September i6, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



Water-surface is, for the needs of man, so unlike land-surface, 

 that it is natural enough to include all water-basins under the single 

 geographic term, 'lakes.' Wherever they occur, — in narrow moun- 

 tain-valleys or on broad, level plains ; on divides or on deltas ; in 

 solid rock or in alluvium, — they are all given one name. But if we in 

 imagination lengthen our life so that we witness the growth of 

 a river-system as we now watch the growth of plants, we must then 

 as readilv perceive and as little confuse the several physiographic 

 kinds of lakes as we now distinguish the cotyledons, the leaves, the 

 galls, and the flowers, of a quickly growing annual that produces 

 all these forms in appropriate order and position in the brief course 

 of a single summer. W. M. Davis. 



Cambridge, Mass., Sept 7. 



Corruption of American Geographic Names. 



Mr. MurdOCK'S friendly criticism and confirmatory note on the 

 pronunciation of ' Arkansas,' in the last Science, is gratifying from 

 the fact that it will help disseminate a proper understanding of that 

 word. But ' Arkansas ' is only one of hundreds of geographic 

 names which have been corrupted under our very noses, so to 

 speak, and I believe it behooves all educators to assist in their cor- 

 rection. In the West we have many classes of descriptive geo- 

 graphic names, — first, words in the Indian language, which the 

 Spanish, French, or English (and sometimes all) have endeavored, 

 to represent phonetically in their own language, such as 'Ouachita,' 

 ' Washita.' ' Wichita,' etc., all derived from the name of a tribe of 

 Indians first noted by La Salle, and which has now been applied 

 in its modifications to si.v rivers (not including creeks) in Indian 

 Territorv, Arkansas, and Texas, two mountain areas, and innumer- 

 able political divisions, such as counties, post-offices, etc. ; second, 

 descriptive names. To the credit of the Spaniards, it must be said 

 that they seldom adopted Indian names, but gave either descriptive 

 names, such as ' Sabinas,' ' Ulmas,' ' Puercos,' 'Colorado,' often of 

 the forest-growth and character of sediment of rivers ; or religious 

 names, such as ' Corpus Christi,' ' Vera Cruz ; ' or sometimes a 

 combination of both, such as ' Sangre de Cristo ' Mountains. 



Most of our American names in the West, and especially the 

 South-west, are simply abominable. They are either corruptions of 

 the French, Indian, or Spanish, or indefinite appellatives, often of 

 lewd and repulsive meaning. This is especially true of the names 

 given by my fellow-southerners, as they followed the law of migra- 

 tions along degrees of latitude. In central and western Texas there 

 is another corruption which is more misleading than that of mis- 

 pronunciation or misspelling. The generic topographic terms are 

 all erroneously used for the subgeneric, such as ' river ' for ' creek ' 

 (or what can only be properly expressed by the Spanish arroyd), 

 and ' mountain,' ' peak,' etc., for ' knolls,' ' buttes,' or ' mesas.' For 

 instance : while there is not a true mountain in Texas east of the 

 Pecos River, there are no less than a dozen ' Round Mountains,' 

 ' Pilot Peaks,' ' Comanche Peaks,' ' Hog and Packsaddle Mountains,' 

 etc., in central Texas, none of which in any way are entitled to the 

 dignity of the terms, and which can only be described as buttes and 

 mesas of secondary proportions. The creeks and rivers are either 

 ' Hog ' creeks, ' Muddy,' ' Snake,' ' Buffalo,' ' Dry,' ' Indian,' or 

 ' Post Oaks.' 



Not only have these corruptions been going on in the past, but 

 they are being perpetrated at present, and our government publica- 

 tions are innocently the chief instruments in so doing. A remark- 

 able instance came under my observation two years ago. While 

 sitting upon the stone that marks the north-west corner of the State 

 of Kansas, examining some geological specimens, and conversing 

 with Texan cowboy friends who had ' wintered ' near there a year 

 or two, I inquired the nearest post-office. One of them informed 

 me that a [tent] village had just been established a few miles dis- 

 tant, and that its name was ' Bueno.' This word, from my past 

 experience on the Texan frontier, I knew to constitute nine tenths 

 of the cow-boy's knowledge of pigeon Spanish (the other tenth 

 being 'cuss' words), and that it had been imported from the Rio 

 Grande by him into Kansas, and that the ' short-horns ' (the cow- 

 boys' term'of inferiority for the Kansas settler) had been fascinated 

 by it, and applied it to their new town. A capital idea, I thought, 

 until I looked up the name of the town in the latest post-office 

 guide, when, to my horror, I found my pet Spanish word ' bueno ' 



anglicized into ' Wano.' The other instance of governmental per- 

 petration is on the topographic maps of both the Post-Office and 

 War Departments, and Geological and Coast Surveys, where these 

 dry creeks continue to appear as rivers, and buttes as mountains, 

 etc. 



