THE SIGNIFICANCY OF LOCAL NAMES.
Local Names always significant, and possessed of great vitality-Some descriptive-Geological value of such names-Others conserve ethnological ana historical facts, or illustrate the state of civilization or religion in past times.
LOCAL NAMES—whether they belong to provinces, cities, and villages, or are the designations of rivers and mountains-are never mere arbitrary sounds, devoid of meaning. They may always be regarded as records of the past, inviting and rewarding a careful historical interpretation.
In many instances the original import of such names has faded away, or has become disguised in the lapse of ages; nevertheless, the primeval meaning may be recoverable, and whenever it is recovered we have gained a symbol that may prove itself to be full-fraught with instruction; for it may indicate emigrations-immigrations- the commingling of races by war and conquest, or by the peaceful processes of commerce :-the name of a district or of a town may speak to us of events which written history has failed to commemorate. A local name may often be adduced as evidence determinative of controversies that otherwise could never be brought to a conclusion.
The names of places are conservative of the more archaic forms of a living language, and they often embalm for us the guise and fashion of speech in eras the most remote. These