398 



The National Geographic Magazine 



should be rendered in English by A ; 

 from the neglect of this (comes) Kodiak 

 instead of Kadiak. ' ' 



Also, he says : 



" Kadiak. — The name of the largest 

 island south of Aliaska. It is a deriv- 

 ative, according to some authors, from 

 the Russian Kadia, a large tub ; more 

 probably, however, it is a corruption of 

 Kaniag, the ancient Innuit name. The 

 inhabitants, according to Coxe, called 

 themselves Kaniagist or Kaniagmut. 

 This name is almost invariably mis- 

 spelled by English authors as Kodiak, 

 Codiac, Codiack, Kadiack, and in other 

 similarly absurd ways. The above is 

 the only correct spelling. ' ' 



The spelling of this name was sub- 

 mitted to the Board on Geographic 

 Names in 1890 and the form Kadiak 

 adopted. IvOcal usage has, however, 

 remained Kodiak, both in form and 

 pronunciation, while the pronunciation 

 Ka'-dy-ak is often heard from the lips 



of those who have learned the name, 

 not from hearing it, but from the printed 

 page. Moser, in Report of the Fish 

 Commission (1899, p. 19), says : 



' ' Though the present approved spell- 

 ing of the name of this island is Kadiak, 

 the company retains the former spelling 

 Kodiak." 



Martinez and Lopez de Haro, in 1788, 

 named the island Florida Blanca. 



M. B. 



1 Bancroft (H. H.) Hist, of Alaska, 1886, 

 pp. 141, 145. 



^Dall (W. H ) Alaska, 1870, p. 532. 



^Bancroft's Hist., p. 224. 



* Saner (M.) Account of geographical ex- 

 pedition, etc., 1802, p. 174. 



^Cook (J.) Voyage to Pacific Ocean, 1785, 

 2d. ed., vol. 2, p. 504. 



^Langsdorf (G H. von). Voyages and 

 travels, 1814, vol. 2, p. 58. 



^ Op. cit., pp. 168-170. 



^Lutke (F. P.) Voyage, etc., Partie nau- 

 tique, 1836, p. 268. 



" Op. cit., pp. 529 and 532. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAME *'CAPE NOME" 



DURING the last four years I have 

 had numerous inquiries concern- 

 ing the origin of the name Cape Nome, 

 on the northwest coast of Norton Sound, 

 Alaska. I searched every available 

 chart and narrative of that region to 

 trace it home. 



I traced it back to Admiralty Chait 

 No. 2172, of 1853, as being the earliest 

 to use the name. It is not in the Great 

 Atlas of Tebenkof of 1 848-' 52, devoted 

 to the North Pacific. 



I looked up the tracks of the Sir John 

 Franklin rescue ships, H. M. frigate 

 Herald and brig Plover (i 845-' 51), and 

 became satisfied the name was given in 

 the cruises of one or other of those ves- 

 sels. 



A short time since I wrote to the 

 chief hydrographer of the Admiralty 

 and asked if the name Nome appeared 

 among the lists of officers of the Herald 

 and Plover. 



Today I have a letter from the hy- 

 drographer of the Admiralty, dated Eon- 

 don, August 9, which contains this 

 statement: 



" When the MS. chart of this region 

 was being constructed on board H. M. S. 

 Herald, attention was drawn to the fact 

 that this point had no name, and a mark 

 (? Name) was placed against it. 



' ' In the hurry of dispatching this 

 chart from the ship this ? appears to 

 have been inked in by a rough draughts- 

 man and appeared as Cape Name, but 

 the stroke of the " a " being very indis- 

 tinct, it was interpreted by our draughts- 

 man here as C. Nome, and has appeared 

 with this name ever since. 



' ' This information is from an officer 

 who was on board the Herald when the 

 chart was being constructed. " 



So the mystery of the name has been 

 satisfactorily solved. 



George Davidson, 



\ Department of Geography, 



University of California. 