Since my arrival in Arkansas, I have been delighted to find numer- 

 ous minor French geographic names which have not been corrupted, 

 such as ' L'Eau Frais,' ' Terre Noir,' ' Antoine,' and other streams ; 

 and from the oldest Anglo-American inhabitants I learn that nearly 

 every geographic feature of southern Arkansas was named, not by 

 French missionaries, but by the trappers and voyageiirs, who had 

 traded with the Indians for a hundred years or more, and who domi- 

 nated here almost until the State was admitted to the Union (1836). 

 Many descendants of these old French pioneers inhabit south- 

 eastern Arkansas, and it is a source of gratification that the Anglo- 

 American settlers here, however illiterate, pronounce the names 

 with approximate correctness, even if their attempts at spelling 

 them are oftentimes ridiculous. Rob't T. Hill. 



Ouachita River, Ark., Sept. 8. 



Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. 



The latest contribution to the theory of evolution is the attempt 

 of Mr. Finck to show that the phase of human character known as 

 romantic (pre-nuptial) love is strictly modern, having developed 

 within the last i, coo years. The book in which the argument is 

 set forth, recently reviewed in this magazine, is a remarkable com- 

 bination, which one hardly knows whether to accept as a joke or in 

 earnest. In this one work we find a scientific discussion of love as 

 found in plants and animals, theories as to its origin and import ; 

 we find many surprising statements concerning modern society, 

 such as that there can never be too much of flirtation, since it is one 

 of the most valuable discoveries of the English people ; that beauty 

 in children is dependent upon the pre-nuptial love of their parents ; 

 we find directions to the maiden how to win her lover, directions to 

 the love-sick swain as to his cure, directions to the lover how to 

 kiss, etc.; the whole making such a curious combination that we 

 hardly know whether to set the book aside with a laugh, or to re- 

 gard it as an important contribution to knowledge. The latter 

 feeling, however, predominates. The fundamental proposition of 

 the discussion, viz.. the strictly modern nature of romantic love, is 

 one of great importance, giving as it does entirely new thoughts 

 upon certain phases of modern life. It certainly merits the dis- 

 cussion given it, as well as the further discussion which is sure to 

 follow the study of Mr. Finck's argument. 



One cannot read this discussion of romantic love without ac- 

 knowledging that Mr. Finck has made out a very strong case. The 

 facts which are brought out plainly show that there has been a 

 gradual but great change in the pre-nuptial relations of the sexes, 

 and as a result a great change in the sentiments which precede mar- 

 riage. A romantic love, which was curbed and repressed by the 

 customs of ancient nations, has, under the influence of modern 

 society, expanded into a greatly exaggerated form, until now it is the 

 theme of about all novels, plays, and poems, occupies largely the 

 thoughts of all young people, and is perhaps the most powerful lever 

 for influencing the lives of mankind. But while we may go thus 

 far with the theory, and recognize that ancient life and literature had 

 very little of love, though modern life and literature are full of it, and 

 that it is only modern society that recognizes tHe desirability 

 of love-matches, the interpretations which may be drawn from the 

 facts are varied. Mr. Finck interprets these facts as representing 

 the development of a new factor in man's nature, and one which 

 was not and could not have been present in earlier periods of his- 

 tory. It is at least questionable whether this interpretation be the 

 true one. 



The author is doubtless right in pointing out the impossibility of 

 any feeling akin to the higher phases of love in the lower races of 

 men. Romantic love is a feeling of high sensitiveness, and only 

 those with highly developed sensibilities can experience it in its 

 fullest degree. Indeed, the bulk of civilized people to-day are not 

 capable of having very lofty experiences in this line. The love 

 which Mr. Finck is writing about is largely ideal rather than actual. 

 It belongs to emotional poets rather than to the common people. 



