The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-29
ORIGIN OF NAMES OF
 NOTED PLACES IN U. s.
Special Correspondence of the New York El1Ier1ine, Pnst

Special Correspondence of the New York
 Evening Post.
 Washington, August 25.--The bulletin of the geological survey, prepared by Henry Gannett, on the origin of many of the names of places In the United States Is an important contribution to geographic knowledge. Its circulation will doubt less go far to awaken interest in mat ters of local history, tradition, and folk lore, and so stimulate greater discrimna- tion in the selection of new names as occasions arise. There are too many Mt. Pleasants and Riversides. High Streets and Lovers Lanes, and not enough names which are distinctive and informing. Per- haps the best idea of the contents of the bulletin may be conveyed by quoting some of it's paragraphs:
 Absecon, bay and town in Atlantic county, New Jersey-The name is derived from the Indian words wabisse, ''swan, ' and ong, "a place." and was given be- cause of the numbers of swans which re- sorted there.
 Adirondack, mountains in New York and village in Warren county of the same state-Indian word compounded from doran, "a people who eat bark, ,' and dak, trees" with the French parti- cle '1a,p prefxed.
 Alaska, territory of the United States An Indian word meaning great coun- try" continent "great land"
 Anthonys Nose, promontory on the Hudson river. New York-Said by Irving to have been named so in reference to Anthony Van Corlear's nose; Tossing says Anthony de Hooges, secretary of Rensselaerwick, had an enormous nose. and the promontory was named in honor of that feature"
 Appomattox. river and county In Vir- ginia-An Indian word, meaning Ia to- bacca plant country" Bad Lands, term applied to a region in South Dakota-It is said that the old French voyageurs described the region as 'manuvaise terres pour traverser, meaning that it was difficult country to travel through from this the term has been carelessly shortened and translat- ed into the present misnomer. Brooklyn. city In New York-Corrup- tion of the Dutch name of Breuckelen, from village in the province of Utrecht, Holland The name signifies broken up land. or marshy land.
 | Buncombe. county in North Carolina. and several places in the southern states named for Col. Edward Buncombe of the Continental army.
 | Catskill, creek mountains. and town in Greene county, New York-The moun- tains were called Catsbergs by the Dutch, from the number of wildcats found in them, and the creek, which | flows from the mountains, Katerskill, | ''tomcats' creek"
 Chicago, city and river in Illinois-The origin of the word is from the Indian, being a derivation by elision and French annotation from the word Chi-kaug-ong. Col. Samuel A. Starrow used the name in A letter to Gen. Jacob Brown in 1916. as follows '..-e river Chicago Cor in the English, Wild Onion River,)." Schoolcraft in 1920 said: ''Its banks stated to produce abundantly the wild species of cepa or leek." Bishop Baraga gives: '.From Chiag. or Sikag, skunk" l" d kind of wildcat" John Turner defines skunk as she-gang; onion. she-gau-ga- winzhe, skunk weed" When the word first appeared the country was inhabited by tribe of Miamis, in whose dialect the word for skunk was ''se-kaw-kwaw ' It is said that the wildcat, or skunk, was named from the plant.
 Communipaw, village in Bergen county, New Jersey-Named for the original grantee, Michael Pauw, director of the Dutch West Indian company The word Is a compound of "the Commune of Pauw."
 l Hiram, town in Oxford county, Iowa The name Is composed of the initials of | the women who accompanied it's founder on his first visit to the spot. Manhattan, an island in New York-An Indian word, said by some authorities