434 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



SKOTA, meaning WHERE THERE ARE DWELLINGS, in allusion to the Gorges 

 settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec. This interpretation is, however, like most 

 of its author's explanations, merely a random guess made without any reference to 

 the history, etymology or geography of the name. Potter makes the name 

 "evidently a corruption of NAMAASKAUKE or NAMAASKEES-AUKE" but 

 without explanation, and clearly only as a guess {Collections of the Maine Historical 

 Society, ve., 1856, 189). 



There is no doubt, however, it seems to me, that the name is not Indian at ail. 

 Mrs. Eckstorm has traced back the word in great detail through the early Maine 

 deeds and sends me the evidence to show that never once is there any trace of the 

 letter N in the termination, which the -KONTE theory of its origin requires, while 

 on the other hand it keeps substantially its present spelling back to 1659, when it is 

 DAMARIS COTTY. {York Deeds, XVI, fol. 113). Ballard {op. cit.) gives 

 TAMESCOT from Heylin, whose Cosmographie was published in 1657. Earlier than 

 that, however, in 1651, the place appears to be called DAMIRISCOVE River {Suffolk 

 Deeds, I, 24). Now DAMARISCOVE (sometimes DAMISCOVE) is the name of a 

 well-known Island at the mouth of DAMARISCOTTA River, so that evidently the 

 River was in this instance at least named from the Island. Taking the name DAM- 

 ARISCOVE of the Island, Mrs. Eckstorm's records show that it goes back in an 

 unbroken line to DAMIRELLS COVE Island (1650, Suffolk Deeds, III, 48, 49), and 

 back of that to DAMERILS ISLES, in which form it appears in the description of 

 this coast made in 1614 by Captain John Smith, who gives it in his work in a way to 

 imply that the word is not Indian, but the name of some Englishman, probably 

 somebody in England whom Smith wished to honor, or some early adventurer who 

 used it as a fishing station or the like. Thus it seems very clear that there is a 

 connection between DAMARISCOVE ISLAND with its purely English origin, and 

 DAMARISCOTTA River. It is scarcely within the bounds of possibility, under 

 the circumstances, that one of these two associated names could be English and 

 the other Indian. 



Having thus, as I believe, traced the word out of an Indian origin, it becomes 

 no part of my present duty to follow it further, and I must leave to others its ultimate 

 analysis. It may possibly prove to represent a corruption of DAMARISCOVE 

 OUTER RIVER, in application to the outer tidal part as distinct from the inner 

 freshwater stream; or the latter part of the word may prove to have a connection 

 with John Cotter, the Indian Sagamore who, as the early deeds show {York Deeds, 

 XVI, 344), sold lands on this river to the first white settlers. It may also have 

 a connection with SHEEPSCOT, the next River to the westward, of which the name 

 still needs explanation, and which itself may have had originally a termination identical 

 with that of DAMARISCOTTA. There is, indeed, a curious problem involved in these 

 names, for the early deeds indicate not only a certain connection of DAMARIS with 

 ANDROSCOGGIN, both DAMROSCOGIN and DAMRALLSCOGON appearing 

 in early records, {Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Baxter MS. Vol. VI, 

 151, 177); but a similar connection between SHEEPSCUT and PEJEPSCUT 

 {York Deeds, XV, Vol. 99), the name for a place on the lower Androscoggin. These 

 matters, however, have no connection with our immediate subject. 



Tracadie. 



The name of four places, in three cases extant, in New Brunswick, Prince 

 Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. The name has the same pronunciation in all 

 cases, — the vowels being short except for the dipthong ie, and the accent on the 

 first syllable. We consider them separately. 



