PHILOLOGY OF THE OTJANANICHE 41 



Ouanans is supposed by some authorities to have 

 originally signified locality. According to others it is 

 a corruption of ouen-a f (pronounced " when-na ") a 

 Montagnais interrogative. Used in the sense of " Look 

 there ! What is that ?" it is not difficult to imagine 

 how ouen-a or ouan-a, uttered by Montagnais fisher- 

 men as they pointed to large fish seen feeding upon the 

 flies on the scum-covered pools, came in time to be em- 

 ployed for the name of that particular variety which, 

 more than any other in the territory in which it is 

 found, is fond of disporting itself upon the surface of 

 the water. Ouananiche are often seen sailing around 

 their favorite pools with their dorsal fins out of 

 their native element. The diminutive form of this 

 word is now almost universally employed in speak- 

 ing of the fish, perhaps because the latter offers no 

 exception to the angler's general experiences that the 

 big fish are few and far between. Or can it be that 

 there is an element of truth in the Indian reports of 

 the deterioration in size of their fresh-water salmon, 

 and that in former ages these fish were so much larger 

 that all their descendants of the present day must be 

 classed as little ouanansf French - Canadian fisher- 

 men, settlers, and guides in the land of the ouananiche 

 call it le saumon (the salmon) perhaps oftener than 

 they employ the Indian name, and from their petit 

 saumon (little salmon), and the knowledge that the 

 Montagnais iche is a diminutive, may have originated 

 the fashionable error of jumping to the conclusion 

 that "ouananiche" is an Indian equivalent for little 

 salmon. Were it indeed so, the constructors of the 

 word would simply have builded better than they knew. 



