482 
RURAL HOURS. 
except in a bad cause. A very good reply, however, appeared 
in an American Review, and it is amusing, as it proves that we 
came very honestly by this odd fancy for ridiculous names, hav- 
inor inherited the taste from John Bull himself, the followino- hemg- 
a sample of those he has bestowed upon his discoveries about the 
world : 
Oh, could I seize the lyre of "Walter Scott, 
Then might I sing the terrors of Black Pot, 
Black River, Black Tail, 
Long Nose, Never Fail, 
Black Water, Black Bay, 
Black Point, Popinjay, 
Points Sally and Moggy, 
TAVO-Headed and Foggy, 
"While merrily, merrily bounded Cook's bark, 
By Kidnapper's Cape, and old Noah's Ark, 
> Round Hog Island, Hog's-Heads, and Hog-Eyes, 
Hog-Bay and Hog John, Hog's Tails, and Hog-Sties." 
* * * * * * * 
Perhaps this taste is one of the peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon 
race, about which it is the fashion to talk so much just now. 
The discoverers from other nations do not seem to have laid 
themselves open to the same reproach. The Portuguese names 
for the Cape of Good Hope, Labrador, Buenos Ayres, &c., are 
very good ; both themselves and the Spaniards gave many re- 
ligious names, but the navigators of these nations also left many 
Indian words wherever they passed. M. Von Humboldt observes 
that Mantanzas, massacre, and Vittoria, victor (/, are frequently 
scattered over the Spanish colonies. The Italians have made 
little impression in the way of names, though they have supplied 
noted chiefs to many a fleet of discovery ; probably, however, 
