iioStaten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



who are responsible were consistent and followed some well- 

 defined rule or rules when making changes, or gave some reason 

 for doing so, there might be opportunity for discussion; but a 

 glance at any of the maps issued by the United States Geological 

 Survey indicates that changes are made in an arbitrary manner, 

 without following any system and, in many instances, without 

 any apparent reason. 



The larger number of such cases arise from the use or disuse 

 of the possessive case and apostrophe. When, for example, the 

 name of Prince's Bay was made to appear either as Prince or 

 Princess Bay, its supposed original derivation from the family 

 name of Prince was destroyed, and some erroneous connection 

 with royalty would naturally be assumed by anyone not familiar 

 with our local history or traditions. Some of us even regard the 

 final " s " on Giffords with affection, and would regard it as un- 

 warranted grammatically and as unfortunate historically if it 

 were dropped, as has been done in connection with Hulett's and 

 Turner's. 



Following are a few examples of inconsistencies in the use of 

 the possessive case, selected at random from recently published 

 maps of New York and vicinity: 



Shooters Island, Hunter Island, 



Blackwells Island, Randall Island, 



Governors Island, Duncan Island, 



Wards Island, Ward Point, 



Grace's Point, Lloyd Neck, 



Bennetts Neck, Seguine Point, 



Willets Point, Rodman Neck, 



Nye's Neck^ Tom Point, 



Garritsons Creek, Latourette Pond, 



Peters Pond, Woodruff Creek, 



Toneys Brook, John Pond, 



Phinney's Harbor, Lambert Cove, 



Johns Point Marsh, Doctor Hole Hassock, 



Bulls Head, Owl Head, 



etc. etc. 



