U6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Many ethnological questions suggest themselves — questions as to how Great 

 Britain and Ireland were first settled; as to what course the stream or streams of 

 population took; as to whether there had been two streams that entered Britain 

 irom the continent of Europe, or whether it is possible to maintain that the differ- 

 ences which have existed for many centuries between what Zeuss chooses to term 

 the Irish and British branches of the Kelts in Great Britain and Ireland— arose after 

 the Celts had fairly taken possession of the British Isles. Scholars who have 

 examined the question very carefully are disposed to believe that the difierences 

 whiich now exist between the representatives of the ancient Celts began and were 

 developed in the British Isles, and are necessarily to be regarded as the result of 

 two independent streams of population from the continent of Europe. Latham 

 avers that, " no matter how unlike the Scotch and the Welsh may be, they are more 

 like than the English that lie between them." It is altogether probable, according 

 to a reasonable conjecture, that the route of which the earliest Celts availed them- 

 selves was the straits between Calais and Dover. The earliest settlers would extend 

 northwards and westwards, reaching Scotland, and advancing to that portion of it 

 which was subsequently known as Caledonia. As to the manner in which Ireland 

 was peopled, for poetical legends are fanciful, it is natural to suppose that when the 

 western portion of Wales was reached adventurous Celts would cross to Ireland ; 

 and that, when the stream of population had fairly reached and taken possession of 

 Scotland, so great and marked are the facilities which the south and west of that 

 country offer for crossing to Ireland, that Celts could in a very simple manner plant 

 hoines in that island. Owing to the rude interference of the Romans, and to the 

 prowess of their arms, as well as on account of continuous invasions in later cen- 

 turies from the north and west of Europe, the Britons or the early occupants of 

 Great Britain found shelter in the miountainous regions of the country. In this 

 manner we can understand how Wales and the Highlands of Scotland came to be 

 inhabited strictly by Celts, and to furnish a home even to our own time for the 

 descendants of the early occupants of the British Isles. 



It has already appeared, on the authority of Aristotle and others, that Albion 

 was at one time the name of what is now known as Great Britain, or as England 

 and Scotland. The term Albion is now entirely confined to Scotland. We are wont 

 to say: I am a Scotchman, Is Albannach viise. I am a Highland Scotchman, Is G aid- 

 heal Albannach mise. I was born in Scotland, Rugadh mi ami an Albainn. He is an 

 Englishman, Is e Sasunnach a tha arm. He was born in England, Rugadh e aim an 

 Sasunn. There is no Gaelic word to represent England or Englishmen directly. 

 We are wont to speak of England as Sasunn, or the land of the Saxons, and of 

 Englishmen as Saxons, Saswmaich. It seems to me that as the word Albion, which 

 at one time was an appellation for Great Britain, has for many centuries been 

 restricted to Scotland, we may find an argument in favour of the supposition that 

 the Highlanders or the Gaels of Scotland are the descendants of the earliest Celts 

 who occupied Britain ; that they, therefore, continue to speak of themselves as 

 Albannaich, a designation which must at one time have been general enough to 

 include all the Celts of the British Isles, and that the Britons are a later stream of 

 population than the Scottish Gaels. 



Albion signifies the land or country of hills or mountains. Alb or Alp is the 

 same root which is to be found in Alps. Albion is compounded of Alb or Alp, for 

 b and p are convertible letters, and fonn, or with the aspirate fhonn, Alb-fhonn. 

 The root fonn or fhonn occurs in Eilean, eil fhonn, another land. Eilean is the Gaelic 

 name for island. The same word, foim or fhonn, occurs in Oban, a term which 

 strictly means the land of bays or creeks, an apt designation, as anyone will admit 

 who has seen Oban in Argyllshire, and who has taken notice of the physical features 

 of that bay and its neighbourhood. The same root, fonn or fhonn, is to be found in 

 Sasimn, England, the land of the Saxons, and in Eirinn, Ireland. The derivation of 

 Albion (ah albis rupihus) from the white rocks of Britain is not to be regarded with 



