tWITED STATES BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 5 
Differences of usage exist to a large extent, not only in the names of 
natural features and unincorporated places, but even in those of organ- 
ized bodies of population whose names have been bestowed by formal 
authority. These differences have originated in numerous ways. 
In the unsettled parts of the country, different exploring expeditions, 
ignoring the work of their predecessors, have given new names to fea- 
tures already named. As elsewhere noted, this difficulty has often oc- 
curred in Alaska, which has been visited in recent years by numerous 
expeditions. 
The transliteration of Indian names has everywhere been a fruitful 
source of differences in spelling, inasmuch as no two persons understand 
alike or render into the same English characters the obscure sounds of 
Indian names. 
It often happens in the case of the larger geographic features', such 
as extended mountain ranges, rivers, etc., that different names have 
been applied locally in different parts, and these different names have 
become well settled in usage. 
It frequently happens that railroads adopt names for their stations 
different from those of the towns or villages in which they are situated, 
and thus divide the usage. To a much greater extent, however, than 
the railroads has the Post-Office Department confused the nomenclature 
of the smaller towns and villages by attaching names to the post-offices 
not in accordance with those in local usage. Indeed, a list shows that 
there are in this country thousands of cases where the name of the 
post-office does not conform to the local name of the place in which it 
is situated. These differences are very confusing to those using the 
postal service, and it seems desirable to reduce their number as far as 
practicable, at the same time recognizing the importance of having but 
one post-office of the same name in each state. 
By far the greater number of differences in usage, however, have 
their origin in carelessness or ignorance on the part of those making 
use of the names. Such errors appearing in print are frequently per- 
petuated, especially in popular works, and often supplant the original 
name in usage. 
Originating in these divergencies of spelling, there is distinctly 
traceable a development of geographic nomenclature, which is on the 
whole proceeding in a beneficial direction. Its tendency is towards 
the discarding of objectionable names and the adoption of pleasing 
ones, and towards the simplification and abbreviation of names, par- 
ticularly as shown in the dropping of silent letters. The Board, recog- 
nizing this course of development, deems it to be within its power to 
guide it, and even to forestall it, as far as its future course may be 
foreseen. 
The extent to which geographic names have been modified without 
being radically changed is scarcely appreciated. A large proportion, 
probably a majority of the names of natural features have undergone 
changes in spelling to a greater or less extent since they were first ap- 
plied, while of the names of political divisions, although established by 
formal act, a considerable proportion have also changed, and such 
changes have, in thousands of cases, become firmly established. There- 
fore the position assumed by some persons, that we should revert to the 
original forms of names, would, if carried out, result in changing the 
names of a large proportion of our natural and artificial features. 
