ILL  , a

river of Germany, entirely within the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine . It rises on a north foothill of the Jura, S.W. of Basel, and flows N.N.E. parallel with the Rhine, which it enters from the left, 9 M. below Strassburg . Its course lies for the most part through low meadowland; and the stream, which is 123 M. long, receives numerous small affluents, which pour out of the short narrow valleys of the Vosges . It is navigable from Ladhof near Colmar to its confluence with the Rhine, a distance of 59 M . It is on this river, and not on the Rhine, that the principal towns of Upper Alsace are situated, e.g . Mulhausen, Colmarl, Schlettstadt and Strassburg . The Ill feeds two important canals, the Rhine-Marne canal and the Rhine-Rhone canal, both starting from the neighbourhood of Strassburg .