[g.\nong] additions to MONOGRAPHS 3§ 



Place-nomenclature. 



gor (British America, II, 260), who malves it, "a probable corruption 

 of Miracheet, a tribe of Micmacs once inhabiting its taanlcs," but he 

 evidently here has in mind the Maliseets, sometimes called Mariseets. 

 The meaning " Happy Retreat," first given by Cooney and widely 

 accepted, is of no value whatever, since the same meanhig is given 

 in an old document as applying to the Nepisiguit (Coll. N. B. Hist. 

 Soc, II, 128). On the map in the Micmac Almanac for 1902, pub- 

 lished by Rev. Father Pacifique, the word appears in the form 

 Malimcoisitg, and he writes me that this is the name applied to the 

 peninsula where Chatham stands, and it can mean " Place v/here one 

 collects diverse kinds of berries." But, he adds, that he does not 

 know whether this is an aboriginal word, or simply a Micmac pro- 

 nunciation of a word derived from the whites. 



Miscou. — The suggestion in Place-Nomenclature (page 253) that this name 

 may be derived from an Algonquin word meaning red, " describing the 

 low red cliffs about it," proves groundless, since, as I have found by 

 personal observation, no such cliffs exist. I find the local tradition 

 among the best-informed local residents makes the word Indian, mean- 

 ing " low land " or. as one told me, " boggj'^ land." This interpreta- 

 tion I find confirmed by Joe Prisk, the intelligent old Micmac of 

 Bathurst, who told me he thinks the word is Micmac, and means 

 " muddy land," having in it the root susqu, meaning " mud," in which 

 case the aboriginal form (which the Micmacs appear to have quite 

 lost) would have been something like El'susqit, easily shortened to 

 Miscou. I take it that the word means not only mud in our sense, 

 but also rauck, marsh, wet bog. In this case it forms an admirable 

 descriptive name, for the most striking fact about the physical geo- 

 graphy of Miscou is the prevalence there of open bogs or barrens 

 (copiously covered with boggy lakes), which, indeed, form over one- 

 half of the surface of the island (compare the map and description in 

 Bulletin of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of N.B., V, 449). The name Miscou seemg 

 to occur for the first time in Champlain's Narratives, under the year 

 1623. 



The local and historical nomenclature is of niuch interest. No 

 Indian naines, except Miscou itself, have survived, but many French 

 names are in use. The name Isle de Sainct Louis is applied to it in 

 the Jesuit Relations, and Cap de l'Espérance was given to its northern 

 point by Cartier in 1534 because in rounding it he hoped he had found 

 in Bay Chaleur the western passage. /. à Monsieur is applied upon 

 old maps to a small island in this vicinity which I think can be only 

 Money Island, the only one hereabouts which is striking enough to 

 be named on the old maps. The name Money Island (called by the 

 French Isle au Trésor) Is, of course, descriptive of the supposed treasure 

 there (see later, under Historic Sites). Pointe au Table and BoiiUin des 

 Boeufs occur upon (West's original map of the island in 1S20, and 

 both names are still known to the older residents, though not now in 

 actual use; Table, I presume, is connected in some way with Sable, 

 sand, while Boullin des Boeufs (spelled Bouillin des Boufs on West's 

 map) was explained to me, and I have no question, correctly, by 



