Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/16

6 GADIATCH, a town of Russia, at the head of a district in the government of I’oltava, situated on the elevated banks of the Gran and the Psel, 73 miles N.X.\\'. of l’oltava, in 50° 22' N. lat. and 34” 0' E. long. It is a plain wood-built town, with four Greek churches and two synagogues, deriv- ing its main importance from its four annual fairs, one of which, lasting for three weeks, was, up to 1857, held at the Hermitage of the Transﬁguration (Skeet I’reobrazhcnski). In 1860 the population was 7:263, 1213 of the number being Jews. According to W. Struve’s Calendar for 1878, it was 84:25. Gadiatch Was the place where the assembly was convoked by the hetman Vigofski in 1658, for the publication of the treaty contracted between the Ukrainians and the Poles. During the hetmanate it had fortiﬁcations of which traces are still extant, ranked as a garrison town, and was the residence of the hetman. At ﬁrst it was included in the military district of Luben, but after 1650 in the district to which it gave its name. Along with 13 large villages it was bestowed by the empress Elizabeth on Count Razumofski, but it was afterwards purchased from him by the empress Catharine II. In 1771 the town and district were incorporated with the province of Kieif, and in 1802 they obtained their present position in the government of Pultowa.  GADWALL, a word of obscure origin, the common English name of the Duck, called by Linnaeus Anas stv'epera, but considered by many modern ornithologists to require removal from the genus Anus to that of L'Itanlelasm-us or Ctenorhynchus, of either of which it is not only the typical but the sole species. Its geographical distribution is almost identical with that of the common Wild Duck or Mallard (see, ), since it is found over the greater part of the Northern Hemisphere; but, save in India, where it is said to be perhaps the most plentiful species of Duck during the cold weather, it is hardly any- where so numerous, and both in the eastern parts of the United States and in the British Islands it is rather rare than otherwise. Its habits also, so far as they have been observed, greatly resemble those of the Wild Duck ; but its appearance on the water is very different, its small head, ﬂat back, elongated form, and elevated stern rendering it recognizable by the fowler even at such a distance as hinders him from seeing its very distinct plumage. In coloration the two sexes agree much more than is the case with any of the European Freshwater Ducks (incubate)— one only, the Anas marmoratu, excepted; but on closer inspection the drake exhibits a delicate ash-coloured breast, and upper wing-coverts of a deep chestnut, which are wholly wanting in his soberly clad partner. She, however, has, in common with him, some of the secondary quills of a pure white, presenting a patch of that colour which forms one of the most readily-perceived distinctive characters of the species. The Gadwall is a bird of some interest, since it is one of the few that have been induced, by the protection afforded them in certain localities, to resume the indigenous position they once ﬁlled, but had, through the draining and reclaiming of marshy lauds, long since abandoned. In regird to the present species, this fact is due to the efforts of the later Mr Andrew Fountaine, on whose property, in West Norfolk and its immediate neighbourhood, the Gadwall has now, for nearly thirty years, annually bred in constantly increasing numbers, so that it may again be accounted, in the fullest sense of the word, an inhabitant of England; and, as it has been always esteemed one of the best of wild fowl for the table, the satisfactory result of its encouragement by this gentleman is not to be despised.  GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Until recently there was doubt as to the family of languages to which the Gaelic belonged ; indeed, with many scholars the impression existed that it belonged to the Semitic branch, and that its relations must all be traced among some one or other of its varieties. This view arose very much from the neglect with which the language had been treated by scientiﬁc men. Comparative philology is itself a modern subject of study. Naturally, in its progress, the more prominent languages came ﬁrst, while the more obscure were passed over as of comparatively subordinate importance. The study is one so comprehensive, and requiring so large an amount of acquireluent of various kinds, that it is no real reproach to modern scholarship that the study of such languages as the latter should have been postponed in favour of that of languages more generally known. Their turn, however, gradually came, and no one can Complain now that they have not received the attention of very com- petent scholars. It is doubtful whether a higher class of scholarship has been nurtured anywhere than in the study of the Celtic languages, as exhibited by such men as Zeuss, Dieffenbach, Ebel, Whitley Stokes, the Chevalier Nigra, Henri Gaidoz, and others who have devoted their strength to their exposition. The result has been the complete establishment of the fact that this class of languages belongs to the Indo—European or Aryan stock, and is closely related to the classical branch of those tongues. The ﬁrst who brought real scholarship to bear upon the question of the family to which the Celtic dialects belonged was Dr Cowles Pritcha_rd. His Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations is a work of the highest value, distinguished by its erudition, and the sound judgment it displays. He was one of the most remarkable men whom Britain has produced in the ﬁeld of comparative philology. N o doubt it is with the \Velsh he chieﬂy dealt, but, in discussing such questions as he had to deal with, it mattered little which of the Celtic tongues was made use of. Many writers followed Dr I’ritchard, and there is now, as has been said, no question‘ about the Aryan source of the Celtic languages. It is not that the words are to a large extent analogous, but the grammatical structure and the idioms correspond to such an extent that the question is put beyond a doubt ; while, with the exception of a few common vocables, there is little that is analogous between the Celtic and the Semitic languages. The territory once occupied by the Celtic race is a question of much interest. Now they are conﬁned within well- known limits. On the European continent they occupy that part of France usually called Brittany, the most westerly portion of the country terminating in Cape Finisterre. They occupied this territory so early as the days of Julius Caesar, although it has been said that they were emigrants from Britain at a later period. The topographical terms given by Caesar in describing the Roman invasion all indicate that the language of the natives of Brittany used then, and for a long time before, was as much Celtic as it is now. Opposite to Brittany lies British Cornwall, a region with a Celtic tongue until about 100 years ago. The two Cornwalls—one in Britain and the other in France—terminated, one on each side, the territory occupied by the Cult. The dialects spoken in these stood in the closest relationship. To the north of this lies the greatest of all the modern sec-