72 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



of the commonest species were brought up from muddy bottoms. The 

 conditions off Quaco are not at all favorable to an abundance of animal 

 life, which clusters rather about sheltered passages where gentle tidal 

 cui'rents sweep constantly through. — [W. F. G.] 



Origin of the Name Quaco. 



By Dr. W. F. Ganong. 



There is no real doubt as to the origin of this word. By the 

 Micmacs it was, and is, called Gool-wah-gah-kek (the first g very obscure 

 and easily missed), from Goolwaakw, the hooded seal, with the locative, 

 eh. Hence the word means, " Place of the hooded seal." It first 

 occurs on the Franquelin-DeMeulles map of 1686 in the form Ariquaki, 

 which, allowing for the French sounds, for the omission of the obscure 

 preliminary g, for the replacement of the / by r, as was invariable with 

 the French, and for the omission, common on French maps, of the 

 final k, is plainly from the Indian word. It next appears on Black - 

 more's map of 1712 as Roquaque, of which the relation to the French 

 form is plain, and later plans have Oreequaco. Finally, on a plan of 

 1762, it first occurs in its present form. Several other explanations 

 of she word have been given, but in no case has any evidence been 

 adduced in their support. The history of the word is traced with 

 greater fulness in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada 

 (new series), Vol. II, section ii, page 264, and in a letter in the St. 

 John Daily Telegraph, Nov. 16, 1896. 



Another word, in the same vicinity, of great interest is Point St. 

 Tooley, applied locally, though on no chart, to the eastern headland of 

 Quaco Bay. This is probably a survival, and English corruption, of 

 Point St. Louis, given by Champlain in 1 604. Champlain named a 

 river at Quaco (probably Vaughan's Creek), Riviere de St. Louis, and 

 it seems probable, though there is no proof of it, that this name became 

 extended to the cape, and was passed along by the French and New 

 England pilots down to the present. 



