PATTERSON ON NEWFOUNDLAND DIALECT. Ixix 
generally affected their language. Still there are a few words in use 
which seem to have come in that way, for example, calliboqus, a 
mixture of spruce beer and rum ; a scalawag, a scamp ; tomahawk, the 
name by which the American shingling hatchet is known ; catamaran, 
a word originally denoting a raft of three logs lashed together, used 
first in the East and afterwards in the West Indies ; but in Newfound- 
land used to denote a woodshed, and when side sleighs were first intro- 
duced, applied to them; and scrod, in New England escrod, a fresh 
young codfish boiled. 
There is a word common in names on the coasts of Newfoundland 
and Labrador to which I must advert It is the word tickle, used to 
denote a narrow passage of some length, usually between an island and 
the mainland, sometimes large enough to afford shelter for vessels, and 
sometimes so small as to be navigable only by boats. On the east 
coast of Newfoundland there are six or eight such places, known by 
particular appellations, as North Tickle, Main Tickle, &c., and the Coast 
Pilot notes over a dozen such places on the Labrador coast. We have 
other names formed from them as Tickle Point or Tickle Bay. In two 
or three instances in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick we have such a 
place known sometimes as a ¢ickle, but commonly as a /zttle, which I 
deem a corruption of it. Ihave never seen a conjecture as to the 
meaning or origin of the word, but myself propesed the following 
explanation.* The first explorers of the coast referred to were the 
Portuguese, who gave names to the leading places on these shores, a 
number of which remain to the present day. A large proportion of 
these were the names of places in Portugal or the Western Islands, from 
which they carried on much of their trade. Now on the coast of 
Portugal may be seen a point called Santa Tekla. It is a narrow 
projection some miles in length, inside of which is a lengthy basin, 
narrowed by anisland. As there were few good harbors on the coast 
of that country, this formed a favorite resort for shelter, particularly 
to her fishermen. What more natural than that they should give the 
name to places here of similar appearance and serving the same purpose. 
The slight change from Tekla to Tickle will not appear strange to any 
person who knows into what different forms foreign words have been 
changed when adopted by Englishmen. 
* Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vit. (2). 144. 
