314 A TOPOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE 



a strait, and which in its simplest root Caol is of frequent occurrence 

 in Scotland. In such words as Na Caoil Bhoideach, the Kyles or 

 Straits of Bute; Caol ant-maimh Colintraive; Gaol Mhuile, the Sound 

 of Mull ; 'Caol lie, the Sound of Islay ; CwJl Dhiura, the Sound of 

 Jura, the first syllable Caol of Calais occurs. In Baile-Chaolais, 

 Ballachuluh, at the mouth of G-lencoe in the north of Argyleshire, 

 there is an exact reproduction of Calais or Caolas. Baile-Chaolais, 

 which may be regarded as the Shibboleth of English tourists, means 

 " the village or hamlet of the strait." It is remarkable that there 

 should be so striking a correspondence between the word Calais and 

 many words in Scotland which signify strait or narrow arm of the 

 eea. In Colne, the name of a river in Essex and of another river 

 in Gloucester, compounded as it is of Caol and Amhainn, an, a river, 

 and signifying, therefore, the narrow river, we have another example 

 not far from Calais itself, of the root which enters into it. There is 

 nothing unreasonable in the conjecture, that the Celts who gave its 

 name to Calais and their names to the Kyles of Bute, and to many of 

 the straits of Scotland, spoke the same language and were one and 

 the same people. 



Dobhar is an old Gaelic word which signifies water or the border 

 of a country : it has the same meaning in Irish Gaelic. Dobhar is 

 found in Scotland in such words as Aberarder, the ancient spelling 

 of which was Aberardour, i.e. the confluence of the water of the 

 height. Dobhar is also present in the word Aberdour, the ancient 

 spelling of which was Aberdovair, i.e. the confluence of the water or 

 stream: it is also present in Aberchirder, Aber chiar dur, the con- 

 fluence of dark -brown water; and in Calder, which was formerly 

 spelled Kaledover and Kaledour, i.e. Coille dur, the wooded stream. 

 It is quite evident that the word Dobhar is of common occurrence in 

 the Topography of Scotland. If we choose to assign to it the inter- 

 pretation of the border of a country, we can discern a fitness in such 

 a designation so far as the Celts of Gaul were concerned, Dover 

 being to them the nearest portion of Britain. In any case, the 

 words Calais and Dover are purely Gaelic, and have many kindred 

 names in the topography of Scotland. Cam, the classical stream of 

 Cambridge, is the Gaelic Cam, crooked. Isis, the classical stream of 

 Oxford, is likewise a Gaelic word. In his Words and Places, Taylor 

 maintains that Isis is a reduplicated form of is, one of the contrac- 

 tions which the Gaelic word uisge assumes. "The Isis," he says, 



