502 A NOTE ON THE ETYMON OF ONTARIO. 



All through this family, from the great numher of speciea de- 

 scribed and the extent of the range of most of them, we have felt 

 much at a loss which to select ; and as our own acquaintance with' 

 Canadian species is as yet very limited, we could only judge from 

 general considerations. We give our synopsis as a foundation to 

 work upon, expecting that many species may be added to it, and 

 possibly not a few rejected from it, yet hoping that it may be of use. 



A NOTE ON THE ETYMON OF ONTARIO. 



BY THE REV. DR. SCADDING. 



(Bead at a Conversazione at Trinity College, May 2Srd, 18G2,^ 



Father Louis Hennepin in his account of a "New Discovery 

 of a vast Country in America, (1679-82) extending above 4000 miles 

 between New France and New Mexico," says, (p. 31, French version,) 

 that among the Iroquois tribes the name Ontario has the signification 

 of " Beau Lac," Beautiful Lake ; and in another part of his book he 

 says they also call it Skannadarw, " Fort beau Lac," (p. 42) Skan- 

 nadario being supposed to be the same name as Ontario with a prefix 

 of intensity. 



Hennepin's book being not uncommon both in English and French, 

 the statement has been very generally received that the familiar term 

 by which we designate the great sheet of water which forms our 

 southern horizon, signifies " Beautiful Lake." This interpretation 

 did not originate with Hennepin. He probably heard or read of it at 

 Quebec before his visit to the western regions, for we see (p. 63) a 

 similar statement made in Bressani's Relatioii Abregee, in 1642 ; and 

 also subsequently in 1 663 in a Report of the Baron d' Avangour, a 

 Governor General of Canada, {Vide the Colonial History of the State 

 of New York, ix. 16.) We may hence suppose that this interpreta- 

 tion of Ontario was the one current at Quebec in Hennepin's time. 

 Still some uncertainty about it is observable, for in a note to an 

 account of De Courcelles' Voyage to Lake Ontario in 1671> the 

 writer professes to explain the term in question as signifying *' The 



