Wednesday, May 24, 2006

In the course of getting himself snakebit, Chas has satisfied my long-standing curiosity regarding a certain New Mexico toponym. For years I had noted it on the maps, and in January Mrs. Peculiar and I actually climbed Osha Peak in the Manzano Mountains. I believe I have seen Osha elsewhere on the maps too, though further examples escape me at the moment. I had always thought, nay prayed, "Surely no one would name a pefectly good mountain in honour of a workplace safety bureaucracy, would they?" Many strange and dubious tributes do show up at USGS benchmarks, though. So I was quited relieved to learn of "oshá (Ligusticum porteri), a high-altitude plant whose root is used by herbalists for treating viral infections".

Another such burning question, in regard to which the Internet has utterly failed me, was recently satisfied by my uncle, who is very, very fluent in Spanish. The Tusas Mountains, the arm of the San Juans which depends southwards into New Mexico near Chama, are in English the Gopher Mountains. I love these instances in which the Web and its gibbering digital hordes are laid waste and pillaged by genuine erudition. (See also the very worthwhile article on library cataloguing vs. keyword searches, linked by Odious and Matt.)

Thanks Chas, and leave them snakes alone!