113 
The Aboriginal Names of Rivers in Australia 
Philologically Examined. 
By the late Rev. Peter MacPuerson, M.A. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 4 August, 1886,] 
ir is the purpose of this paper to pass in review the names which 
the aborigines of Australia have given to the rivers, streams, and 
waters generally of the country w vhich they have occupied. More 
ecifically, attention will be directed to the principles if discover- 
a on which the names have been given. In this inquiry con- 
tant regard will be had to the question whether the Aborigines 
co followed the same general principles which are found to pre- 
vail in other languages of the world. Without further preface, it 
may be stated that all available vocabularies will be searched f 
the terms used to designate water, a in the shape of rivers, 
brooks, or creeks; expansions of water, as oceans, seas, bays, or 
harbours; lakes, lagoons, pools, or msitiaihcghens! swamps, or marshes; 
s S$} rain, or waterfalls ; and any other form in whi 
water is the important aroma 
M, imitative of the sound of Waters. 
Words for Water containing the letter M. 
To make a beginning, let one of the imitative root words for 
’ water be chosen as the basis of experiment. There is the letter M, 
which represents the humming sound pertaining to water, whether 
flowing in streams or moved by tides and winds in ocean ex 
In carrying out the experiment the method followed will be (1) 
to examine the vocabularies for root-words designating water in 
any of the shapes already indicated, and potereee? in _ present 
case the letter m; (2) nd examine the gazetteers of 
colonies, to ascertain how the same letter is cmtonied in the 
actual names of rivers, streams, and waters generally ; and (3) to 
compare the results with the root words for water in other parts 
of the world. 
Proceeding tentatively then with the letter m, is it to be found 
embodied in root words meaning water within the four corners of 
although the mis doubled andthe word Ra TN 
