314 A TOPOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE 
a strait, and which in its simplest root Caol is of frequent occurrence 
in Scotland. In such words as Na Caoil Bhoideach, the Kyles or 
Straits of Bute; Caol ant-enaimh Colintraive; Caol Mhuile, the Sound 
of Muil; Caol Ile, the Sound of Islay ; Cavl Dhiura, the Sound of 
Jura, the first syllable Caol of Calais occurs. In Baile-Chaolais, 
Ballachulish, at the mouth of Glencoe in the north of Argyleshire, 
there is an exact reproduction of Calais or Caolas. Baile-Chaolais, 
which may be regarded as the Shibboleth of English tourists, means 
“the village or hamlet of the strat.” It is remarkable that there 
should be so striking a correspondence between the word Calais and 
many words in Scotland which signify strait or narrow arm of the 
sea. In Colne, the name of a river in Essex and of another river 
in Gloucester, compounded as it is of Caol and Amhainn, an, a river, 
and signifying, therefore, the narrow river, we have another example 
not far from Calais itself, of the root which enters into it. There is 
nothing unreasonable in the conjecture, that the Celts who gave its 
name to Calais and their names to the Xyles of Bute, and to many of 
the straits of Scotland, spoke the same language and were one and 
the same people. 
Dobhar is an old Gaelic word which signifies water or the border 
of a country: it has the same meaning in Irish Gaelic. Dobhar is 
found in Scotland in such words as Aberarder, the ancient spelling 
of which was Aberardour, i.e. the confluence of the water of the 
height. Dobhar is also present in the word Aberdour, the ancient 
spelling of which was Aberdovair, i.e. the confluence of the water or 
stream: it is also present in Aberchirder, Aber chiar dur, the con- 
fluence of dark-brown water; and in Calder, which was formerly 
spelled Kaledover and Kaledour, i.e. Coille dur, the wooded stream. 
It is quite evident that the word Dobhar is of common occurrence in 
the Topography of Scotland. If we choose to assign to it the inter- 
pretation of the border of a country, we can discern a fitness in such 
a designation so far as the Celts of Gaul were concerned, Dover 
being to them the nearest portion of Britain. In any case, the 
words Calais and Dover are purely Gaelic, and have many kindred 
names in the topography of Scotland. Cam, the classical stream of 
Cambridge, is the Gaelic Cam, crooked. Jsis, the classical stream of 
Oxford, is likewise a Gaelic word. In his Words and Places, Taylor 
maintains that sts is a reduplicated form of is, one of the contrac- 
tions which the Gaelic word wisge assumes. ‘“ The Isis,” he says, 
