188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. ! 
encroaching dialects of the Brythons, was practically the same lan- 
guage as that of the Celts of Ireland, of Man, and of Scotland.” As 
Lhuyd and Professor Rhys give such an unambiguous opinion respect- 
ing the earlier presence of the Gaels in Britain, it may fairly be 
expected that the Topography of Wales will lend strength to the con- 
clusions of those Welsh scholars. 
The word Aber is of frequent occurrence in the Topography of 
Wales. It is in all likelihood a compound of ath, a ford, and dior, 
water—waterford. 
In my previous paper on the Gaelic Topography of Britain, I ad- 
verted to the theory which was first advanced by Chalmers and 
which has as its advocates Dr. MacLauchlan, and Mr. Taylor, the 
author of Words and Places,—that, as Dr. McLauchlan contends, 
“the Generic Aber is in Scottish Topography found uniformly associ- 
ated with specific terms purely Kymric,” and that, as Mr. Taylor 
contends, “‘ the Cymry held the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the 
Perthshire hills. The names in the valleys of the Clyde and the 
Forth are Cymric and not Gaelic.” I remarked that Robertson and 
Skene have successfully refuted the theory in question. It is cer- 
tainly a singular fact that if the Topography of Strathclyde is Cymric 
and not Gaelic, there are no Aders in the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, 
Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Stirling, Dumbarton and Galloway. Rob- 
ertson, after examining the theory of which mention has been made, 
is fully justified apparently in employing this language in his Gaelic 
Topography of Scotland, (p. 512): “ All the great features of nature 
within Scotland attest to the truth of the Caledonians being the first 
race ; the mountains and the valleys all speak to us in their language 
—the Gaelic and not in Welsh. The author has proved beyond all 
controversy that there is not a mountain to be found in Scotland 
which bears a Welsh name, not a lake or river.” Aber is of common 
occurrence in the names of places that lie along the sea-coast of 
Wales, e.g. :— 
Abergeley : the confluence of the white river, (geal). 
Aberconwy, aber and,conabhuinn: confluence of rivers. 
Aberhonnddu, aber and abhuinn, river ; and dubh, black. 
Abermaw, aber and baw: W filthy. 
Abermynwy, aber, and a root resembling monadh, moor. 
Abertawy, aber and tabh : water or ocean. 
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