In the Victoria School Record published an article on the above subject. Away from school and without a copy of that article this little contribution is written from memory with a hope that it will stimulate an interest in place names among the boys and girls of Victoria and Dow Hill. The names of the commonest places are charged with historical associations. The History of Calcutta can be told in large part by the names of its streets. It is for this reason that the practice of the Calcutta Corporation in re-naming streets is so reprehensible. The construction of Waterloo Street is dated by its name. So are Moira Street, Loudon (strictly LOUDOUN) And Rawdon Street, named after the various titles of Lord Hastings (Governor- General) 1813-1823) and his wife.

Leaving Sealdah Station in BAITAKHANA (the resting place of merchants on their way to Suttanuttee: - the cotton mart, where under a large tree Job Charnock the Founder of Calcutta is traditionally said to have transacted business) we awake in the morning at SILIGURU. Stony site is a Koch word which refers to the boulders and loose gravel, deposited by the mountain streams, the largest of which is the Mahanadi, that debouche into the plains at this point. The Kochs with the Dhimals and Mechis are the aboriginals of the terai. In features they represent the Kochari Or Cahari of Assam. Ethnologically and etymologically these two people are related

Having changed into the D.H.R. our first stop is SUKNA - a Nepali word meaning the dry place, where water was difficult to procure. We pass PANCHKEELA - the five posts which consisted of the mile stone of the cart road (built in 1861) and four old boundary pillars indicating the frontier of what was Sikkim territory before its lease to the E.I.C. RUNGTONG is a Lepcha word meaning 'the Southern (rung) stream (tong)' - ie., the Mahanadi CHOONBATI (Nepali) near which is the loop, recalls the days when there was a Lime kiln here.

Before the Railway was brought up to TINDHARIA (1880) that place was known as the 'Attarah Mill" is the eighteenth mile from Siliguri. The word Tindharia is Nepali and may have three derivations. It may mean the three ridges or knolls, clearly discernible from Sky Rock behind the Forest School at Dow Hill and on one of which is situated Selim Hill Tea Garden, the house of the late Mr. Dominy for many years a planter in this District and an old friend of the school. (His son is now the Manager). It may also mean the three houses, but what houses I do not know. Lastly it may mean the corrugated iron houses.

GYABARI, where the short cut well-known to run-aways from Victoria meets the Cart Road, is the Garden of Grain, known as 'Gya'. Fruit grows here plentifully and to me it always appears a fruitful spot. Flowers I believe thrive in its mild climate. The Track now turns eastward and passes over newly repaired slips and revetment walls which mark the PUGLA JHORA or Mad Stream, which used to give much anxiety to the engineers of the Road and Railway ; for it is always breaking out in new springs and channels in different places. The headwaters of the Pugla is the catchment area of the perennial springs in Mongail which provide us with our water supply.

Mahanadi station when the road and railway take a hair pin bend, according to the writer of the article in 1901, is not named after the 'great river', (as yet not great) over the valley of which you can look eastward at this spot but is derived from the same word as MAHALDIRAM, the tea garden and Reserved forest on the opposite slope. Mahaldi literally translated means bent going. GUMTI, the Tea Garden, the property of that old friend of our school Mr. George O'Brien, at Mahanadi, indicated the Bend.

And now after passing DONGAKOTI (the house of stone) we see KURSEONG, nestling in the ridge, which divides the Balisan from the Dhobijhora. Strictly speaking (listen to the way the hillman pronounces the word) the name of our station should be KURSANG. It is derived from two Lepcha words - kur and sheang. Kur is that grass and cane which is grown in every tea garden for the thatch of the coolies' houses. Sheang means 'stick'. Now seriously - it is not a joke - KURSANG means the place where hur canes grow which we use as sticks. What Victoria school boy has not visited the cane fields below 'point 500' or at Sepahidhura (the rest place of the sepoys). It is interesting too to note that KURBIA, the bungalow in that section of his garden, which Mr. John Stodart, the President of the Kurseong Boy Scouts also another old friend of Victoria, has placed at the disposal of the Scouts, also contains the term Kur.

TOONG is derived from the 'toon', the well known tree which is found in large numbers here. ...

When Hooker made his Himalayan Journey (not by the present cart road which did not then exist but) by the old military road he spent the night at PACHEEM Bungalow which he described in his journal as the worst he occupied in all his travels. It was at this point that the old Military Road turns Westward (pacheem). About 500 ft. below the site of the old Pacheem bungalow today is situated SONADA, where on the site of the Brewery was the Bungalow that replaced Hooker's. Sonada is Lepcha for the bear's den or 'the place where the bear slept'.

And now our midget railway after winding its way to a height of 1,000 ft. merges into the mist of GHUM. The name is most probably derived from the same word as 'Gumti' - the bend for the road bends westward through JORE BUNGALOW (twin bungalow) to Ghum gap and Batasi (the windy corner) where at the top we get the first grand sight of the snows. I have also heard it said that Ghum may be a Tibetan word meaning 'mist'. SENCHAL, according to our authority is a Lepcha word meaning the misty hill. Rising from Ghum station on the right is JALAPAHAR (the burnt hill) on whose treeless top are St. Paul's and the barracks.

Lastly comes DARJEELING - the place of the Dorje, the symbol of the thunderbolt, which all true lamas carry with them as proof of their priesthood - so our authority states.