io2 The National Geographic Magazine 



terms found in New Jersey and in Vir- 

 ginia, for example, tell a similar bit of 

 history : 



New Jersey Virginia 

 Musconetcong Chickahominy 

 Hopatcong Mallapony 

 Pohatcong Potomac 

 Watchung Rappahannock 

 Minnisink Shenandoah 

 Navesink Appomattox 

 When we pass into South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Florida, we find an en- 

 tirely different set of sounds predomi- 

 nating in the geographical words: 

 Allapoha Chattahoochie 

 Altamaha Auchee Hachee 



Tallapoosa Caloosahatchee 

 Oostanaula Chilloccohatchee 

 Soquee Choctawhatchee 

 Oconee Contoohatchee 

 Ohoopee Fahkahnatchee 

 Ochmulgee Ulcofauhachee 

 Kissimmee Withlochoochee 

 While 17 streams in Florida have 

 names ending in ee, only 3 in the nearby 

 State of Mississippi have such names, 

 suggesting that tribal boundaries were, 

 on the whole, rather definite, and that 

 tribal dialects dominated over well-de- 

 fined areas. These geographical words 

 show how widely the Indian dialects dif- 

 fered in their prevailing sounds. The 

 ear of the Iroquois evidently delighted in 

 vowel sounds, and most of the Iroquois 

 geographical names terminate in avowel, 

 usually a or o. The tribes of New Eng- 

 land show no such preference. In fact, 

 their long words, loaded with conso- 

 nants, seem like a train of half articu- 

 late grunts. The tribes of New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and Virginia had more 

 musical ears and dialects. Most of the 

 words which they have bequeathed us 

 are pleasant to the ear and flow smoothly 

 from the tongue. But when one exam- 

 ines the words by which the red men of 

 the South Atlantic States called their 

 lakes and rivers, he is led at once to sus- 

 pect that a crew of shipwrecked Chinese 

 must some time have been stranded on 



these shores and have tacked to the orig- 

 inal names a liberal sprinkling of char- 

 acteristic Chinese ee's. With the excep- 

 tion of the Great Lakes region, the 

 Atlantic coastal states are the only ones 

 which are fully strewn with Indian 

 names. Other regions have them, but 

 not in abundance. 



There are other linguistic trails over 

 our land besides those left by the red 

 men. Up the Hudson and Mohawk goes 

 the trail of the Dutchman, his footsteps 

 marked by Fishkill, Catskill, Peekskill, 

 and Shawangunk Kill ; by Rhinebeck 

 and Rhinecliff ; by Stuyvesant, Rens- 

 selaer, and Amsterdam. 



In northern New York and Vermont 

 is the trail of the Frenchman who dotted 

 his path with Richelieu, Ausable, St 

 Albans, Vergennes, and other terms of 

 Gallic sound. The so-called Pennsyl- 

 vania Dutchman has spread himself 

 thoroughly over the land of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and still reminds us of his na- 

 tionality by the several hundred burghs 

 which he founded. The Swede has left 

 a memorial of himself along the Dela- 

 ware in Swedesburg,Swedeland, Swedes' 

 Ford, and Swede Furnace. 



The trail of the explorer-priest ex- 

 tends from the mouth of the St Law- 

 rence to the mouth of the Mississippi 

 and along the larger branches of both 

 rivers. His mind was bent upon mis- 

 sionary enterprises and his calendar was 

 filled with saints' days. Those who 

 came after him — to hunt, to trap, to 

 trade, or to settle — were like him — 

 Frenchmen and Catholics — admirers of 

 the saints, whose names they gave to 

 the rivers which they discovered, the 

 trading posts, and the forts which they 

 established or the settlements which 

 they made. Such are St Lawrence, St 

 John, St Peter, St Hyacinthe, St Cath- 

 erine, St Thomas, St Mary, St Paul, St 

 Anthony, St Joseph, St Charles, St 

 Louis, St Francis, and St Martin, all 

 and many more scattered along the path 

 of the French explorers from Newfound- 



