[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE. 263 



resemblance of words from different tongues. The fourth of the other explanations, 

 rests, curiously enough, upon an error made by Rand himself. Thus, as noted above, 

 he defines CAMSÔK as meaning "opposite a high bluff" and "opposite the lofty 

 cliffs," while elsewhere he gives "high banks opposite," {Micmac-English Dictionary, 

 60); and in ycl another place {English- Micmac Dictionary, 186), under the word 

 "opposite," he writes, "A steep bluff is on the opposite side, KÂMSÔK. (Hence the 

 pr.n. Canso) 1 ' Rand thus makes this word CAMSÔK mean a place across from a 

 cliff, or opposite to a cliff, (i.e., facing a cliff) which is quite a different thing from a 

 place across or beyond or on the opposite or other side of a cliff. But Rand's own 

 works are the very best witnesses that here he has erred somewhat. As comparison 

 of the data above given under the analysis of the word will show, all others, excepting 

 CAMSÔK, of his several combinations involving the root CAM or KAM carry for 

 this prefix the significance of across, beyond, or on the opposite side of the object 

 mentioned, i.e., the object mentioned is between the place meant and the speaker. 

 Furthermore, I cannot find in Rand's works any case whatever of the use of KAM in 

 a combination involving the meaning of opposite to, or across from, or facing the 

 object mentioned. It seems perfectly clear, therefore, that Rand in the case of 

 CAMSÔK, has been misled by the different meanings that can go with the word 

 "opposite." I infer that he, not having in mind the geographical relations of CANSO 

 to the cliffs between that place and Guysboro, has read into his phrase "opposite 

 side of," the meaning "opposite side from," — a rather natural, but in this case, quite 

 incorrect rendering; and this meaning once in his mind, it influenced all of his later 

 treatment of the word. It is precisely this same meaning, doubtless obtained origi- 

 nally from Rand himself, which underlies Gesner's rather fanciful but widely copied 

 phrase, "facing the frowning cliff" (Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia, I, 534). 



Summary. The name CANSO is of Micmac Indian origin, corrupted, through 

 the French, from KAM-SÔK, or, probably in full form KAM-SÔK-OOCH, meaning 

 literally BEYOND-CLIFF-PLACE, or, more freely, THE PLACE BEYOND THE 

 CLIFFS, in description of its position in relation to the line of cliffs along the south 

 side of Chedabucto Bay as considered from the direction of the more frequented 

 country centering in Guysboro. 



CAMSOGOOCH. A word given by Rand as the Micmac Indian name for 

 "Little Canso" {First Reading Book, cited, 85, and Micmac-English Dictionary, 183, 

 in the form KAMSÔKOOTC). The name "Little Canso" does not appear upon any 

 map or chart that I can find. Its application, however, is made plain by infor- 

 mation sent me by an interested and obliging resident of Canso, Mr. C. H. Whitman, 

 who says that Canso, Cape Canso, and Little Canso, are all names for precisely the 

 same place, in distinction from the Strait of Canso (which separates Cape Breton 

 Island from the peninsula of Nova Scotia), but that the name Little Canso, used 

 especially by American fishermen, is now rarely heard. This use of Little Canso is 

 fully sustained by a statement in Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia (II, 93,) who 

 shows that Little Canso was formerly used especially for the main entrance into 

 Canso Harbour. Now Rand, it seems evident, not knowing this place personally, 

 naturally assumed that CAMSOGOOCH and LITTLE CANSO are precise equiv- 

 alents of one another and separate entirely from CAMSÔK and CANSO, whereas 

 I take it that just as CANSO and LITTLE CANSO are identical, so are also CAMSÔK 

 and CAMOSGOOCH. Also, a genuine "little Canso," consistent in every feature, 

 does exist, as will be shown under the woid CAMSO-GOOCH-ECH, next considered. 

 But more important is the fact, that the termination CH, which was evidently taken 

 by Rand as a form of the diminutive CHICH or CHEECH, is by no means necessarily 



Sec. I and II 1914—18 



