6 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Place-nomenclature. 



great many of them are current in New Brunswick. Thus, to takt* 

 those of most dignity, Shepody is locally believed to be derived from 

 Chapeau Dieu, God's hat, in allusion to Shepody mountain. Tetagouche 

 is supposed to be corruption of Tête-à-gauche, explained by a story to 

 the effect that its first explorers found it heading unexpectedly " to 

 the left " as they ascended it. Yet we know that both of these words 

 are of Indian origin. Again Tormentine is said locally to be named for 

 the torments suffered through mosquitoes, et-c., by its first settlers, and 

 Midgic similarly for torments of midgets. Again, Pointe de Bute is 

 locally said to be altered from Point of Boat, name of a ferry once 

 there. Yet we know the origins of these words were very different. 

 Again, it is sometimes thought, (especially by those who have come to 

 know that place-names undergo much change) that some names of very 

 obvious origin have arisen in some more complex manner. Thus Devil's 

 Head on the St. Croix (in Maine) is locally explained by some as 

 rightly Duval's Head, from a former resident, and by others as 

 D'orville's Head (for a companion of Champlain). Yet there is every 

 evidence that it really originated in its present form. Of a somewhat 

 different nature are the origins attributed to Indian and other strange 

 names. Thus, I have seen Quaco explained in a newspaper as from 

 a phrase uttered in irritation by an Indian maiden disturbed by the 

 noise of wild ducks, " hush, don't quack so " ; two or three corre- 

 spondents write me that Portohello is locally explained as the result 

 of the loud halloing of a man named Porter when lost in the woods, as 

 reported by an Indian who said " Porter Bellow " ; another corre- 

 spondent tells me Nauwigewauk is locally explained as the expression 

 of an Indian whose wearied squaw had been allowed to rest there for 

 a time, — "^now would ye walk"; Kennehecasis is often explained, even 

 in print, as result of the expression of two travellers lost on the river 

 in a snowstorm, who saw a tavern on the bank, which they thought they 

 knew, and one asked the other, " Can it be Cases ?" Again Try on 

 Settlement, in Charlotte, is stated to have been named when it was new 

 by a traveller who approached it at night and asked for lodging, and 

 was told to "try on,'' and received the same reply at each. And there 

 are, no doubt, many others. Yet in most, if not all, these cases, 

 we know the true origin, which is very different.^ Originally, no doubt, 



*• In the same spirit, though in different form is the " legend " of the 

 origin of the name Tobique, locally explained as extended from Tobique Rocks 

 (below the mouth of that river), which name, in turn, arose thus: an 

 Indian and the Devil were throwing these rocks to see which could throw 

 the farthest, and the Indian in his ardour having stepped over the proper 

 mark, the Devil exclaimed, " toe-back." 



