PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 33 



Some Lapsed Names in Canadian Local Nomenclature. By Rev. 

 Henry Scadding, D.D. 



(Read November 28, i8g6.) 



It is a matter of some curiosity to notice the vicissitudes which have taken place, 

 in several instances, in the names of places, rivers, and other natural objects, during 

 our short history here in Canada. In some cases, names imposed by royal procla- 

 mation, or other competent authority, have failed to be used, or have been displaced 

 by terms and titles, resting solely on popular usage. It may be considered a matter 

 of some interest to recall some of these now disused, or, as we may say, lapsed 

 names, I and to review very briefly their history. 



The name of our own capitaj, Toronto, itself covers a lapsed name, so to speak.; 



When first laid out as a town, Toronto, as we all know, bore the name of York, 

 and was sa known for a period of forty years. It was then, viz., in 1834, incor- 

 porated as the City of Toronto, which, singularly enough, was a return to a name 

 which had lapsed, the locality having been for a considerable time previous to 1794, 

 known by the appellation Toronto, of Indian origin. This, again, was a name, which 

 there is good evidence to show, had fallen into disuse elsewhere, and had been 

 adopted here. In the time of La Salle, 1680, the lake which we know as Lake Simcoe 

 was known as Lake Toronto, while the site of our city was marked as Ti-ai-a-gon on 

 the maps, a name which La Salle also employs. This word Ti-ai-a-gon, I am as- 

 sured, signifies a landing, and it here denoted the landing place forvoyageurs, bound 

 for Lakes Toronto and Huron, via a trail or portage well known. 



When the Wyandotte population, inhabiting between Lakes Toronto and Huron, 

 was extirpated by the Iroquois, the name Toronto came to be gradually attached 

 solely to its Ti-ai-a-gon, or landing place on Lake Ontario, where it survived. And 

 here, again, we have a glimpse of another lapsed name. 



The trading post at the landing had been ofificially named " Fort Rouillc," in 

 honor of the then Minister of Marine of that name in Paris, but the popular usq 

 having become familiar with the word Toronto as applied to the landing, failed to 

 adoDt the expression. Fort Rouille. and employed only that of " Fort Toronto " 

 instead. Hence the survival, of the beautiful word Toronto, hereabouts, to this day. 



It may here be conveniently added that the neighboring Humber River is given 

 in the first Gazetteer of Upper Canada, dated about one hundred years back, as " St. 

 John's River," from a French settler named St. Jean, who had a wayside inn, or 

 place of entertainment, at its mouth. "Humber" displaced a long and rather 



