ISLA. ANTIQUITIES. 231 



Danish names which it possesses. Such names are, in 

 all the islands, derived either from the Scandinavian, 

 or from the existing dialect of the Celtic, namely, 

 the Gaelic, or Scoto-Irish of some antiquaries ; or lastly, 

 from the ancient Celtic, of which the antiquity is deter- 

 mined by its frequent correspondence with the other British 

 dialects originating apparently in this common source at 

 a distant period. A few have also been compounded 

 in more recent times, by adding Gaelic epithets to Danish 

 names. There is reason to think that these names have 

 been successively imposed by the different tribes who in 

 different periods possessed these islands; and, from the 

 predominance of the one or the other, a rude conjecture 

 can be formed of the state of their population during those 

 respective periods. The rarity of names of Scandinavian 

 origin in any given island, thus serves to prove, that few 

 places had been inhabited in the days when it was pos- 

 sessed by this nation ; that but a small portion of it was 

 in fact productive, and that the population was conse- 

 quently low. In the progress of settlement and improve- 

 ment, new names have been found necessary ; and these, 

 being of Gaelic origin, often considerably exceed the 

 Danish in number.* A comparison of the names of places 

 in the several islands, would illustrate the progress of this 

 settlement and improvement ; but would lead into details 

 too minute, as well as too conjectural, for the objects 

 of this brief notice. To limit it to the island immediately 

 under review, I may point out as most remarkable, the 

 great number of places which terminate in bust or bus, 

 the remains of the Scandinavian word signifying a 

 place or habitation. Mr. Chalmers appears not only to. 

 have overlooked this circumstance, but he has even ima- 

 gined that these terms were chiefly limited to the exterior 

 chain of islands, which, according to his system, were 



* The terra Danish, like that of Norwegian, is here, as elsewhere, 

 employed indifferently : the present names, introduced by the Northmen, 

 are found, sometimes in the one, sometimes in the other of these dialects 

 of the Scandinavian. 



