14 SECOND REPORT OF U. S. BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 
decision. Correspondence was had usually with the county clerk and 
the cases decided. Similarly, the Light-House Board and Coast Sur- 
vey brought to the Board several hundred names of features and lights 
along our coasts, lakes, and rivers. All the cases thus submitted have 
been decided and a corresponding advance made in removing confusion 
in nomenclature. 
Shortly after the organization of the Board it was called upon to 
decide several hundred cases of disputed names in Alaska, where the 
nomenclature derived from native, Russian, Spanish, and English 
sources was, as it still to some extent is, in great confusion. The 
cases submitted were decided. It was seen, however, that nothing 
short of a complete revision of all the names would satisfactorily 
remove the existing confusion. The Board undertook to do this. 
About 5,000 names were entered on cards,' along with citations of 
places where published. The work has not, however, been carried on 
to completion. All members of the Board were so fully occupied with 
other duties that neither time nor energy remained for this work. 
Arrangements have, however, recently been made, through the cour- 
tesy of the Director of the Geological Survey, by which the secretary 
of the Board may again take up this neglected work. 
ORIGIN OF AND CHANGES IN GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 
With the exception of the names of political subdivisions, geographic 
names in this country have not, as a rule, been bestowed by any formal 
authority. The names of natural features, rivers, lakes, mountains, 
capes, etc., and of unchartered bodies of population have received 
their names originally from explorers, surveyors, and early settlers, 
and these names have been perpetuated by common consent. The 
names of States, counties, and municipalities of all classes, on the 
other hand, have been applied either by legislative enactment or char- 
ter, and therefore possess some degree of formal authority. 
Differences of usage exist to a large extent not only in the names 
of natural features and unincorporated places, but even in those of 
organized 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 
features already named. As elsewhere noted, this difficulty has often 
occurred in Alaska, which has been visited in recent years by numer- 
ous expeditions. 
The transliteration of Indian names has everywhere been a fruitful 
source of differences in spelling, inasmuch as no two persons under- 
stand alike or render into the same English characters the obscure 
sounds of Indian names. 
