord of the island, entered into a contract with Cornelius Vermuyden, a
Dutchman, for reclaiming the meres and marshes, and rendering them fit for
tillage. This undertaking led to the introduction of a large number of
Flemish workmen, who settled in the district, and, in spite of the violent
measures adopted by the English peasantry to expel them, retained their
ground in sufficient numbers to affect the physical appearance and the
accent of the inhabitants to this day. The principal towns in the isle are
Crowle (pop. 2769) and Epworth. The Axholme joint light railway runs north
and south through the isle, connecting Goole with Haxey junction; and the
Great Northern, Great Eastern and Great Central lines also afford
communications. The land is extremely fertile. The name, properly Axeyholm
(cf. Haxey), is hybrid, _Ax_ being the Celtic _uisg_, water; _ey_ the
Anglo-Saxon for island; and _holm_ the Norse word with the same
signification.

AXILE, or AXIAL, a term (= related to the axis) used technically in
science; in botany an embryo is called axile when it has the same direction
as the axis of the seed.

[Illustration]

AXINITE, a mineral consisting of a complex aluminium and calcium
boro-silicate with a small amount of basic hydrogen; the calcium is partly
replaced in varying amounts by ferrous iron and manganese, and the
aluminium by ferric iron: the formula is HCa_3BAl_2(SiO_4)_4. The mineral
was named (from [Greek: axine], an axe) by R. J. Hauy in 1799, on account
of the characteristic thin wedge-like form of its anorthic crystals. The
colour is usually clove-brown, but rarely it has a violet tinge (on this
account the mineral was named yanolite, meaning violet stone, by J. C.
Delametherie in 1792). The best specimens are afforded by the beautifully
developed transparent glassy crystals, found with albite, prehnite and
quartz, in a zone of amphibolite and chlorite-schists at Le Bourg d'Oisans
in Dauphine. It is found in the greenstone and hornblende-schists of
Batallack Head near St Just in Cornwall, and in diabase in the Harz; and