[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 105 



Bay, into the westernmost of which Dennys River empties. They are salt-water 

 falls of the intermittent or reversing type, caused by the pouring of great tides 

 through a narrow and obstructed passage into an extensive basin. They form, 

 as I know well from personal experience, a conspicuous feature of the region, at times 

 an impediment to navigation and a peril to boatmen, and much of the time announc- 

 ing their presence by the sound they make. As John Lola said, the name KOPS- 

 COOK means, FALLS PLACE. The roots are thus evident. First is the root 

 KAPSKW meaning WATERFALL, and second a terminal K, or OK, which is simply 

 the locative suffix meaning PLACE. This derivation is fully confirmed by the 

 high authority of the late A.S. Gatschet, a scientific student of the languages of the 

 eastern Indians, who derives it mthout question from IvAPSKUK, meaning AT 

 THE WATERFALLS, from KAPSKU, meaning CASCADES {National Geographic 

 Magazine, VIII, 1897, 21), though Gatschet does not apply the name to any partic- 

 ular falls, apparently not having acquaintance with those above mentioned. The 

 same meaning is also given the word, on Indian authority, by L. L. Hubbard (Woods 

 and Lakes of Maine, 196). The word KAPSKW by the way, appears to be Micmac; 

 it is given by Rand as KA.PSKW {English- Micmac Dictionary, 106), and I do not 

 find an exact equivalent in Maliseet, Penobscot, or Abnaki, the PAGOPSK, earlier 

 mentioned (page 8) being a little different. Thus this name would fall into harmony 

 with Magaguadavic, Bocabec, and Passamaquoddy as having a Micmac origin. Tak- 

 ing the evidence together there can seem to be no question that the name in the 

 aboriginal form was KAPSKW-OOK, meaning FALLS PLACE, in description of the 

 notable tidal Falls occurring in Cobscook Bay. So far as etymology is concerned, 

 it would have been better, by the way, if the form COPSCOOK instead of COBS- 

 COOK had survived; yet pronunciation favors the latter, doubtless because of a 

 greater ease of making the sound. 



Other Explanations oi<' the Word. — In Ballard's Geographical Names on 

 the Coast of Maine (in Report of the United States Coast Survey, for 1868, 249), the 

 name is derived from words meaning STURGEON RIVER, apparently upon a 

 misleading analogy of another name elsewhere. Ballard's method of interpreting 

 names from their modern map spellings without any reference to their history is 

 worse than useless, since it tends to substitute positive error for negative ignorance. 

 His paper is valueless to any one who mshes to find the truth, and is all the more 

 mischievous since the prominence of its place of publication has given it an ad- 

 ventitious appearance of authority which had led to the wide citation and acceptance 

 of its errors It was probably this suggestion of Ballard's, however, which lead 

 J. H. Trumbull, an authority of a wholly different and very high character, to 

 suggest a possible derivation from IvABASSAKHIGE', meaning STURGEON- 

 CATCHING PLACE {Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, II, 42). 

 But such merely analogical speculations cannot stand for a moment in comparison 

 with such positive direct evidence as is cited above for the history, contemporary 

 Indian use, and applicability of the name. 



Summary. — The name COBSCOOK is a slight corruption from the Indian, 

 probably originally Micmac, KAPSKW-OOK, meaning FALLS-PLACE, in descrip- 

 tion of the prominent tidal falls which occur in the Bay. 



Other Acadian Place-names involving the root KAPSKW of Cobscook. 



SUBOGUAPSK. The aboriginal Indian name for the fine Fall on the Magagua- 

 davic River at the Town of Saint George in southwestern New Brunswick, as given 

 in the highly-authoritative Field Book of the Survey of the river in 1796-7 {Collections 

 of the New Brunswick Historical Society, III, 1909, 176). My speculations, in a note 



