Place-names, it is now acknowledged, form one of the most reliable sources of information as to ancient and prehistoric times, and are among the most enduring and unaltering records of the past. In all the older countries of the world the names of the mountains and rivers, of the fields and the valleys, of the farms and villages and towns, as well as of all other geographical features, reveal the existence and successive occupation of the soil from remote epochs by many different races of mankind. And in the newer countries the names given to places tell in the plainest terms of their discoverers, and often fix the date of their becoming known to the civilized world.