218 LABRADOR 



ability to the Anglo-Saxon ear is evident from the con- 

 tinued use over the country of their innumerable place- 

 names. Once adopted by the white race, these names are 

 rarely displaced; indeed, are brought more into use as 

 time goes on. More than half of the Indian place-names 

 of the northeastern states would be readily understood by 

 the Montagnais or the Nascaupees of Ungava Bay : thus, 

 K'taadn, Monadnock, and Wachusett; Penobscot, Kenne- 

 bec, and Connecticut; Massachusetts, Narraganset, and 

 Manhattan, are as plain in their meaning to the northern- 

 most Cree of the barrens as they are familiar in sound to 

 the white dwellers of New England. 



To the white stranger these are merely well-sounding 

 names, but without significance; to the Indian each brings 

 its image: the " Great Mountain"; the "Mountain-stand- 

 ing-alone"; the " Long-open- water" (Moosehead Lake); 

 "Long-river"; the " Region-about-the-large-hills " (Blue 

 Hills); the "Point-country" (Mount Hope Point); "The 

 Island," - and the list might go on. 



Algonquin place-names are rarely fanciful; the method 

 of life required an accurate and serviceable system of geo- 

 graphical description, the function of which was too im- 

 portant to be trifled with. Much of the eastern country 

 was remarkably irregular and made up of features often 

 repeating themselves at different angles. Few regions of 

 the world, perhaps, are as confusing to the traveller as 

 were formerly the vast forested areas of mountains and 

 watercourses throughout the north Atlantic belt. 



Of necessity the descriptive method of the people was of 

 almost legal severity, and is in the north to-day. Personal 

 names, however, are often subjects of fancy. The humour 



