288 THE ROY AL, SOCIETY OF CANADA 



after the most thorough search, elsewhere in the eastern Canadian Provinces, ex- 

 cepting in Popelogan Brook, on Upsalquitch; but this word the Micmacs repudiate, 

 having a quite distinct name of their own for the Brook, and it is probably a lumber- 

 man's importation (page 291 later, also these Transactions, II, 1896, ii. 263). Finally 

 I cannot match up any feature of the place, which I know well and have recently 

 revisited for this express purpose, with the roots, excepting in this feature, — viz., 

 Pocologan Harbour is a closed basin extending not directly into the land, but along 

 shore. To one coasting along from the eastward, the Harbour has the aspect simply 

 of a passage behind an insland; and one must enter it to find that it is completely 

 closed. In this respect it resembles perfectly those blind coves, commonly also the 

 lower ends of old closed passages behind islands, which are called in Maine by the 

 topographical term pokelogan; and like the typical pokelogan also, this Harbour is 

 shallow and mud-bottomed. Now in view of the similarity of the name, amounting 

 almost to identity, of our POCOLOGAN and the typical Maine "pokelogan," in 

 conjunction with the striking similarity of geographical characteristics, there is little 

 doubt, I believe, that the words are fundamentally the same. The chief difference 

 consists in the much larger size of our harbour as compared with the typical poke- 

 logans along rivers, but a difference in size can hardly be supposed to have great 

 weight in comparison with the striking similarity of other characteristics. On this 

 view, the name would have belonged originally to the Harbour or Bay, as in fact the 

 earliest records use it, becoming later extended to the river, which, by the way, 

 possesses no characteristics that throw any light upon the name. Fully consistent 

 with this origin is the absence from all of the forms, including those taken by Mr. 

 Jack and Mr. Chamberlain direct from the Indians, of any sign of a terminal locative 

 K, which is almost invariable with Indian place names. If, however, Pokologan is 

 simply the topographical term pokelogan, then the absence of a terminal locative 

 K in this case is perfectly natural. I take it POKOLOGAN was not the aboriginal 

 Indian name for this place, but their topographical name for such a closed basin as the 

 Harbour forms, given by them to the white settlers, and adopted by the latter as a 

 place name. 



Having traced this word to a wholly probable origin in a topographical term, 

 with no competing explanation, it is perhaps not essential to our purpose to go any 

 farther, since such terms may be very old, and beyond present analysis. However, 

 POKELOGAN or POKELOKEN has an air of etymological simplicity that is very 

 alluring, and it would certainly be a satisfaction to connect its roots with others hav- 

 ing part in the composition of our place-names. We turn accordingly to attempt 

 an analysis of the term POKELOGAN, as used in Maine. 



The word has attracted a great deal of attention. In Bartlett's Dictionary oj 

 Americanisms (2nd. edition, 1859, and later editions), the word appears as POKE- 

 LOKEN, and is defined as "A marshy tract or stagnant pool extending into the 

 land from a stream or lake"; and in illustration are quoted two passages from 

 Haliburton's writings involving the word in the form POKELOKENS. One 

 of these is credited in such manner to Sam Slick as to lead one to think that 

 it is found in the original Clockmaker published before 1840, whereas in fact both 

 quotations are taken from Nature and Human Nature, which was not published until 

 1855. Bartlett, by the way, does not correctly reproduce the spelling of that work, 

 which is POKE-LOKEINS in one case (Chapter VIII) and POKE-LOKEN in the 

 other (Chapter XXV). Haliburton's definition of the word at the latter place is 

 strongly suggestive of derivation from Bartlett's Dictionary, in the first edition of 

 which, published in 1848, the word occurs as POKE-LOKEN, but without quo- 

 tations, as I am told. Seemingly, therefore, Haliburton got the word from the first 



