22 National Geographic Magazine. 
demned ; nor would the culprits deserve to be dealt with accord- 
ing to the law laid down by the municipal council of the good 
old Swiss town of Kiissnacht, which not very long ago issued a 
decree that the final ¢ in the name of their town should be dropped 
in all official communications, and that any local official failing to 
obey this decree should be fined. 
Mr. Baker: In the preparation of a map, the last things to go 
on are the names. If the map covers a region of country long 
known or thickly settled most of its features already have names. 
But comparison of several maps of, or writings about, a region 
almost invariably reveals confusion, contradictions and errors in 
the names. The same feature often bears different names on 
different maps. The same name has various spellings, and the 
names on the map may in their turn not agree with local usage. 
Examples of this confusion abound everywhere, and are a source 
of constant perplexity to the geographer. 
The names are often misapplied. The name of one cape or 
mountain peak through accident, carelessness, ignorance, or by 
intent is often found attached to some other cape or mountain 
peak. A small feature’s name may be extended to cover much 
more than that to which it fittingly belongs; or a name rightly . 
applicable to a large tract may be wrongly restricted to a small 
one. In the hands of the map-maker geographic names may be 
regarded as labels loosely attached and easily misplaced. Handled 
by many writers, both careful and careless, these’ labels become 
misplaced or lost ; and in replacing these misplaced labels or in 
restoring lost ones much confusion and many errors arise. The 
newspaper writer writing hurriedly, the magazine writer without 
hurry, or the book writer working deliberately, each in turn finds 
that the investigation of questions relating to geographic names 
carries him away from -his subject. If a question arises respect- 
ing a non-geographic term the dictionary can be appealed to and, 
right or wrong, followed without discredit. But with many or 
most of the questions about geographic names, in the United 
States at least, we have no adequate dictionary or “authority ” 
to appeal to. As.a consequence in most cases the writer takes 
indifferently what is nearest to mind or hand and thus produces 
new varieties in names, variants upon old ones or quite new ones. 
Such names are called corrupt until usage and familiarity removes 
the stigma and the corrupted name having grown respectable is 
adopted. 
