2 8o The Scottish Naturalist. 



mine of information. Sometimes this information refers to 

 historical events, sometimes to the physical features presented 

 by the localities at the time when the names were given. It is 

 with the latter class that this paper has to do. We pass over all 

 names referring to artificial structures, such as names beginning 

 with Dun or Car, denoting that a fort once existed there ; names 

 beginning with Bal, denoting that a town, not in the sense of a 

 city, but a farm-tOAvn, was on that spot. Our business is with 

 words containing Kin or Ken, a head or extremity; Mon, a 

 bog ; Aber or Inver, the mouth of a stream ; Tully or Tulloch, 

 a hillock ; Drum, a ridge ; Inis or Inch, an island ; and others 

 describing physical characteristics. In this paper it is only a 

 few that I can take. My object is not to make an exhaustive 

 research into the Celtic names of the localities around us, but 

 to take a few instances to show the nature of the information 

 afforded, and the wealth which is offered. I by no means say 

 that the knowledge thus gained is in itself of scientific value, but 

 it may be a valuable adjunct. Science has to do, not with 

 names of objects, but with the objects themselves, and must be 

 based on the data which they furnish. Now, these names in 

 themselves will not furnish scientific facts, but they may serve 

 to corroborate facts which have been otherwise ascertained. 

 An investigation of the surface features of a district may lead a 

 geologist to the conclusion that here a stream once flowed, and 

 there was a peat-bog — that this field was once the site of a lake, 

 and yonder eminence must have been an island in its midst. 

 Now if the geologist, after having ascertained these facts, could 

 rouse an ancient Celtic Rip Van Winkle from a slumber of some 

 thousands of years, and get him to tell the features which in his 

 day the country presented, he would gladly welcome the com- 

 munications made ; and it would add to his gratification if he 

 found that the intelligence thus given corroborated the conclu- 

 sions which he had quite independently arrived at — if he found 

 that the ancient Celt had actually seen with his own eyes the 

 waters of the stream flowing in the old channel, had often gazed 

 on the moss, the lake, and the island. We cannot rouse the 

 ancient Celt from his sleep, but a testimony such as I have 

 indicated may be afforded by a careful 'and discriminate use of 

 the names of places descriptive of the physical features presented 

 at the time when the names were given. In places, now rich 

 fields, where " loch " appears as part of the name ; in words begin- 

 ning with " Lun," or " Mon," or "Reisk "—appellations of places 



