[GANONG] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 185 
sufhix TOOK, or A-TOOK, meaning RIVER. shortened to T, signifying PLACE. It 
is as if we were to say in English not OROMOCTO RIVER, but THE OROMOCTO. 
The locative suffix K by the way, was very commonly omitted by the French in 
adopting Indian place-names. i: 
In the light of the history of the word it is evident that a better spelling than 
OROMOCTO, and one at the same time more consonant with its best local pronun- 
ciation, would be ORAMUCTO, which would have also the advantage of giving a 
more euphoniously-composed word—a variety of vowels being more pleasing than 
a monotony. But the spelling OROMOCTO has been fixed by over a century of 
the best usage and should therefore be retained as the standard form. Moreover, it 
has the highest official sanction, since it has been adopted by the Geographic Board 
of Canada. 
OTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THE NAME.—The first attempt to explain the word 
that I have been able to find, occurs in a list of place names of Indian origin published 
by the geologist Gesner in the New Brunswick Courier for Nov. 18, 1837, where its 
meaning is given, without analysis, as DEEP RIVER. This explanation was 
adopted in local literature, where it occurs commonly; and it is given the endorse- 
ment of Edward Jack, who knew the Indians well, in an article of his upon place- 
names (Journal of American Folk-Lore, VIII, 1895, 204). The facts above given 
suffice, I think, to show that the word DEEP is here descriptive of canoe navigation» 
and is really in harmony, though incompletely, with the meaning FINE RIVER, 
I have myself given the meaning GOOD RIVER ‘“in the sense of having plenty of 
water for canoe navigation”? (These Transactions, IT, 1896, 11, 259). The only other 
explanation I have found was given me by the late A. 8. Gatschet, of Washington, 
a distinguished authority upon Indian matters, who suggested in a letter a possible 
connection with WELAM, meaning SEA SALMON; but his thought was based 
merely upon coincidence of the words and not upon any direct evidence. 
Summary.—The word OROMOCTO is certainly of Micmac Indian origin, a 
corruption of WEL-A-MOOK’-TOOK, and means FINE RIVER, in description ot 
the attractive character of its lower course from the point of view of Indian interests. 
Magaguadavic. 
LocaTION AND APPLICATION.—The name of a river in southwestern New Bruns- 
wick, flowing into Passamaquoddy Bay from the north: also two lakes at its source: 
a railroad station near the lakes: and applied formerly, and still sometimes by old 
people, to the settlement which is now the town of St. George. A detailed descrip- 
tion, with large-scale maps, of river and lakes is contained in a fully-annotated 
reprint of the journals of the first surveyors, published in the Collections of the New 
Brunswick Historical Society, III, 1909, 167, a work which gives also the Indian 
names of the principal branches, with comments thereon, 
The word is invariably pronounced by residents of the region as if it were spelled 
MAC-A-DAY’-VEE, although it is spelled always in print, upon maps; in news- 
papers, etc., as MAGAGUADAVIC, or else in a form closely approximating thereto. 
The only exception to this spelling that I have noticed is a local abbreviation of 
M’DAVY for the Station by railroad men, though even the railroad company uses 
the full form in its time tables, The preservation of the cumbersome spelling in 
face of the simple pronunciation is a remarkable nomenclatorial phenomenon, which 
probably arose in an historical circumstance mentioned below. 
