The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. i8t
monflrate againft Mr. Macplierfon the fufficiency
of the Britifh curraghs for the embarkation of
armies, and evince againft Soilnus the general
navigablenefs of the Irilh channel by them. If
thefe fea-boats could live in the channel between
Gaul and Britain, they could equally live in
the fea betwixt Britain and Ireland. If they
could crofs the Britilh Channel laden with
troops, they could equally in the fame circura-
ftances crofs the Irifli. If, thus laden, they were
able to ftem the heady current of a narrow river,
fwelled with all the melting fnows of the mountains
* ; they mufl have been equally able to Hem
the current of St. George's channel. And we
accordingly fee them in OlTian, as I have obferved
before, perpetually pafTmg from Ireland to Cale-
donia and from Caledonia to Ireland ^.
. Thus
is one great part of the argument an-
fwered. And this indeed is by much the
flrongeft. The other is, That no colony of Irifli
could" have been induced to fettle in Argyle,
bccaufe of its natural barrennefs. But this fort
' Csfar, p, 257.
* In Ollian, vol. ii. p. 212, Mr. Macpherfon himfelf ob-
ferv'es thus : " One thing is certain, that the Caledonians oficn
" made their way through the dangerous and tempelluous feas
*' of Scandinavia, which is more, perhaps, than the morepo-
*' liilied nations, fubfifting in thofe times, dared to venture.**
And Mr. MacpherfoD makes the Caledomaiis the anceftors of
%h£ Irifli.
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