The most obvious characteristic of any place, whether mountain or plain or valley, would be its shape and size, its relative situation high or low, behind or in the front, its colour, the kind of rock or soil of which it is composed, the climate which it enjoys, the vegetation in which it abounds, and the animals by which it is frequented. Let us take a few familiar examples of each of these cases; and, if we deal more largely in illustrations from the Scottish Highlands than from other parts of the world, it is for three sufficient reasons--because these regions are annually visited by the greatest number of tourists; because, from the general neglect of the Celtic languages, they stand most in need of interpretation; and because they are most familiar--not from book-knowledge only, but by actual inspection--to the present writer. In the matter of size, the tourist will find at GLENELG (from _sealg_, to hunt), in Inverness-shire, opposite Skye, where there are two well-preserved circular forts, the twin designations of GLENMORE and GLENBEG; that is, Glenbig and Glenlittle--a contrast constantly occurring in the Highlands; the word _beag_, pronounced vulgarly in Argyleshire _peek_, signifying little, evidently the same as μικ in the Greek μικρός. As to relative situation, the root _ard_, in Latin _arduus_, frequently occurs; not, however, to express any very high mountain, but either a bluff fronting the sea, as in ARDNAMORCHUAN (the rise of the great ocean, _cuan_, perhaps from ὼκεανός), or more frequently a slight elevation on the shore of a lake, what they call in England a _rise_, as in ARDLUI, near the head of Loch Lomond, ARDVOIRLICH, and many others. The word _lui_, Gaelic _laogh_--the _gh_ being silent, as in the English _sigh_--signifies a calf or a fawn, and gives name to the lofty mountain which the tourist sees on his right hand as he winds up where the railway is now being constructed from Dalmally to Tyndrum. Another frequent root to mark relative situation is CUL, _behind_, Latin _culus_, French _cul_, a word which gives name to a whole parish in Aberdeenshire, to the famous historical site of Culross, the reputed birthplace of St. Kentigern, and many others. This word means simply _behind the headland_, as does also CULCHENZIE (from _ceann_, the head), at the entrance to Loch Leven and Glencoe, which the tourist looks on with interest, as for two years the summer residence of the noble-minded Celtic evangelist Dr. Norman Macleod. But the most common root, marking relative situation, which the wanderer through Celtic countries encounters is _inver_, meaning below, or the bottom of a stream, of which _aber_ is only a syncopated form, a variation which, small as it appears, has given rise to large controversy and no small shedding of ink among bellicose antiquarians. For it required only a superficial glance to observe that while _Abers_ are scattered freely over Wales, they appear scantly in Scotland, and