it is a natural and reasonable occurrence, In exhibiting three principles of very general application, it will be sufficient to examine the facts at two very remote periods of time, It will also be unnecessary to multiply examples, as almost all the statements are highly suggestive; and in the whole of this sketch, I venture to believe that I can secure a ready assent, without departing from the brevity which is desirable.

I. PERSONAL NAMES.-In the earliest ages of the world, the names of places were identical, or nearly so, with the names of persons. The patriarch or father gave his name to the tribe or family; and it was natural that their habitation should be called by their name. Moses gives us the names of Noah's sons and grandsons, and of some of his great grandsons; and though these are comparatively few in number, they are sufficient to show us the principle of naming, at the period of the dispersion of the nations. In the writings of the ancients, we detect many geographical terms identical with the names of these individuals, but several have been replaced by modern ones. Yet even to the present hour, after a lapse of nearly four thousand years, we recognise several such words, which have undergone little or no modification.

For example, among the descendants of SHEM, we recognize the name "Elam" in Elymais in Persia; "Ashur" in Assyria; “Lud” in Lydia; "Hul" in lake Huleh ("Waters of Merom"); and "Mash" in mount Masius (Tauris).—Among the descendants of HAM, we have "Sabta" in Sabotah of Arabia; "Raamah" in Rhegma on the Persian Gulf; "Dedan" in Aden; "Lehabim" or "Lubim" in Lybia; "Pathrusim" in Pathruses in Egypt; "Nimrod" in Birs-Nimrod (Babel), and Djebel Nimrod; "Philistim" in Palestine; and "Sidon" in Saide.-Among the descendants of JAPHET, we have "Gomer" in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, Crimea, Cambria

Ezekiel (xxix. 14.) calls Egypt Pathros,

(Wales), and some say in Germany and Cumberland; "Riphath" in the Riphaean mountains; "Madai" in Media; "Elisha" in Hellas and Elis; "Tarshish" in Tartessus (Cadiz); "Meshech" in the Moschian mountains; "Javan" in the Ionian isles; and "Dodanim" or "Rhodanim" in Dodona and the Rhone.*

In after times, when such names had ceased to be so necessary or so natural, men sought to perpetuate the memory of themselves or of their friends. David, speaking of selfish and unwise men, says, "their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations: they call their lands after their own names." An interesting example of this is recorded in connexion with his own family:-for Absalom, fearing that he would die childless, erected a pillar in the King's Dale near Jerusalem, and called it "Absalom's Pillar." But even within our own island there are many names derived from the ancient tribes of the people or from individuals; and the practice of giving such names to modern towns, villages, streets, and districts, is still continued. It is astonishing how much anxiety mankind exhibit, to associate the names of illustrious persons with particular places, without the slightest regard to national convenience. The following is a curious illustration.

The name Washington occurs no fewer than 134 times in connexion with localities in the United States; Adams, 37 times; Jefferson, 78 times; Madison, 56 times; and Monroe, 62 times. Thus the names of the first five Presidents occur 367 times, or at an average of 74 times each. The name Washington is given to 82 towns and 20 counties, besides parishes, villages, post-offices, &c. §

* Arranged chiefly from Dr. Pye Smith's Analysis of the Researches of German Scholars, in the Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. See also Alexander's Geography of the Bible, and Mansford's Scripture Gazetteer.

Smith's Gazetteer of the United States, 1845. Morse's American Gazetteer was published in 1797, and in the 2nd edition (1798), there are only 25 Washingtons.

II. DESCRIPTIVE NAMES.-Other places, as we know, were named from their characteristics, or from their association with particular facts. For example, Beer-Sheba (the well of the oath), was so called from the oath which confirmed the agreement between Abraham and Abimelech; Bethel (the house of God), from the vision of Jacob; Jehovah-jireh (the Lord will provide),. for there God provided a lamb in place of Isaac; and at Gilgal (a rolling), the Hebrews rolled away the reproach of Egypt. The marginal references in a good copy of the Scriptures, are sufficient to show to an ordinary reader that almost every place had a meaning of this kind in its name, though the translation of every one is not given. There was apparently so little caprice exercised in such matters, that we can excuse the general expression of a writer on names, “tous les noms propres sont originairement significatives." In one of the early examples, we find two relations giving to a place the same name, but expressing it at the same instant in their respective languages. Laban, using the Syriac language, called "the heap of the witness" Jegar-sahadutha; and Jacob, using the Hebrew, called it Galeed.*

