188 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
falls at the town of St. George “where the Indians used to spear them.” And he 
gives many additional particulars in illustration of their large size and unusual 
abundance. The eel, as is well-known, was a favorite fish, and a main reliance of the 
Indians. The name BIG EEL PLACE therefore expresses a very striking and 
important characteristic of this river from the Indian point of view. As to the 
appropriateness of the name at Liscomb Harbor, Mr. James R. Laing, Postmaster 
of that place, writes me that Liscomb is a good locality for eels though no better so 
far as he knows than some neighboring places. 
In the light of the history of the word as cited above it is plain that MAGAGUA- 
DAVIC, sanctioned by high official use and recognition for more than a century, 
should remain the standard form of the word, although it involves a minor error of 
spelling, and its Indian form could be rendered better by MAGEGADAVIC or 
MAGAGADAVIC. It is however wholly improbable that the word can retain 
indefinitely its cumbersome spelling; and the best form for expressing its actual 
pronunciation, while retaining as much of its origin and history as possible, would be 
MACADAVIE. 
OTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THE Name.—The earliest explanation of any kind 
that I have found is contained in a memorandum of an interview in 1796 between 
the British Agents of the Boundary Commission and some Passamaquoddy Indians, 
which reads ‘‘MAGAGUADAVIC was so called on account of the high hills upon 
it” (Kilby, Eastport and Passamaquoddy, 115). The same meaning is given by 
Robert Cooney in 1832 (History of Northern New Brunswick, 24), by Abraham 
Gesner in one of the earliest known lists of New Brunswick Place-names (in the 
New Brunswick Courier for Nov. 18, 1837). This explanation has been much 
repeated in various local publications, and is that commonly accepted locally. 
But the name contains no root that bears any resemblance to any word for HILL, 
while the evidence for EEL seems perfectly conclusive. I think there is no doubt 
that this interpretation arose in a misunderstanding of the pronunciation of the 
Indians by the British agents afore-mentioned, who mistook the word EELS for 
HILLS, a very natural error; and this explanation once given has been copied and 
repeated by one writer after another without investigation down to this day. 
Summary.—The word MAGAGUADAVIC is certainly of Micmac Indian origin, 
a corruption of MAG-E-GAD-A’-VIC, and means BIG EEL PLACE, in description 
of a characteristic feature of the river highly important from the Indian point of 
view. 
Upsalquitch. 
LOCATION AND APPLICATION.—The name of a river in Northern New Brunswick 
flowing into the lower part of the Restigouche from the south: also a lake at its 
source. 
The river is fully described, with a brief explanation of its name, in the Bulletin 
of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, No. XXII, 1903, 179. 
Two different types of pronunciation of the word are in use. The literary, 
and educational, pronunciation, also used by some residents, is UP-SAL-QUITCH’ 
following the spelling very exactly. The local pronunciation, used by most resi- 
dents and by all country people and lumbermen, varies considerably, being AP-SA- 
GOOCH’, AP-SE-QUISH’, AP-SET-KETCH’, or AP-STI-GOOSH’. Rev. W. H. 
Herdman, in his history of Restigouche, which region he knew well, says of it “ gen- 
erally pronounced AB-SA-QUISH, and vacillating from that to AB-STA-GOUCHE.” 
(St. John Sun, Feb. 8, 1883.) 
