Febeuaey ^2, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



307 



ing a feature of great interest to the upper 

 slopes of the mountains. 



In reply to a question, Mr. Bailey said the 

 cony of the Bible was a Hyrax. Dr. Gill said 

 the cony of old England was the rabbit and 

 that the biblical scholars, mistakenly sup- 

 posing the animal referred to was a rabbit, 

 used the term cony in translating. The genus 

 is now called Procavia instead of Hyrax. 

 Both of the scientific names are also misap- 

 plications, the hyrax of the ancient Greeks 

 being a shrew mouse and the biblical cony or 

 daman being in no wise related to a Gavia. 

 However, Procavia it must remain; the genus 

 is the type of a very distinct family — Pro- 

 caviidse — as well as of a peculiar suborder. 

 M. C. Maesh, 

 Recording Secretary 



THE ELISHA MITCHELL SOCIETY OP THE UNI- 

 VERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA 



The 169th meeting was held in the main 

 lecture room of Chemistry Hall, Tuesday 

 January 15, 7:30 p.m., with the following 

 program : 



Pkofessob H. V. Wilson : ' The Regenerative 

 Power of Sponges.' 



Peofessok J. W. GoBE: (1) 'Bireet Current 

 Transmission of Power,' (2) 'The Electrical 

 Aging of Flour.' 



A. S. Wheeler, 

 Recording Secreta/ry 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 the geographic board of CANADA 



The Geographic Board of Canada, organ- 

 ized in 1898 with aim, constitution and pub- 

 lications very like those of the older United 

 States Board on Geographic Names, has just 

 published its sixth report. As I have an in- 

 terest in all matters pertaining to the geog- 

 raphy of New Brunswick, I wish to make some 

 comments upon the decisions of the board 

 affecting that province. 



The first duty for which the board was or- 

 ganized is to decide upon ' all questions con- 

 cerning geographic names in the Dominion/ 

 and its decisions up to the present are in the 

 report before us. The great majority of these. 



so far as the province of New Brunswick is 

 concerned, are admirable; but some of them, 

 in my opinion, are quite indefensible. Thus, 

 an important old English settlement in the 

 province is called Point de Bute, sometimes 

 printed Pointe de Bute. The board, called 

 upon to decide between Point and Pointe, 

 rejects the whole name and decides upon Pont 

 a Buot, on the ground, as it has explained, 

 that this is the original historic form of the 

 name. Aside from the fact that this origin 

 is only supposed and is not proved, the French 

 form has not once been used since the English 

 replaced the French in 1755; yet these Eng- 

 lish-speaking people are expected by the board 

 to abandon their usage of a century and a 

 half and adopt a form which is not only to 

 them wholly new, but also very diificult to 

 pronounce. Again, there is a small river and 

 settlement which appear upon maps and in 

 local newspapers, etc., variously as Canouse, 

 Canoos and Canoose, the last being the com- 

 monest form and expressing exactly its local 

 pronunciation. The board, called upon to 

 choose between these forms, rejects them all, 

 and decides upon an entirely new form, 

 Kanus, explaining, in answer to inquiries, 

 that this conforms to the Eoyal Geograph- 

 ical Society's rules for native names. Aside 

 from the question as to the wisdom of 

 changing century-old and locally-familiar 

 words to newly-invented and strange ones to 

 make them fit with a set of rules designed 

 for a very different purpose, there is in this 

 case the practical trouble that the board's 

 form implies an erroneous pronunciation; for 

 certainly most strangers, reading the form 

 Kanus, would throw the accent on the first 

 syllable and sound the a long, the exact re- 

 verse of local usage in both cases. Again, the 

 board, very properly eliding the final posses- 

 sive s in aU cases of divided usage, extends 

 this principle to cases where there is no local 

 diversity. Thus an important bay and settle- 

 ment are called Maces Bay, and a river and 

 settlement are called Cains River, and those 

 forms are locally invariable. Yet the board 

 selects them for change and decides upon 

 Mace Bay and Gain River, forms not only 

 strange to New Brunswick ears, but, as they 



