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Sierra Club Bulletin, 



cascade between the Little Hetch-Hetchy and the Tuolumne 

 Canon, is obviously a disreputable misnomer, and could easily 

 be altered without the least prejudice to the aspiring scion of 

 the legion of Smiths. 



Secondly, and more generally : there are grand natural features 

 throughout the Sierra Nevada, either doubtfully, disgracefully, 

 or doubly named that offer opportunity for the accomplishment 

 of great good by such an organization as the Sierra Club in 

 return for the simple application of a little interested, slightly 

 authoritative attention, now while the range is yet young to the 

 civilized world. As other examples, might be taken Whitney's 

 " Obelisk " in the Merced Group, which assumes priority, I 

 think, over the name " Mt. Clark," now in common vogue, — 

 perhaps too much so for betterment, — and the Indian synonyms 

 for Yosemite points of interest. (Whitney, Geological Survey 

 of California, 1865; and the Yosemite Guide-Book, 1869.) 



Why should not the Sierra Club have a committee to inves- 

 tigate such matters, to discover priority in the naming, — or, if 

 need be, as Mr. Gannett has suggested, overlook such priority, — 

 and in general to decide questions of fitness in the application 

 of place names? Such a committee as an organ of the Sierra 

 Club would serve a purpose in this State similar to that of the 

 U. S. Board on Geographic Names, with perhaps a little more 

 legislative in addition to its judicial power, and thus bring man's 

 only addition to Nature's work more in harmony with the refined 

 and sturdy beauty of our " Range of Light." 



Please pardon me if my enthusiasm has led me into a dis- 

 cussion which may have already received full consideration from 

 the officers and members of the Sierra Club, and believe me, 

 Very sincerely your friend, Robert Anderson. 



[The Directors of the Club have some months since appointed 

 a Committee on Names whose duty it is to investigate and act 

 on just such matters as the writer of the foregoing letter has 

 called to our attention. Unfortunately, it is more difficult to 

 change names in the region mentioned by the writer since the 

 geological surveys have already covered that region, but in the 

 Southern Sierra, in the vicinity of the King's River, where the 

 surveys are now being extended, there is greater prospect of 

 doing some good. — Editor.] 



looi Jackson St., Oakland, Cal., May 29, 1904. 

 To Mr. Wm. E. Colby, San Francisco, Cal. 



Dear Sir — Permit me to call your attention to the recent loss 

 sustained by Mr. Fiske, the world-renowned photographer of 



