[ganong] additions TO MONOGRAPHS 11 



Flo ce-nov\enclature. 



ccnstitute a most welcome addition to our sun'iving Indian names. 

 Other names of familiar aspect, such as Baltic, probably are slight 

 corruptions of familiar words. But all of the remainder, and hence 

 the great majority, are of the simplest possible type, and all obviously 

 descriptive. The descriptive names are of two general kinds, — the 

 many recalling some familiar object, and those possessives including 

 some person's name. The reasons for the former are usually obvious 

 enough, even though some imagination must be used to perceive the 

 ccnnection, while as to the latter, at leaat a possible explanation is 

 equally obvious. Indeed, if one asks a lumberman the reason for a 

 given one of these names, he usually responds by relating some incident 

 connecting the person with the place, as when a person was the first 

 to lumber there, or was drowned there, or ha,d some adventure or mis- 

 adventure. These explanations, may or may not be true, but certainly 

 they are true in principle, if not in detail. While not a,ffected by any 

 fcnn of literary influence, this nomenclature is affected by suggestion 

 and recollection of other localities, for only thus can we explain the 

 repetition of certain favourite names on several rivers. Thus, Oxboiv, 

 Bedbanl', Spilt Rock, Narrows, occur upon several rivers, as do 

 Governors Table, Hells Gates, Devils Elbow, Long Lookum, Big Hols, 

 Chain of Bocks, etc., while the expressive and familiar phrase for a bad 

 rapid Push, (or pull), and be damned, occurs upon nearly all of them. 



Summarising then this type of primitive nomenclature, it is plain 

 that it is in part repetitive, thus retaining some Indian names, in part 

 associative as showm by the more fanciful names, hardly, if at all 

 commemorative, but overwhelmingly descriptive. It represents well, I 

 believe, the typical mode of origin of names when they axise naturally. 



212, A curiosity of place-nomenclature of New Brunswick is a 

 rare po^t office directory of 1857. It gives, apparently, corrupted 

 phonetic or vernacular names of a great number of New Bruns-\vick 

 Settlements. Of these names some are recognizable, such as Jeivaniel 

 (Juvenile), Bonna Gonnea (Bonhomme Gould), Cannabec (Canobie), 

 Qrimmack (Greenock), and others, while many, such as Charwest 

 Point (Kings), Saltash (Gloucester), WliiHway (Northumberland), 

 and many others are now quite unrecognizable. The elucidation of 

 these names forms a. pretty puzzle! 



212. We have in New Brunswick some descriptive names which 

 are strikingly appropriate and pleasing as well, — notably Green River, 

 Red Rapids. Blacklands, Crooked Deadwater, Clearwater, and (perhaps 

 only accidentally appropriate) The Wolves. 



