28 TRANSACTIONS. 1 897-8. 



sor, N. S., along both sides of the meadow-decorated Minas 

 Basin and the tide-scoured Bay of Fundy ; round rock-ribbed 

 Nova Scotia ; around the island-sentinelled Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence ; along the Labrador coast that has witnessed for cen- 

 turies the gay or gloomy procession of icebergs, torn from 

 their colossal cradle of the North and hurried by the Polar 

 current to their grave on • the submerged shores of the Gulf 

 Stream ; around the silent Hudson Bay with its ice-fringed 

 coasts ; along the Arctic* littoral, the very home and throne 

 of our " Our Lady of the Snows ; " and adown the Pacific 

 shores over which the Kuro-stwa\ pours its tempering heat 

 and abundant moisture. Everywhere we find names of islands, 

 of gulfs, bays, coves, harbours, inlets, canals and other inden- 

 tations of the coast-line — also by the thousand. 



We have thus many thousands of place-names to deal 

 with, and every name has a meaning. It had an origin and 

 it has a significance. 



To those interested in the study of place-names, the ques- 

 tions naturally arising are (ist) " who gave the name," (2nd) 

 " Vv'hy was the name given ?" 



To answer the first question would be to sketch with 

 more or less of detail the place-name Fathers of Canada. 

 Missionaries and navigators, saints and sinners, lordly rulers 

 and humble porters, politicians and civil servants,' sovereigns 

 and speculators, explorers and store-keepers, surveyors and rail- 

 way presidents — English, Basques, Portugese, Spaniards, 

 French and Indians — have scattered, with profuse hand, place- 

 names in every part of the Dominion. 



To tell about those who have taken a prominent part in 

 the place-name giving of Canada would be to tell of Cabot, 

 Denys, Hudson ; Cartier, Champlain, Roberval ; Drake, Gil- 

 bert, Cook, Vancouver ; Breboeuf, Rambault, Albanel ; Veran- 

 drye, Mackenzie, Frazer ; the Simpsons, George and Thomas ; 

 La Salle, Marquette, Jolliet, Thompson, Henry; Rae, Simcoe, 

 Guy and Thomas Carleton ; Bayfield, Desbarres, Commander 

 Bolton ; Perley of New Brunswick, Geo. M. Dawson, William 

 Ogilvie, Robert Bell ; W. D. LeSueur, A. P. Low, R. G. Mc- 

 Connell ; J. B. Tyrrell, W. C. Van Home and many others, 



*The Arctic ocean received its name from the Greek word Arktos. a 

 bear, on account of the northern constellations of the Great and Little 

 Bear— which sparkle in its waters. Our Great Bear Lake derives its 

 name from the same source. 



+The Black Current so called from its dark blue color which con- 

 trasts with the green of the ocean through which it flows, Kuro-Siwa 

 IS a Japanese \\ ord. 



