186 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
(Micmac-English Dictionary, 139), a very important word, by the way, in connection 
‘with the explanation of our PIJ-E-BOOG-WEK. The second part of BOOGWEK 
1 take to be identical with the root GWEK or QUEK, already discussed under the 
‘word Upsalquitch, and meaning A BRANCH or a minor river (these Transactions, 
V, 1911, ii, 189). ‘Thus BOOGWEK signifies collectively, an inlet of salt water 
forming a river, that is, an inlet which forms part of a river as distinct from one 
forming a cul-de-sac. Such a feature is called in geography an “estuary,” and in 
this region is ways called A TIDEWAY. Thus the roots of the word would be 
: PIJ-BOOGWEK, meaning LONG TIDEWAY. I think there is no doubt at all as 
to the correctness of this meaning. 
The word KOUCHIBOUGUACIS is, of coufse, simply the diminutive of KOU- 
CHIBOUGUAG, and means THE LITTLE KOUCHIBOUGUAC. The termination 
CIS or SIS suggests the Maliseet rather than Micmac tongue, which would read 
CHICH or CHITCH: but our form is without doubt simply the result of the white 
man’s, especially the. Acadian’s, simplification of the very similar sounds, for an old 
plan in the Crown Land Office has PISAMAGUATCHETH for this river, showing 
clearly enough the Micmac termination. It is, by the way, a bit unfortunate that 
the C instead of the S was retained by Lockwood when he dropped one of the two 
- needless letters, for the S would have allowed no possible doubt as to the pronuncia- 
tion, while the C carries a suggestion that it ought to be sounded hard as in Kouch- 
ibouguac, though it never is. 
If now we inquire how the aboriginal PIJIBOOGWEK became transformed 
into the Acadian KAGIBOUGUET, I can only surmise that it occurred through a 
confusion of the two rather similar sounds in the direction of familiarization by some 
early user of the name, whose influence was enough to give that form a start which 
was followed by all later comers. Such an origin is wholly in harmony with our 
knowledge of the modes of transformations of place names. 
We consider now the reason for the application of this particular name to the 
place. As I knew from my own observation and experience on the spot, the tide 
runs up the somewhat narrow and winding Kouchibouguac to some distance above 
the village,—originally a mile above though now somewhat less because of changes 
introduced by mills,—thus making the total tideway some 7 to 8 miles in length; 
and that of the Kouchibouguacis is only a little shorter. This is by far the longest 
tideway exhibited by any river in this vicinity, excluding of course the broad arms 
of the sea formed by the Richibucto and Buctouche, and is therefore a distinctive 
* and important feature, amply explaining the reason for the application of the name. 
As to Sable River in Nova Scotia, whose Indian name is identical, the large-scale 
charts show that it likewise possesses an unusually long tideway. 
OTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THE NAME. The earliest explanation of the word 
that I have found was given by M. H. Perley in one of his lectures on New Brunswick 
Rivers, published in an early New Brunswick newspaper whose identity and date I 
have lost; he deriyes it from KOOHAWAAK, meaning CARIBOO PLAIN (these 
Transactions, XH, 1906, ii, 29). Now Perley obviously took this idea from Cooney 
(History of North rn New Brunswick and Gaspé, 1832, 147), who, however, although 
he mentions KOOUHAWAAK, OR THE CARRIBOO PLAINS, and KOUCHI- 
BOUGUACK on the same page, does not in any way connect them. Hence Perley’s 
explanation is merely a guess, if not, indeed, merely a freak of his own observation 
or memory. This word KOOUHAWAAK, by the way, is simply the Micmac 
KWAAK, or MKWAAK, meaning BOG, or BARREN, as will later appear in this 
series. 
