_Tin_ (Vol. viii., p. 593.).--The suggestions of your correspondent S. G.
C. are ingenious respecting the etymology of _Cassiteros_, but a slight
examination will show they are erroneous. The Cassi was only one of the
many tribes inhabiting Britain in the time of Cæsar, and it is by no means
probable that it was able to confer its name upon the entire country, to
the exclusion of all the rest; such as the Iceni, the Trinobanti, the
Coritani, the Belgæ, and various others too numerous to mention. We must
bear in mind that the Phoenicians gave the name of Cassiterides to the
British Isles; and that in naming places they invariably called them after
some known or supposed quality possessed by them, or from some natural
appearance which first arrested their notice: and such was the case in this
instance. We learn that it was the common belief in ancient times, that the
islands to the west of Europe were shrouded in almost perpetual gloom and
darkness; hence the British Isles were called Cassiterides, from _Ceas_,
pronounced _Kass_, i. e. gloom, darkness, obscurity; and _tir_, i. e.
lands, plural _Ceasiterides_, i. e. "the islands of darkness." And the tin
which the Phoenicians procured from them received the appropriate name of
Cassiteros, _i. e._ the metal from the islands of darkness.