SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. 23 



This notion, or at least the opinion, that these metals abounded there, 

 prevailed once in the west; for Cicero's brother wrote to him from En- 

 tai?t, that he had been much disappointed; and that he had not found 

 there a single particle of these precious metals. Yet Strabo says, that 

 gold, silver and iron were found in Britain, and were even an .article of 

 trade. There are, indeed, goldmines in Irelajid; and, hke those of Spain, 

 they might have been more produ6live formerly; and the astonishing 

 quantities of gold trinkets found daily in the bogs, seem to countenance 

 this idea. Besides, Donatus, bishop of Fiezoli, and who lived about 

 iioo years ago, says that Ireland abounded with gold and silver, and that 

 there were mines of these precious metals. This, whether true or not, 

 shows at least, that it was the general opinion in the west, at a very early 

 period. Scotland mi^t, with, equal propriety, be called the Iron-peak- 

 land. With respe6l to England, it is not so obvious, whether formerly it 

 abounded with silver, . or hsd mines of that precious metal. ; 



The word Tri-cuHa is perfe<51:ly synonymous ^"^ith ^rinacriam Greek: 

 for acron does not signify positively a cape, b^t like c]^\t a, it ymi^XiQS 2i 

 peak, and a peak-land. This was perhaps the QCcasionoC th? various 

 mistakes of Homeii, with regard to the voyages of, jjLyssEs, by his con- 

 founding Trinacria in the ocean, with the other ip the Mediterranean: 

 for the venerable bard's geographical knowledge, of the western countriesr 

 extended very little beyond Ithaca. But this is no di;sparagement to the 

 illustrious poet; who was not bound to know more on this subje6t, than 

 his contemporaries. Heraclides of Ponttts, who lived at the time of the 

 taking of Rome by the Gauls, speaking of that event, says *' that it was 

 '* reported at that time, that the Grt7//5, had taken Rome," a city on the 

 jshoresof the Western Ocean. The Paurdn'ics, when speaking of Rdmuca 



