318 A TOPOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE 
In his Historical Proofs of the Highlanders, Robertson thus 
writes: “The great number of genuine Gaelic names of places that 
exist in parts which we know were inhabited in the south-west 
of Scotland by Britons, undoubtedly prove that the Gael had there 
preceded them, and even Jead to the conclusion that the British or 
Welsh occupation had only begun therein with the invasion of the 
Romans and under their protection.” In his valuable and ingenious 
work on the Gaelic Topography of Scotland, the same author, after 
an exhaustive examination of the theory in question, in the discus- 
sion of which his Celtic temperament sometimes assumes unnecessary 
warmth, concludes (p. 99): “that instead of aber being, as Dr. 
MacLauchlan contends, in Scottish topography always joined to 
pure Welsh words, the truth is that in all Scotland there is not a 
single aber which has Welsh words joined to it. As to Dr. Mac- 
Lauchlan’s second statement that aber is never associated with a 
a Gaelic word, the truth is that in the whole of Scotland every 
instance where words are joined to aber they are Gaelic. The abers 
are as invariably joined to Gaelic words as are the invers ; and both 
aber and inver were used to signify a confluence by the Gaelic- 
speaking race who originally gave all the Gaelic designations in 
Scotland, namely, the Caledonian Gael.” Skene (Celtic Scotland, 
vol. L., p. 221), effectually disposes of Taylor’s theory so far as the 
dividing line which the latter draws between the region of invers 
and abers is concerned. Skene thus writes: ‘This would be a 
plausible view, if true, but unfortunately there is no such line of 
demarcation between the two words. South of Mr. Taylor’s line 
there are in Aberdeenshire 13 abers and 26 invers ; in Forfarshire, 
8 abers and 8 invers; in Perthshire, 9 abers and 8 invers ; and in 
Fifeshire, 4 abers and 19 invers. . . . If these words afford a 
test between British and Gaedhelic, we might naturally expect tc 
find as many abers in what was the Strathclyde kingdom as in 
Wales, but there are no abers in the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, 
Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Stirling and Dumbarton, 4 abers in Dum- 
friesshire, 6 in Lothian, and none in Galloway ; and when we proceed 
further south, we find nothing but abers in Wales, and no appear- 
ance of them in Cornwall.” There can be no doubt that the 
Topography of what was known as Strathclyde is Gaelic and not 
Cymric, and that Robertson and Skene have successfully refuted the 
theory of Dr. MacLauchlan and Mr. Taylor. And, even were it 
