The usage of newspapers and of text-books on geography would probably favor the writing of the class names in the examples above with initial capitals; but we find in the most carefully printed books and periodicals a tendency to favor small letters in such cases.
In the superscription of letters, such words as street, city, and county begin with capitals.
Usage certainly favors small initials for the following italicized words: river Rhine, Catskill village, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. If river and village, in the preceding examples, are not essential parts of the individual names, why should river, ocean, and county, in Hudson river, Pacific ocean, Queens county, be treated differently? We often say the Hudson, the Pacific, Queens, without adding the explanatory class name.
The principle we suggest may be in advance of common usage; but it is in the line of progress, and it tends to uniformity of practice and to an improved appearance of the page. About a century ago every noun began with a capital letter.
The American Cyclopedia takes a position still further in advance, as illustrated in the following: Bed river, Black sea, gulf of Mexico, Rocky mountains. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Little, Brown, & Co., 9th ed.) we find Connecticut river, Madison county, etc., quite uniformly; but we find Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean, etc.]
+Direction+.—Write these words, using capital letters when needed:—
city of atlanta, isle of man, straits of dover, state of Vermont, isthmus of darien, sea of galilee, queen of england, bay of naples, empire of china.
+Remember+ that, when a compound name is made up of two or more distinguishing words, as, Henry Clay, John Stuart Mill, each word begins with a capital letter.
+Direction+.—Write these words, using capital letters when needed:—
great britain, lower california, south carolina, daniel webster, new england, oliver wendell holmes, north america, new orleans, james russell lowell, british america.