486 
RURAL HOURS. 
&c., &c., are either names still found in tlie Iroquois country, or 
which formerly existed there. This syllable Ca, and that of Ot and 
Os, were as common at the commencement of a name as a^ua, 
aga, ogua, were at the conclusion. 
From the roving life lead by the Indians, hunting and fishing 
m different places, according to the changes in the seasons, they 
have left but few names to towns and villages, and scarcely any 
to plains and valleys. Nor does it seem always easy to decide 
whether they gave their own names to the lakes and rivers, or re- 
ceived them from the streams ; in very many cases in this part of 
the continent the last would seem to have been the case, espe- 
cially in the subdivisions of the clans, for scarce a river but what 
had a tribe of its own fishing and hunting upon its banks. Their 
names for the mountains have only reached us in a general way, 
such as the Allegliany, or Endless-chain, the Kittatinny, &c., 
&c. Perhaps the fact that the mountains in this region lie chiefly 
in ridges, unbroken by striking peaks, may be one I'eason why 
single hills have not preserved Indian names ; but in many in- 
stances the carelessness of the first colonists was probably the 
cause of their being lost, since here and there one of a bolder 
outline than usual must have attracted the attention of such an 
observant race. 
Our own success in naming the hills has been indifferent ; the 
principal chains, the Blue, the Green, the White Mountains, the 
Catsbergs, the Highlands, &c., &c., do well enough in the mass, 
but as regards the individual hills we are apt to fail sadly. A 
large number of them bear the patronymic of conspicuous po- 
litical men. Presidents, Governors, tfec, &c. That the names of 
men honorably distinguished should occasionally be given to 
