the heading ‘‘Staten Island. Supple- 
ment to the Agriculture of Richmond 
County,’’ the author gives a further 
list of the fishes ‘‘taken in the spring 
and autumn of 1843, on the shoreof Oak- 
land Farm, near the Great Kills,’’ and 
another of the trees. Amongst the lat- 
ter is listed the shad bush [A melanchier 
sp.], ‘‘a white flowering shrub, that 
expands its blossoms before the forest 
trees are clothed with foliage, and in- 
dicates the approach of the fish from 
which it derives its common name.’’ It 
is also ‘of intérest to note that in this 
list the bitt@#hut is included, —a ‘tree 
whichis fio Yearly extinct! ofthe 
island. 3+:-° 2° art ae Ba hi 
ae} 
A few brief paragrapks on ‘‘Geology’’ 
terminate this report, which consist of 
references to the granite outcrop near 
the old Tompkinsville landing and to 
Mr. Issachar Cozzen’s ‘‘Geological His- 
toryof Manhattan or New York Island, ’’ 
which was published in 1843. His final 
words are: ‘‘In the above-mentioned 
work, Mr. Cozzens states, that the 
green-sand formation of New Jersey, 
which contains the valuable marl there 
extensively employed as manure, under- 
lays a portion of Staten Island and 
Long Island. It would be a great boon 
to the farmers of these islands, if, by 
digging wells or by any other means, 
they should strike into a bed of Jersey 
marl, which by analysis is known to 
contain a large proportion of potash, 
that gives it the fertilizing quality so 
conspicuous in Monmouth county in 
that State.”’ 
Dr. Akerly was a typeof the old 
time ‘‘naturalist,’’ who was interested 
in.all branches of natural history,—a 
type of the scientific man which in this 
era of specialization is almost unknown. 
It is unfortunate that the records of his 
observations are sO comparatively mea- 
gre, as there is no doubt that he could 
‘have noted many other facts in regard 
to our local fauna and flora then in 
45 
existence which are unrecorded and 
forgotten. 
The following paper was read by 
Mr. Alanson Skinner: 
AN ATTEMPT AT THE TRANSLATION OF 
SOME STATEN ISLAND INDIAN NAMES. 
According to Clute’s History of Staten 
Island, and the later works by Bayles 
and Morris, one of the indian names 
for Staten Island was given as ‘‘Aque- 
honga,”’ and the Rev. Wm. Beauchamp 
is said to have translated it as meaning 
‘*High Sandy Banks.’’ Schoolcraft 
gives ‘‘Aquehonga Manacknong”’’ as 
“fhe Plate of Bad Woods.”’ 
Some years ago, Dr. James Hammond 
Trimbull complied from the famous 
indian bible of the ‘‘Apostle Elliot,’’ 
a dictionary of the Natick-Algonkin 
dialect, which is, or rather was, very 
closely related to the tongue used by 
our own aboriginal inhabitants. In fact 
all the Algonkin dialects are closely 
akin, and are easily understood by 
tribes of the same stcck from widely 
different localities. és 
-*DBr. Hate, in Wis introduction to Trum- 
BUil’s Victionary, says; ‘‘Inthe spring 
ot 1899 I placed before a Chippewa boy 
in the Hampton (Virgina) Sehool, thirty 
words of the Massachusetts indian 
language. He recognized at once fifteen 
of them. giving them their full meanings, 
and with a little study made out the 
remainder. : In the course of two-and-a- 
half centuries the uses of words differ 
among Indians as among white men, 
but it would seem that they do not dif- 
fer more.”’ 
As uur early settlers did not bother 
themselves to any great extent with the 
pronunciation or spelling of indian 
words and names it would very likely 
happen that many of those handed 
down to us would not be in all cases 
correct, so it is fair to infer that the 
name ‘‘Aquehonga’’ has undergone 
some ‘slight modification after this 
fashion. 
