114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



mountain, and hence we perceive that Alp is a very expressive designation. In the 

 word Apennines the root ben or beann, a hill or mountain, occurs; nor can there be 

 any difficulty in detecting a strong hkeness, if not an identity, between the name of 

 the mountain range in Italy and Apuinn, the name of a hilly district in the north 

 of Argyllshire. Pyrenees (bryn, a hill), the name of the range of mountains whereby 

 Spain is separated from France, is a compound of bior, sharp, and beinn, Biorbheinn, 

 sharp-pointed hills. When it is remembered that the letters b and p are convertible 

 in Gaelic, the similarity of the Gaelic word, Bior-bheinn, piorbheinn, and Pyrenees 

 will become apparent. The Gaelic word Tabh (water) is to be found in Loch Tay 

 and the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland. There can be no dCubt that the same 

 root, Tabh (Irish Tab), is traceable in the word Tiber. Tagus. Thames. It is said 

 that when the Roman soldiers beheld the Tay in Perthshire they exclaimed, Eccc 

 Tiberim. I find that Tacitus in his " Agricola " renders Tay by Taus; and, such 

 being the case, it is evident that Taus and Tagus are largely identical, and that in 

 the name of the latter river we have a Gaelic word which signifies water or ocean. 

 In the word Italy the presence of a Gaelic word is traceable. Eudailt, the Gaelic 

 name of that country, involving, as it does, Eudail, cattle, does not bear a very 

 far-fetched resemblance to Italy, and indicates that the fertility of that country has 

 always been very great. Very few suspect that Portugal is a genuine Gaelic word — 

 Port nan Gaidheal, the port or harbour of the Gaels. In Oporto, the presence of the 

 same word port is to be found. The very fact that the harbour which Columba 

 entered when he first visited lona bears to this day the designation of Port va 

 Curaich, is sufficient to show that port is a genuine Gaelic word; and that its presence 

 in Portugal justifies us in sending our thoughts back to a time when Gaelic was 

 spoken in that country. 



The names of some of the rivers of France are Gaelic. Rhine is compounded of 

 reidh, smooth, and amhainn, river. Rhone is compounded of ruadh and amhainn, the 

 Red river. Garonne is compounded of garbh, rough, and amhainn, river, the rough 

 river. Seine is compounded of seimh, smooth, and amhainn. river, the smooth river. 

 In Calais we have almost an exact reproduction of Caolas. a Gaelic word, which 

 signifies Firth or Strait. The narrowest part of the English Channel is at Calais. 

 In Baile Chaolais, a little village at the mouth of the famous Pass of Glencoe, in 

 the north of Argyllshire, a word which in its English form, Balachulish, baffles the 

 skill of the English tourist so far as pronouncing it correctly is concerned, we have 

 the word Caolas, the farm or village of the strait. Thousands who are in the habit 

 of admiring the sublime scenery of the Kyles of Bute in the Frith of Clyde, are not 

 aware that Kyles is exactly the Gaelic word Caoil in its plural form, and, therefore, 

 signifying straits or narrows. In Colintraiz'e, or Caol un t-snaimh, the strait of swim- 

 ming, we have another word into which the root of Calais enters as a component 

 part. Dover, which stands opposite Calais on the other side of the English Channel, 

 is the Gaelic Dobhar, a word which means the border of a country. The examples 

 which have now been given of names of mountains and countries and rivers wherein 

 Gaelic roots are manifestly present, may suffice to indicate that the Celts inhabited 

 the south and south-west of Europe in the far-off past, and that they left monuments 

 behind them in the names of mountains, streams and rivers — monuments which no 

 power of victorious armies can ever demolish — monuments which will continue to 

 endure and to tell in their own mute language that the Celts once owned and 

 occupied that portion of the world. 



Many ques|:ions may be asked in connection with the Gaelic words, Calais and 

 Dover. Is it not clear that the Celts in those far-oflf days were well aware that the 

 narrowest channel is between Calais and Dover ? Is not the surmise reasonable, that 

 they availed themselves of that particular part of the channel for going to Britain 

 and for returning from it ? Is there not ground for the conjecture that the largest 

 stream of population must have entered Britain through the straits between Calais 

 and Dover ? The names Calais and Dover will always indicate that if the Celts 



