Definitions and typologies

Abstract

An island is 'a piece of land surrounded by water'. Isles are usually small islands. To the Vikings, a piece of land surrounded by water was not regarded as an ey or island unless it was sufficiently distant and distinct for the sound separating it from the mainland to be navigable by a ship with its rudder in place. Islandness is meant to embody the essence of island living, the attributes that make an island what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, without which it loses its identity. Cape Breton Island in eastern Canada was ceded to Britain by France under the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and until 1785 was ruled as part of the colony of Nova Scotia. It then became a separate colony before being joined once more to Nova Scotia in 1820. It was joined physically in 1955 when the Canso Causeway was opened across the short but deep Canso Strait.

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