36 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Place-nomenclature. 



Mr. Andrew Wilson, as applying- formerly to the fine birch woods 

 where the lighthouse now stands, in which the cattle of the settlers 

 formerly wandered; the word is an Acadian mélange, meaning " the 

 birch (grove) of the cattle." Mai Baie, in common use, probably is 

 a corruption of " Morue Bay," or " Cod Bay," a name occurring else- 

 where in Acadia, and alludes to the cod which have appeared there 

 frequently and have been left stranded at low tide. On the different 

 maps the names big and little are applied to them, but with no con- 

 stancy, and sometimes transposed, but they are not used locally. The 

 term Queue, meaning of course " a tail," is in constant local use for 

 the two narrow-necked bays as shown on the map, but the word does 

 not occur elsewhere in the Province so far as I know. Lalce Chenire 

 is said locally to mean " Oak Lake " (obviously including the root 

 chciic), though the word Chenire is not used now in Acadian; the 

 name is known by the older residents to have been given when oak 

 staves were made in the woods on its southern shore. Grande Plaine 

 is descriptive of the great beach-plain here built up by the sea (as 

 described in the paper above cited in Bulletin of the N. B. Nat. Hist. 

 Soc). Lav Fryc is so named, without doubt, for the Canadian who 

 had a fishing establishment here in 1775 (Canadian Archives, 1894, 

 331). Miniroc Lake, on old maps applied to Lac Frye, but now used 

 for the little lake near the lighthouse, is said to be for another early 

 fisherman. Landry River is for the early settler of that name, after- 

 wards one of the founders of Upper Caraquet. All of the other names 

 on the map are obviously descriptive, either of physical peculiarities, 

 ownership, etc. Blacl: Point (Pointe Noire by the French) still in use 

 by older people, applies not so much to the outer point at Wilson's 

 as to the settlement, and probably was originally applied inside the 

 harbour. 



One series of the descriptive names, those applied to the smaller 

 lakes, have been mostly given by Dr. J. Orne Green, of Boston, (a 

 sportsman who has camped on the island in autumn for some twenty- 

 eight years past) and for various reasons descriptive of physical pecu- 

 liarities or commemorative of some of his friends or guides who have 

 been with him there. The maps and charts commonly apply the name 

 Miscou Point, or Point Sliscou to the extreme northern point of the 

 island, but this is not the local usage, which calls the northern end 

 Northicest Point, and applies Point Miscou, or, more commonly, Miscou 

 Point to the vicinity of the lighthouse, a usage which is, at least, as 

 old as 1832 (Cooney, 177). The settlement near the lighthouse is 

 called Miscou Point Settlement, with a strong tendency to shorten it 

 simply to Miscou Settlement, or even simply to Miscou. On the charts 

 occur the names Mya Point, South Mya Point, Pecten Point and 

 Pandora Point (the former being the scientific names of the clam and 

 the scallop respectively), given, no doubt, by the oflàcers of the Ad- 

 miralty Survey in 1838, but they have never come into use and are 

 entirely unknown locally. All of the Miscou local names may be 

 found upon an Historical Map,- accompanying my paper, " The History 

 of Miscou," in Acadiensis, Vol. VI. 



