The settlement of the American continent, once the eastern coast ranges were crossed, proceeded with unparalleled speed, and so the naming of the new rivers, lakes, peaks and valleys, and of the new towns and districts no less, strained the inventiveness of the pioneers. The result is the vast duplication of names that shows itself in the Postal Guide. No less than eighteen imitative [Pg288] /Bostons/ and /New Bostons/ still appear, and there are nineteen /Bristols/, twenty-eight /Newports/, and twenty-two /Londons/ and /New Londons/. Argonauts starting out from an older settlement on the coast would take its name with them, and so we find /Philadelphias/ in Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, /Richmonds/ in Iowa, Kansas and nine other western states, and /Princetons/ in fifteen. Even when a new name was hit upon it seems to have been hit upon simultaneously by scores of scattered bands of settlers; thus we find the whole land bespattered with /Washingtons/, /Lafayettes/, /Jeffersons/ and /Jacksons/, and with names suggested by common and obvious natural objects, /e. g./, /Bear Creek/, /Bald Knob/ and /Buffalo/. The Geographic Board, in its last report, made a belated protest against this excessive duplication. "The names /Elk/, /Beaver/, /Cottonwood/ and /Bald/," it said, "are altogether too numerous."[39] Of postoffices alone there are fully a hundred embodying /Elk/; counting in rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains and valleys, the map of the United States probably shows at least twice as many such names. A study of American geographical and place names reveals eight general classes, as follows: (/a/) those embodying personal names, chiefly the surnames of pioneers or of national heroes; (/b/) those transferred from other and older places, either in the eastern states or in Europe; (/c/) Indian names; (/d/) Dutch, Spanish and French names; (/e/) Biblical and mythological names; (/f/) names descriptive of localities; (/g/) names suggested by the local flora, fauna or geology; (/h/) purely fanciful names. The names of the first class are perhaps the most numerous. Some consist of surnames standing alone, as /Washington/, /Cleveland/, /Bismarck/, /Lafayette/, /Taylor/ and /Randolph/; others consist of surnames in combination with various old and new /Grundwörter/, as /Pittsburgh/, /Knoxville/, /Bailey's Switch/, /Hagerstown/, /Franklinton/, /Dodge City/, /Fort Riley/, /Wayne Junction/ and /McKeesport/; and yet others are contrived of given names, either alone or in combination, as /Louisville/, /St. Paul/, /Elizabeth/, /Johnstown/, /Charlotte/, /Williamsburg/ and /Marysville/. The number of towns in the United States bearing women's given names is enormous. [Pg289] I find, for example, eleven postoffices called /Charlotte/, ten called /Ada/ and no less than nineteen called /Alma/. Most of these places are small, but there is an /Elizabeth/ with 75,000 population, an /Elmira/ with 40,000, and an /Augusta/ with nearly 45,000.