128 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute. [vol. x 



or from the Ojibway prefix madji meaning "a beginning", and the same 

 termination —ashk, and so meaning a beginning of good grass alluding 

 to the fertile lands to the south and west. J. Carruthers, writing in 

 1835, uses this name as a term for the marshy end of a bay. " Being 

 carefully directed through the woods, and round the point of Kempen- 

 feldt Bay, I got through this Matchadash (rushes, mud, and water), and 

 safely landed in the open forest where the town of Barrie now stands". 



3. Waubaushene. The same derivation as the river Wabash. The 

 Indians called marshland wa&a^MiH; wa& = white, —a5^^ = grass; uhke = 

 land. The Indian name for Lake Erie was Wabeshkegoo Kechegahme. 

 The ending ene is a corruption of —ing, the locative ending. Hence the 

 word Waubaushene means "place of marshes". 



4. Cognashene Point. Kawg in Chippewa = " a porcupine ' ' . There 

 was a gens of this name. Kawgons = " a little porcupine". Diminutives 

 are very common in Algonquin languages. Kawgonsing corrupted to 

 Cognashene = " place of the little porcupine". 



5. Minnacognashene Island. This is plainly the same word, with 

 the Algonquin word menis = " island" prefixed, a word sometimes abbre- 

 viated to min as in Manitoii-min. The name may possibly be derived 

 from minika "plenty of blue-berries", minnesing locative form oi menis 

 "island"; the first syllable being lost, as frequently in composition we 

 get minikannesing which might in an English mouth become Minnacog- 

 nashene. 



6. Waubic. The name of an island and of the Northern Navigation 

 Co's steamer is properly a suffix waubek = ' ' rock. ' ' The word is also used 

 by the Chippewas as the name for a dollar. This word is used in com- 

 bination with the prefix kewa = '^ come back" to form the word kebek, 

 an exclamation used by the Ojibways, according to Schoolcraft, when 

 passing a narrow place in a river. He has suggested, no doubt correctly, 

 that this is the derivation of "Quebec". 



7. Muskoka is from misquah = red and uhke = earth, alluding to the 

 prevailing red feldspathic rocks of this region. There was also an 

 Indian chief of this name, Musquakie, who hunted in this region. 



8. MusKOSH, variously spelled, is the name of the river flowing out of 

 Lake Muskoka through Go-Home Lake to the Georgian Bay. The 

 name may be derived from musqu-ahsin = red stone, or ormishkoos = " a 

 buck". It may be the same word as the river Mascouche in Quebec, 

 derived by some from the diminutive masku5 = " a little bear". Very 

 probably the name is derived from musquash = " a musk rat", 

 a word noted by Sir Charles Head in 18 14 in this region and still 

 in use among fur dealers in Canada. This word has been derived by 

 Prof. Chamberlain from tniskwasi = " it is red". 



