In defense of cartography : a polemic over localization and identification of Lubosz Lakes

In the article from 1984, the geographer Janusz Gołaski questioned a part of cartographic information referring to the names of lakes Czarne and Obierznie lying in the area or direct vicinity of the village Lubosz situated in the west of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland). Basing on both historical information and the information obtained in the area in contemporary times, he situated them (together with lake Uścięcino, known from older sources) at the distance of approximately 2.5 kilometers from Lubosz, west of the neighbouring village of Niemierzewo. The present article undertakes polemics with this view, attempting to establish the old borders of the localities of that region and making use of non-cartographic sources, unknown to Janusz Gołaski, which come from the 20th century. It follows from them that first of all one should assume the existence of two different lakes of the same name Czarne in the two neighbouring villages. The source from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries also indicates that the places named Obierznie and Uścięcino were found within the borders of contemporary Lubosz. Probably, all names of lakes mentioned in older sources in the context of Lubosz referred to the lakes lying south of the line of latitude marked by the road Lubosz–Wituchowo. The second, shorter part of the article discusses the names of the earlier mentioned lakes. Of most important findings one should mention rejecting the existing etymologies of the name Oćmiech (Oczmiech), which is treated here as unclear, and the new explanation of the lake name Obiersze (later, also Obierzwia, Obierznie and Obierzne) based on a topographic appellative noun referring to the terrain known in South Slavic languages.