ARTICLE IT. 
NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIO- 
GRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 
By W. F. Ganong. 
117 . — On the Physical Geography of the Muniac Stream. 
Read by Title, Nov. 3, 1908. 
Some ten miles below the Tobique, there falls into the Saint 
John from the east the little river called Muniac. Last summer, 
in a search for the pre-glacial outlet of the Tobique, I descended 
this stream along the highway road which follows it closely from 
source to mouth; and I made the following observations.* 
Below the mouth of the Tobique, that river and the Saint 
John are separated by a great ridge, one of the parallel pair 
which confine and give direction to the Saint John in this part 
of its course. Southward this ridge swings around to the east 
and joins the central highlands which run northeast from Moose 
Mountain. Just in this turn, very close over to the Tobique 
side, interlocking with branches of the Tobique and the Munquart 
*The name is Maliseet Indian, but of uncertain meaning. A map of 1785 names is Muineck 
or Bear Riier, evidently connecting it with Moo-in, bear, and the locative ek; and the local 
explanation of the word is to the same effect. But I incline to think that this is simply a 
surveyor’s etymology, for two of the best-informed Maliseet Indians have told me independently 
that the word is really Am-wee-neck or Am-oo-een-ek, which one of them said he could not 
interpret at all, while the other said it meant “very gnarly” (?) whatever that may mean to 
an Indian. An interpretation which I believe to be correct has been sent me by Rev. Father 
Ryan of Andover, who has consulted the best informed Indians on my behalf; they say it 
means “Gorge-like* or a stream running between two great hills or mountains,” which perfectly 
fits the place. The word probably involves the root of the word “to cut”, which is given in 
Father Rasle’s Abnaki Dictionary as nouek: that is the valley is a cut or gash in the hills. The 
name is no doubt allied also to mool-a-kesk, the Maliseet name for Sullivans Creek, to which 
they give the meaning, “it runs deep.” 
The river was not laid down upon any map until after 1872, in which year it was mapped 
in connection with surveys made for the settlement of Scotch immigrants, who arrived the 
next year and founded the thriving settlements of Stonehaven and Kintore upon the highlands 
above the river. 
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