226 TI’Oi?A" OF THE BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES 
and North Carolina, and to mountain ranges and a river. As a 
county name it is spelled in three different forms, each of which 
is fortified by legislative acts, legal documents, and no end of 
local usage. It is desirable to make the spelling uniform ; but 
can it be done? In such a case the board is between tlie devil 
and the deep sea. Consistency in following local usage pro- 
duces inconsistency in orthography. In some cases of this sort, 
where the board was of the opinion that local usage could be 
overcome, it has adopted a uniform spelling, but in other cases 
it has refrained from making decisions. 
In the matter of geographic names, as in everything else, de- 
velopment is constantly going on; names are continually chang- 
ing, being modified in some cases slightl}% in other cases radicall,v. 
Is it best that this develojnnent should be suffered to go on 
blindly, as development has proceeded throughout the world 
in times past, or will it be more economical and will the results 
be more satisfactoiw and be attained at less cost if it be guided 
intelligently? Surely no one will hesitate to admit that the 
latter is the better condition. Recognizing this course of de- 
velopment in geograj)hic names, the board has studied it with 
a view to ascertaining its trend, of discovering what changes 
are going on, and what their result is likely to be in the future, 
and, acting upon the knowledge thus acquired, it has endeav- 
ored to guide the course of development into the best channels, 
so as to ju'oduce good results from it as speedily as i)racticable. 
The most marked direction in which development is proceeding 
is that of simplification. Useless letters are being dropped, 
hyphens are being omitted ; appendages to names, such as the 
word city, town, court-house, cross-roads, etc., are one after an- 
other l)eing dro})]5ed. The possessive form of names is being 
given up. Life is too short to expend it in writing these useless 
words and letters. Names consisting of more than one word 
are b^ng run together into one word. In these and many 
other ways the course of develoj:)ment is toward simplification 
and abbreviation. Of these changes the hoard heartily approves 
and it is going as fast and as far in the direction of furthering 
them as it believes the public will support it. To go faster or to 
go further at the ]n’esent time would be to discredit itself, and 
this the board prefers not to do. Another tendency in develop- 
ment is towar<l uniformity in spelling. Certain names ending 
in hurg were formerly spelled burgh, others burg, necessitating 
constant reference to gazetteers in order to learn whether the 
