Note 305 — Chapter I · THE STEAM-SHIP “QUEEN”—THE ORKNEYS AND MAES HOWE—THE SHETLANDS AND THE FÆROE ISLANDS.

The old Cape Orcas, derived, as has been said, from Latin Orca, Gaelic Orcc or Orc, and Icelandic Orkn—“Delphinus orca,” a dog-seal—the addition of-ey, an isle, makes Orkney. This point is the Ptolemeian Tarbetum or “Taruedum, quod et Orcas promontorium, finis Scotiæ dicitur,” and unduly placed in N. lat. 60° 15´, and long. 31° 20´ (lib. i., cap. 3). The word derives from the Gaelic Tarbet, a drag, a portage, a haul-over, common names in Scoto-Scandinavia, and equivalent to the Icelandic Eið (aith). It lies only six miles from the nearest of the archipelago, which Pomponius Mela called Orcades, evidently a Roman corruption of the indigenous “Orkneyjar,” the Irish Innsi Orcc, and the Inis Torc of Ossian. Fordun’s “Scotichronicon” (ii. 2) calls the Orkneys “Insulæ Pomoniæ;” and Buchanan says, “Orcadum maxima multis veterum Pomona vocatur.” As poma are not abundant there, the name has caused considerable argumentation. In the “Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord” (1845-49), and in the “Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland” (Edinburgh, Neill, 1852), Professor A. Munch, of Christiania, contributes an able paper, “Why is the Mainland of Orkney called Pomona?” Before his time Dr (D.D.) George Barry, in an excellent book, “History of the Orkney Islands” (London, Longmans, 1805) had derived Pomona from “pou,” small (query, “Bú,” a settlement, or “bol,” corrupted to “bull,” a house?), and Mon, Patria; also from the Norsk terms signifying “Great-land.” Professor Munch quotes Torfæus (Orcad., p. 5), “Pomona ... a Julio polyhistore Diutina appellatur.” Solinus Polyhistor, facetiously known as Plinii Simius, says of Thule (chap. xxv.), “Ab Orcadibus Thyle usque quinque dierum et noctium navigatio. Sed Thule larga et diutina pomona copiosa est” (Thule is a fertile country, and plentifully productive of long-lasting corn). He would read the evidently mutilated text, “Sed Thule larga et Diutina pomona copiosa est,” or “Sed Thule larga et diutina, Pomona copiosa est,” and he finds that “Diutina ergò Pomona—ab esse ad posse valet consequentia.” But it is over ingenious to account by the error of a text for a popular term four hundred years old, e.g.,