Iganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 85 



E. The Pokiok heights, near the City of Saint John. 



This name is now appUed to the elevated broken land forming the eastern side 

 of the Narrows, of the Saint John River, just above Indiantown, a part of the City 

 of Saint John. The place commands a grand view, on which account it is occupied 

 by a few summer cottages or club-houses. These Narrows are of post-glacial cliff- 

 walled sort, and are separated by an open basin from a far narrower and more 

 remarkable gorge below, in which lie the famous "reversing falls." At one time I 

 supposed {these Transactions, II, 1896, ii, 2fi3), that the name Pokiok became extend- 

 ed to this place from a tiny brook thus called, falling into the Narrows, but no 

 brook of that name, but only some tiny small ravines, exist here. Seeking further 

 for explanation, one recalls that the gorge and fall below Indiantown are just such 

 a place as gave origin to the name Pokiok in the localities above mentioned, and 

 the theory is attractive that we have here another, and in this case the grandest of all, 

 of the Pokioks. But this can hardly be correct for three reasons, — first, the word 

 Pokiok applies in the other cases not to the gorge and fall, but to the stream that 

 runs through them, and the River Saint John was obviously not called Pokiok; 

 second, on this view the name would apply not to the Narrows where it does, but to 

 the gorge at the Falls below ; third, if the name were a persistence from an aboriginal 

 name of this locality, it could not have escaped mention in some of the many detailed 

 early maps and records relating to this region, whereas it does not appear in them 

 at all, and has only a modern conversational and newspaper use. Accordingly it 

 wovdd seem that we must seek its origin in a modern transference here from some 

 other place. In this connection, Mr. Clarence Ward, of Saint John, well known 

 among New Brunswick historians for the extent and accuracy of his local knowledge, 

 has recently written me as follows: — "I have ascertained the following facts. Some 

 sixty years ago, Robert Robertson, a lime-burner, acquired the lands on the heights, 

 which he named Glenburnie. He built a saw mill in the ravine at the foot of the 

 hill, which for a time was run by his son. It was sold to Miller and Woodman. 

 They procured the most of their logs from the Pokiok River [the first mentioned 

 in this paper), and in time it got to be called 'The Pokiok Mills.' About fifty years 

 ago the name Pokiok became generally applied to the height above and the land 

 in the vicinity, and is now in general use for that locality." This statement of Mr. 

 Ward's comes directly from his sources of information in Saint John, accords so 

 perfectly with the known methods by which place-names arise, and is so entirely 

 consistent with all the data we possess with respect to the name, that I have no 

 question as to its essential correctness. It seems clear, therefore, that the word 

 Pokiok in this case is merely a transference from the river of that name first mentioned 

 in this paper. 



Other Acadian Place-names involving the root POK identical with that 



in Pokiok. 



The root POK, or POOK, meaning NARROWS, is liable to be confused with 

 two others which occur very frequently in Acadian place-names, — viz., POKW mean- 

 ing SHALLOW as in POKWOGAMIS and others to be discussed, and POG, meaning 

 DRY, always found, however, in conjunction with OMK, or OPSK, as will later be 

 shown. Other roots BOOK, meaning FIRE, ^vith POOK and BOOG in compounds 

 meaning PORCUPINE and ROUND CLAM (in both latter cases probably ulti- 

 mately from our POK or POOK) are usually easily distinguishable by the associated 

 roots. The same is true also, no doubt, of the Maliseet PUKANUS, meaning 

 BUTTERNUT, which occurs in place names later to be noted. Words undoubtedly 



