84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Brittany, and that, accordingly, Celts, whose language was Gaelic, 

 were the earliest occupants of any permanence in that portion of 

 Europe. 



In the extensive region of the Alps, in the South of France, and 

 in Spain and Portugal, there survives in the names of streams, and 

 headlands, and mountains, and passes, imperishable evidence that in 

 the far off past, Celts who spoke Gaelic occupied that portion of 

 Europe in sufficient strength and over a sufficiently long period to 

 •enable them to give those topographical names, which defy the 

 change and commotions of nations and centuries. The argument 

 which can be di-awn from the topography of Brittany tends to corro- 

 borate the theory that so far, at least, as the Celts are concerned, 

 Gaels or Celts who spoke Gaelic preceded the other members of the 

 Celtic family in their occupation of Europe and Great Britain and 

 Ireland. 



SEVENTH MEETING. 



Seventh Meeting, i8th December, 1886, the President in 

 the Chair. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 26. 



A. Hamilton, M.D., and Rev. G. M. Wrong, M.A., were 

 elected members. 



Rev. Prof. Ferguson, of Queen's College, Kingston, read a 

 paper on 



THE ETRUSCAN QUESTION. 



In January last, Professor Campbell, of the Presbyterian College, 

 Montreal, read a paper before this Institute, in which he seeks to 

 •prove the affinity of the Etruscan with the Basque, and claims to 

 have found the clue by which he is enabled to read the Etruscan 

 inscriptions. It is an accepted principle that our only hope of 

 deciphering and translating the inscriptions on the monuments of a 

 nation that has passed away is by means of a bilingual inscription. 

 It was in this way that the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and the cunei- 

 form insci'iptions have been read. Any other way than this must be 

 .hypothetical, and therefore unreliable, for, however ingeniously the 

 researches may be conducted, we cannot accept the results with any 



