180 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



doubt in part practical, since two or threesj^llablecl names are more easy 

 to com])rehend and less liable to confusion with others than ai-e shorter 

 ones ; but aside from this, it seems to be true that a sense of greater 

 importance and power is conveyed by longer words, and the chance for 

 conveying b}' the sounds impressions of grandeur, wildness, etc., is certainly 

 greater. 



When we pass in review the more important place-names, we find, as 

 a rule, that they are dignified and pleasing. Indeed, it is difficult to find 

 examples of displeasing or undignified names which apply to large geogra- 

 phical features. This is true of the continents, oceans, great mountain 

 ranges, most provinces, states and large cities. If we seek the reason for 

 this two explanations occur : first, that long association with grand 

 objects has made the names seem grand ; second, that a process of modi- 

 fication and selection has brought the names to a form that is pleasing. 

 The second I hold to be mainly true, though with some help from the 

 first, and it is borne out bj^ the way in which we give to foreign names a 

 form of our own. It implies in the i-ace a certain rough poetry, an 

 unconscious perception that large and dignified places should be appro- 

 priately named. The trivial names which displease us in new countries 

 are those of small places ; our western provinces and states are them- 

 selves grandly named, and even the bad minor names disappear as civili- 

 zation advances. Xo doubt advancing culture tends to eliminate bad 

 names, as it does bad pictures and fui'niture. Most large places have at 

 different times had different names, and it is usual to consider that accident 

 has chiefly determined which one has survived ; but I think the cause of 

 the final choice is to be found much more in the unconscious agreement 

 among men as to which of them is most fitting to that place. 



Uniqueness. — This consists chiefly in the apjjlication of a name to a 

 single place, so that but a single idea is associated with it. That place- 

 name is one of the best when no added word is necessary in order that it 

 ma}" be perfectly understood. We can say Amazon, Pyi'enees, Chicago, 

 Nova Scotia, and each conveys a single idea which no added v\ ords can 

 make clearer; but Quebec, Ottaira. Washington, need added words for 

 identification, and these delay and make lesspleasing the reception of the 

 intended idea. Uniqueness may even make a name otherwise not good 

 seem jdeasing, as Medicine Hat, Burnt Church. No matter how excellent 

 a name may be in itself, it is cheapened by extension to other pla(;es. 



In this analysis I have so far taken no account of another quality of 

 place-names, often spoken of, their appropriateness in meaning to the 

 place ; but this is an incidental not an essential quality. It consists in 

 either ; first, the sounds in the name may express accidentally (not etymo- 

 logically) some atti-ibute of the place, as Jutland [i.e., .Tuteland] ; or, 

 second, the name when analysed etymologic-ally is found to contain a 

 word, or compound of words, of our own or a foreign language, describ- 



