[WHITE] PLACE NAMES IN NORTHERN CANADA 39 
many names given by them. Apparently Austin named all the 
features discovered by his officers as their reports and the sketch 
maps accompanying them are devoid of new names. Belcher seems to 
have given his officers a fairly free hand in this respect but only one, 
Lieut. Mecham, gives anything like a full statement of the derivations 
of the names for which he is responsible. Richards, who gave more 
names than any other officer in the expedition, gives absolutely no in- 
formation. 
2.—Where there are circumstances indicating the derivation that 
almost amount to a demonstration, particularly when the name is 
an uncommon one. 
3.—Where the attendant circumstances indicate a probability. 
In such cases, the suggested derivation is always prefaced by the 
word “probable.” 
The first explorers gave remarkably few names, usually contenting 
themselves with bestowing their own and the names of some of their 
more influential patrons; thus, Baffin, himself, is commemorated by a 
great bay and island. He named Smith sound after Sir Thomas Smith, 
Jones sound after Alderman Thomas Jones, Digges cape after Sir 
Dudley Digges, Wolstenholme sound after Sir John Wolstenholme— 
all patrons and subscribers toward the expenses of the expedition. 
Hudson bay and strait, James bay, Baffin island and bay, Davis 
strait, M‘Clintock channel, Franklin, Dease and James Ross straits, 
Parry archipelago, Fox channel and Simpson peninsula commemorate 
the achievements of the explorers whose names they bear; Victoria island 
and strait, King William, Prince of Wales, Cornwall and Prince Patrick 
islands, Adelaide peninsula and Prince Regent inlet are named after 
British royalties, past and present, while Coronation gulf reminds us 
that it was discovered on the anniversary of the accession of George IV; 
Somerset island was named after Parry’s native county, and Devon 
island after that of his heutenant—Lieutenant Liddon. Other islands 
have been named after Admiral Sir Wm. Cornwallis, Earl of 
Bathurst, Earl of Ellesmere, Earl of Eglington, Earl of South- 
ampton, Admiral Sir Thos. Byam Martin, Comptroller of the 
Navy; Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and 
Messrs. Heiberg and Ringnes, patrons of the Sverdrup expedition; 
Viscount Melville, first Lord of the Admiralty, has been immortalized 
by an island, a sound and a peninsula; Sir John Barrow, for many years 
Secretary of the Admiralty, by a strait and many minor features, and 
Sir Francis Beaufort, hydrographer, by the sea opposite northwestern 
Canada; Sir Robert Peel, sometime Prime Minister, by an inlet and a 
river; Henry Grinnell and Felix Booth, enthusiastic patrons of dis- 
covery, by Grinnell land and peninsula and Boothia peninsula and 
