282 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



out hesitation. Thus Newell Paul, one of the best of my informants, gave me (in 

 the words of my notes), PÔK-WOG'-A-MOUS, meaning SHOAL, "as when muddy," 

 or A SHOAL PLACE ON THE MUDDY BOTTOM. Chief Gabe Acquin, another 

 very careful and reliable Indian, gave me POK-WOG-A-MOOSK, meaning SHAL- 

 LOW LAKE; and others have confirmed these two. Seeking, accordingly, for a 

 root for "shoal," it is perfectly easy to find. Thus in the almost identical Abenaki, 

 Father Rasle gives PANG8 (the N being a nasal hardly at all sounded, and the 8 

 the sound we have to render by 00) in the combination PANG8ESS8, signifying 

 "the river is low" (Abnaki Dictionary, 523). Trumbull, in his Natick Dictionary, 

 131, gives PONGUAas the modern Abenaki word for SHALLOW, while J. Dyneley 

 Prince, another leading authority, gives POGUASO as the Abenaki word meaning 

 IT IS SHALLOW (American Anthropologist, VII, 1910, 201). The root seems, by 

 the way, to involve the idea of SHALLOW in the sense not so much of having little 

 water, as of the bottom showing or breaking through, which helps to explain why 

 it is used especially of Mud Lakes, for these are distinctly of this character. We 

 may spell the root, for our present purpose, as POCWA, POQUA, POGUA, or POK- 

 WA, the latter, however, being preferable as harmonizing better with scientific 

 usage. 



As to the remainder of the word, that is equally clear. It involves evidently 

 the inseparable suffix GAMOOK, meaning Lake, very common in the place-names 

 of New Brunswick and (especially) Maine, as a list later in this series will attest. 

 It is here expressed in the regular diminutive form, viz., GAMOO-SIS-K, condensed 

 by the Indians to GAMOOSK (compare Gabe Acquin's form above given), meaning 

 LITTLE LAKE, or POND, and adopted by the English without the final loca- 

 tive K. 



This latter form, GAMOOS, by the way, offers the preferable spelling for the 

 aboriginal form, as best expressing both its etymological origin and its Indian pro- 

 nunciation, though the final syllable is naturally shortened to an US sound by the 

 whites. Thus the best spelling for the entire word would be POKWAGAMOOS, 

 with all the vowels short, and the accent on the second syllable. While we have thus 

 a standard spelling for the aboriginal name, it by no means follows that we should 

 change the existent spellings to conform thereto. On the contrary, I think it much 

 better that in each case the spelling that offers the best mean between historical 

 origin and local usage should be retained; and it is no disadvantage, but rather a 

 merit that the spellings of the word would thus be different in the different cases. 

 Although my analysis of this word is thus made through the Maliseet, sustained by 

 Abenaki roots, it is obvious that the Penobscot name is identically the same word. 



Summary. The name POKWAGAMOOS is certainly of Maliseet-Penob- 

 scot origin, a condensation from the roots POKWA-GAMOO-SIS-K, meaning 

 literally SHALLOW-LAKE-LITTLE-PLACE, or more generally, SHALLOW 

 POND, understood as having a muddy bottom, in description of the most striking 

 characteristic of the place. 



Other aboriginal Acadian Place-names involving the root POKWA, 

 meaning SHALLOW. 



Pugwash. Considered separately below. 



POKEA WIS. The apparent Passamaquoddy name, now extinct, for a large 

 deadwater or small very narrow lake at the extreme head of the Lepreau River in 

 southern New Brunswick. Its position is shown on a printed map in the Bulletin of 



