The river which flows along the western edge of New York City is locally known as the North River. Shall this be called the North River, or Hudson River, or Hudson's River? And if this geographic name is printed in the text of a book, will you print river with a capital letter or a small letter? It must be borne in mind that this question is asked not for the purpose of immediate or categorical answer, but for the purpose of eliciting thought and discussion upon the principles which should control the answer. In 1793 Vancouver entered and mapped Port Townsend, which he formally named Port Townshend. At the present time the city situated upon that harbor, as well as the harbor itself, is universally known as Port Townsend, the "_h_" in the original being omitted. This is a clear and specific case, where the name formally applied by the original explorer is now modified in its orthography by usage. What form of the name shall be adopted? The former or original name or the present modified name? And if the original name is to be adopted, shall we proceed similarly in all cases and go back to the original form? In the case of names which have undergone transformations through ignorance or through usage, shall an attempt be made to restore the original orthography? Take the case in Missouri of the stream called Bois Brule, or burnt wood, and which has become in the usage of the residents in that part of the world Bob Ruly, and is so spelled in the local publications, and so pronounced in the local usage. When Champlain sailed along the heel of Cape Cod and discovered the extensive shoals which vex the navigation in those waters, he put upon his chart the statement _mal barre_, and a number of later maps applied this name to the southernmost point of the heel of Cape Cod as Malabar, and so it stood for 100 years or more as Malabar and may even be found upon some current publications. In the Coast Survey publications it is uniformly called Monomoy. Again on the north shore of Martha's Vineyard is a place formerly known by the Indian word Kiphiggon. On the modern maps this place is called Cape Higgon. Shall we in this case adopt the practice of the purists and restore the earlier form? In this same locality are four small harbors, called by the sailors _Holes_; namely Holmes' Hole, Wood's Hole, Robinson's Hole, and Quick's Hole. In current usage, except among seamen, Holmes' Hole has disappeared and been replaced by Vineyard Haven. Wood's hole has been converted into Wood's Holl, though still pronounced hole; while Robinson and Quick still remain holes. In this case shall we attempt to be consistent, or in other words to be uniform?