[GANONG] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE. 261 



earlier CAMCEAU for CANCEAU Bellin may have been influenced by the occur- 

 rence of this form on Champlain's maps; but it is much more likely that he reflected 

 therein the established pronunciation, which by this time had settled upon the N 

 sound after a long period of vacillation between M and N. This receives confirma- 

 tion from the early adoption of the N upon English maps, the earliest that I find 

 being Moll's of 1715, which applies the form CANSEAUX to the Strait. This soon 

 became simplified to Ci\NSO, which I find first upon the Morris map of 1749 pub- 

 lished with The Journal of Captain William Pole, (New York, 1896). Morris applies 

 the name to the Cape, to Islands in the vicinity, and to the Strait. This form soon 

 became prevalent upon the English maps, and finally attained to universal use, 

 though with an occasional partial return to a French form, of which a conspicuous 

 instance is found in Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia, of 1829, which uses 

 CANSEAU. An early English corruption of the word was CANCER, used by 

 Colonel Church in 1696 (Drake's History of Philip's War, 1827, 227). 



Summarizing now the history of the word it seems plain, (1) it was in use 

 before its earliest recorded appearance; (2) its early recorded forms were prevail- 

 ingly CAMPSEAU and CAMSEAU, with CANCEAU as exceptional, though 

 finally this form prevailed; (3) it was applied especially to the Harbour, from which 

 it was apparently extended to the Bay, as it certainly was from the Bay to the Strait, 

 its original use being thus apparently for the Harbour only. In a new country 

 where place-names are scant, there is always a tendency to extend them to cover a 

 number of features in their vicinity. 



Analysis of the Word. — Lescarbot affirmed, in 1609, in the key to his map, 

 that the word is Indian, and all evidence sustains his statement. Our best authority 

 upon the Micmac language, Rev. S. T. Rand, gives the name in his works as Micmac, 

 deriving it from CAMSÔK, to which he assigns the meaning, "Opposite a high bluff" 

 (First Reading Book in the Micmac Language, 85), while elsewhere (Micmac- English 

 Dictionary, 183) he gives with the spelling KAMSÔK, the meaning "Opposite the 

 lofty cliffs." Again, Rev. Father Pacifique, another of our best authorities in Mic- 

 mac, gives its aboriginal form as GAMSOG (Micmac Almanac published in 1902), 

 though he does not mention any meaning. With Rand's information to aid, it is 

 easy to resolve the word into its roots, of which there are two. The first is obviously 

 the inseparable prefix KAM, part of KAMÂÀK, meaning ACROSS, or BEYOND 

 (Rand, English-Micmac Dictionary, 5, 36). This prefix occurs in a number of combi- 

 nations meaning ACROSS, or ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF e.g., KAMESEBOO 

 (K) meaning ACROSS, or ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF, THE RIVER, the root 

 SEBOO meaning River, K being the locative, and the E after the M being simply 

 separative for ease of pronunciation (op. cit. 5, 186). In these cases, as in all others 

 given by Rand, the meaning is always across, beyond, or on the other side of, the 

 object mentioned from the speaker, and not across from or opposite the object itself. 

 It is to be noted, by the way, that the correctness of KAM as the first root is con- 

 firmed by the prevalence of M instead of N in the early forms of the name, as above 

 recorded. 



Turning now to the second part of the word KAMSÔK, that also is plain. It is 

 anjnseparable root SÔK, meaning BLUFF or CLIFF. Thus, Rand gives for CLIFF 

 KAKOOSOK (English-Micmac Dictionary, 60), and gives 'MTÂSÔK' as PRECI- 

 PICE (op. cit., 202); a CAVE is LAMSÔK (literally "inside a CLIFF," op. cit., 53; 

 Micmac-English Dictionary, 86), while the same root occurs in the place names, 

 KTADOOSOK, SEVOGLE, and others considered below. Placing now this root 

 SOK in place of SEBOO in the combination given above, we have KAM-SÔK, mean- 

 ing ACROSS THE CLIFF or ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CLIFF, or 



