Geographic Nomenclature. — 265 
We cannot foresee to what extent the board will be called upon. 
It has not power to take the initiative ; but we hope its rulings 
will prove acceptable ; that it may establish a reputation that 
will be recognized by the people as well as by the departments 
interested in its organization ; and that eventually rules may be 
recommended for the nomenclature of our own country that may 
be an acceptable guide in the determination of new names, as 
well as in the interpretation of those now in question. 
Mr. Herrte: Any one conversant with the state of geo- 
graphic nomenclature of a large part of the world cannot fail to 
appreciate the difficulties in the way of the establishment of a 
comprehensive and uniform system of writing geographic names, 
that would be acceptable to all nations using the Roman alphabet 
in their literature. But while some advance towards international 
uniformity has been made within the last five years, we are still 
very far from it ; we may, however, at least rejoice in the pros- 
pect of the general acceptance of a uniform system in geographic 
orthography by all writing the English language. 
I refer to the action of the British Hydrographic Office and of 
the Royal Geographical Society in 1885, when they adopted certain 
main principles to guide the orthography of geographic names, 
and thereby took an important and far-reaching step in the line of 
a reform which had already been too long delayed. 
In France a reform in geographic nomenclature had been ear- 
nestly agitated by Edouard de Luze since 1880, and soon after 
the publication of the system adopted by the Royal Geographical 
Society, the Société de Géographie appointed a commission which, 
in 1886, reported a system for the guidance of French geogra- 
phers. 
In Germany, we also find individual attempts made (Egli, 
Kirchhoff, Ewald and others) to bring system into the orthog- 
raphy and pronunciation of geographic names, primarily with 
a view to secure uniformity in text books and in the teaching of 
geography in schools. 
No doubt influenced by the action of the British and French 
geographic societies the Imperial German Hydrographic office in 
1888 also established rules for guidance in its future publications. 
We thus see three of the principal nations of Europe inaugu- 
rate a reform, the beneficial effects of which will not, however, 
become apparent until a sufficient time has elapsed, that is, until 
