i9o6. iyKTT. — Numbers for Navies of Coiuities. 227 
In a certain way the counties and their names have a 
necessary connection —namel}^ through long usage or custom, 
and our familiarity with them acquired by the use of maps in 
our school-days. I might even say we inherit a certain part 
of this association from our forefathers, and it does not need 
a prophet to predict that there will be many generations passed 
away before our descendants find the numbers as convenient 
as the names — if they ever do so. 
Not one reason has been brought forward against the use of 
the existing county names : one writer did allude to the con- 
tractions of the names of the Irish counties that have been al- 
ready used by the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers in his handbook of 
British Riibi, and in my Hcpatics^ as if it was an invention on 
our parts. But there was nothing new or original in these 
contractions, no more than in the use of ''Jan., Feb., Mar.,' 
&c., and '*Mon., Tues., Wed.", &c., which I am aware some 
persons prefer to speak of as the ist, 2nd, and 3rd months and 
days. 
If the contractions of the Irish county names just referred 
to are too short for perfect distinctness, it is easy for writers 
to lengthen them according to their fancy by adding a few 
letters to each. Thus — Ant, Arm., Carl., Cvn., Clare, Cork, 
Down, Dngl., Dub., Ferm., Gal., Kery., Kngs., Kldr., Klk}-., 
I^.dry., lycit., I^gfd., I^im., I^ou., Mayo, Meth., Mon., Qns., Rose, 
Slg., Tyrn., Tip., Wick., Wat., Wex., W.meth.—none of 
these are likely to be confounded one with another. And if 
at any time it might be considered advisable to split a count}^, 
nothing is easier than adding as a suffix a letter from the 
compass, such as N." for North," and so on, which would 
not dislocate the existing designations. The same could be 
effected for all the "vice-counties" of Watson. I have made 
the experiment for my own amusement, but it would take up 
too much space to give them in the present article. 
troughbrickland, Co. Dowu. 