The best examples of English names derived from Characteristics, are furnished as before, by the United States. In England and in the other portions of the British Islands, the name of a place is usually enveloped in a little mystery. It is perhaps expressed in old Saxon, or in altered Latin, or in some of the Celtic dialects; and there is quite enough of difficulty connected with the explanation to create an interest in our minds, or to afford us pleasure when the meaning is clearly ascertained. But this fact has given us ideas which are very incorrect, and which do not exist in other countries of the world. Thus, we do not expect quite to understand a name; and we are apt to imagine that there must be something absurd about it, if it be expressed in plain modern English.

* Genesis xxxi. 47.

Happily our brethren in the States entertained no such prejudices, when called upon to supply thousands of new names, to their new territory. Some of them are strange enough but very expressive; peculiar but not unsuitable. For example, Big-Flats, Blue-Grass, Bloody-Run, Bone-Lick, New-LebanonShaker-Establishment, Social-Circle, Ten-Mile-Stand, PotatoeRiver, Knock-me-down, Sleepy-Hollow, &c. The following modest name is generally abridged by our neighbours of the Principality. It is a curious example of a descriptive term; and represents a parish in Anglesea, near the extremity of the Britannia bridge. It deserves and requires a separate line.

Llan-vair-pwll-gwyn-gyll-goger-bwll-dysilio-gogo, (the church of St. Mary, at the pool of the white hazel tree, near the gulf of St. Dysilio, the son of Gogo).

III. PRE-EXISTING NAMES.-The changes of situation which became necessary as people multiplied, led to a new use of old terms. Men altered the place of their abode, but they retained their associations and their partialities; and they gladly cherished a pleasing recollection by imparting a familiar name to their new residence. They did not think of the confusion that they would thereby create, or of the inconvenience that they would occasion to subsequent geographers. When the adventurers of the tribe of Dan, for example, set forward to seek for new habitations, and succeeded in dispossessing a people near the streams of the Jordan, they were not satisfied with the original name Laish, but changed it to Dan, "the name of their father."* Again, when the people of Messene in the Peloponnesus, under Aristomenes, were driven out by the Spartans, some of them migrated to Sicily, and gave name to the modern town and straits of Messina.t In like manner, there was a modern as well as an ancient Troy; a new Carthage in Spain, as well as the old one in Africa; a Græcia and a Magna Græcia ; &c.

Very many names of places which have been discovered since the middle ages, are identical with others which existed previously; and sometimes new names have been given in colonies and dependencies, with needless and injurious frequency. The Spaniards seem to have commemorated St. Iago, not only in every colony which they founded, but also in several places which they only visited. Our own countrymen have not fallen far short of them in their respect for home; for we find "23 Dovers, 18 Richmonds, 19 Yorks, 8 Bristols, 6 Baths, 17 Plymouths, 11 Portsmouths,"* &c. These names are given, in some instances, from a real or fancied resemblance; thus New South Wales is somewhat mountainous, and the district of Northumberland in it contains coal. Sometimes they are given from position, as when Cook had named a group of islands New Hebrides, he called a large one in their neighbourhood New Caledonia. In general, however, they are simply commemorative; as New England, New France (Canada), New Spain (Mexico), Nova Scotia, &c. The very name of home has a charm in it, when men are far removed from it. They find, too, that one name from the old locality suggests another, till they have produced a miniature of the whole,

It is important to understand two points in geographical research; the PEOPLE and their LANGUAGE.

The points respecting a people which are most likely to be interwoven in their names of places, are their history and mythology; facts connected with war and peace, with the pursuits of ordinary life or the arts; the names of their deities, idols, or heroes; the details of their worship, residence, actions, &c. Some of these principles require no exemplification; the following refer to such as are least known.

In eastern names, for example, we often meet with the term * From Proposal respecting Geography and Hydrography, by Com. Mangles, R.N.