32 



Britain, and Scotland, to tribes of similar families. The geognipliv 

 of the N. beyond the 52 degree of latitude, was not known to tiic 

 ancients ;''^- and we have no authentic annals of Ireland, \vlnch re- 

 fer to events prior to the 5th century.''^ Hence we cannot expect 

 an indubitable confirmation or refutation of Ptolemy's tribes of 

 Jreland, from Irish documents; and particularly of those, Avhose 

 manners, religion, and language, differed, from their own. 

 .. Mr. Whitacre continues to inform us, that, ' when the name 

 of a tribe or a town on the W. coast of Britain is retained in the 

 appellation of a tribe upon the opjwsite shore of Ireland, we must 

 naturally conclude the one to have given denomination to the 

 other.' Accordingly he introduces into Ireland the Volantii or 

 Voluntii'^"' of part of Westmorland or Cumberland about the 

 commencement of the Christian sera, when they were driven 

 hither by the Brigantes of Yorkshire and Durham. But, in bring- 

 ing with them Sistuntii under the new name of Cauci, which, to 

 accommodate itself to the latter tribe of Ptolemy, he has coined from 

 their metropolis Coccium; and the Carnabii of Cheshire imder 

 the tortured appellation of Coriondii, two tribes, which, he says, 

 Avere at the same time subdued and dislodged by the Brigantes ; 

 lie immediately deviates from the rule of affmity in names, which 

 he had just established. 



132. Pinkerton's Geography, p. 8. ' The line of 50° or 52° of N. Latitude must confine 

 the ancient knovvletlge in the N. E.' 



133. Nicolson's Ir. His. Lib. p. 11. ' Many, very many, are tlie histories of Ireland tliat go 

 under the name of Annals, some of which are anonymous, both as to persons and places. The 

 most considerable of these, that have fallen under my observation, are the annals reaching 



no lower than the year 436, &c The Ulster annals are written partly in Latin, partly in 



Irish. Begin at the year 444., end in 1541.' 



134. Remains of those people are still found in the word UUri, the name of the ancient 

 principality in the county of Down. 



