74 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Penzance herring boats, that is, from 25 to 30 tons capacity, carrying 

 two lug sails, and decked forward and aft. The word may be derived 

 from the Celtic, long and s^ff?^ = " old ships," and if this be connect 

 it offers another connecting link in the relations between north Spain 

 and Great Eritain. By the intercoui'se of this class of vessel with the 

 coast of Gaul the Phoenicians soon became aware of the existence of, 

 and the routes leading to, the British Isles, and the products to be 

 obtained therefrom. 



If, therefore, subsequently to their establishment at Coruna, a 

 period of quite abnormal di'ought set in, affecting disastrously the 

 greater part of the peninsula, and lasting during quite an unheard of 

 succession of years, and forced large numbers of the inhabitants to 

 emigrate, it can easily be conceived that Coruia became a port of em- 

 barkation, since there would not only be found vessels able to carry 

 the emigrants to other lands, but a knowledge of distant countries 

 where more favoui-able conditions of life could be foimd, and where 

 the mining and metallui-gical experience acquired in Spain could be 

 tui'ned to account and trading stations established. 



According to the article on the British Isles in Smith's " Dictionary 

 of Ancient Geography," and in treating of the tin trade of the 

 PhcKuicians with Cornwall, it is stated : — " In round numbers we may 

 lay the beginning of the Phoenician intercoui^se with Cornwall at b.c. 

 1000." It is further stated :— " It must have been either an instinct 

 or an accident that brought the first vessel from the Mediterranean to 

 the coast of Cornwall." 



Pui-ther, the writer says : — " The earliest gloss that has a bearing 

 upon the geography of Britain is the word ' Cassiterides,'' for it must 

 be observed that while the word ' Brittania ' is non-existent in 

 Herodotus, the Orphic exti-act (given in the article) knows only the 

 Irish (lernian) isles. Xow this word (Cassiterides), though bearing 

 on Britain, is no British word. It is the oriental term Kastira. "Were 

 the word British in origin we should be enabled to enhance the 

 antiquity of the Cornish tin trade, since the word ' Kassiteros ' occurs 

 both in Homer and in Hesiod, who shall say, however much the 

 possibilities may be in favoui' of the Homeric and Hesiodic tin beiag 

 Cornish, it was not Indian, i.e. Malayan. The tin trades may have 

 been concuiTent, the Eastern one the oldest, at least that is what is 

 suggested by the name." 



The writer seems here to ignore the other soui'ces of tin, which 

 may have been and probably were known to the Phoenicians, those of 

 Spain (envii'ons of Salamanca) and the north-west of Gaul. These 



