l62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ready mentioned, in J 697, and as Wayhackameck or Little Mines- 

 sing creek in 1719. The reference may be to a fishing place. 



Mal-lo-laus-ly or Ma-re-ten-ge was a pond in the Wallkill valley 

 in 1756. 



Mas-ka-eck was land mentioned at Shawankonck in 1702. The 

 reference seems to be to a grassy place, from maskeht, grass, and 

 locative. 



Mat-te-a-wan or South mountains has been defined white rocks. 

 but with nothing to support the interpretation. Other definitions, 

 will be found under the head of Dutchess county. 



Me-mo-ra-sinck was a place on the Evans grant. 



Men-a-yack was an island in the Minisink region. 



Mer-rcla-ry pond was on the Evans tract. 



Min-i-sink has a popular interpretation of land from zvhich the 

 water is gone. 



This is given in Eager's history of Orange county, thus : " Tra- 

 dition said that before the Delaware broke through the Water Gap 

 the country above was a lake. When this was drained the lands 

 exposed were called Minsies, with the above meaning, and the In- 

 dians who settled there took this name. Thence came the present 

 name of Minisink. In 1728 an old settler wrote that this was the 

 best interpretation obtainable." Ruttenber said of this : " Minnisink 

 is from Minnis, an island, and ink, locality, and not from Minsis, 

 the name of the Wolf tribe of the Lenapes. The name has a very 

 general application to lands, in Pennsylvania as well as New York, 

 known as the Minnisink country. It had its origin in the tradition 

 that the land was covered with water and broke through the moun- 

 tain at the Water Gap, or Pohoqualin, and is said to mean the land 

 from which the water is gone." This can only be sustained by 

 going back to the primary meaning of an island as a dry place. 

 In my Chippewa New Testament minisink is used for an island, 

 and thus Schoolcraft interprets it place of islands. In 1697 a 

 conspicuous one was mentioned in Minisink river. The Minisink 

 patent was granted in 1704. 



Mis-tuck-y was an Indian village in Warwick. Ruttenber thought 

 this came from miskotucky, which he interpreted as either red hills 

 or plains. Mishuntugkoo, it is zvell li/ooded, may be better. 



