Names of fishes supply the adjectival components of many place-names on the sea-coast of New England, on the lakes, and along river-courses.  The difficulty of analyzing such names is the greater because the same species of fish was known by different names to different tribes.  The more common substantivals are _-amaug_, ’fishing place; _-tuk_ or sipu, ‘river;’ ohke, ‘place;’ Abn. _-ka[n]tti_, ‘place of abundance;’ and _-keag_, _-keke_, Abn. _-khige_, which appears to denote a peculiar mode of fishing,—­perhaps, by a weir;[87] possibly, a spearing-place.

[Footnote 87:  Schoolcraft derives the name of the Namakagun fork of the St. Croix river, Wisc., from Chip. “namai, sturgeon, and kagun, a yoke or weir.”]

From the generic namaus (namohs, El.; Abn. names; Del. namees;) ’a fish’—­but probably, one of the smaller sort, for the form is a diminutive,—­come such names as Nameoke or Nameaug (New London), for namau-ohke, ‘fish country;’ Namasket or Namasseket (on Taunton River, in Middleborough, Mass.) ‘at the fish place,’ a favorite resort of the Indians of that region; Namaskeak, now Amoskeag, on the Merrimack, and Nam’skeket or Skeekeet, in Wellfleet, Mass.

M’squammaug (Abn. mesk[oo]amek[oo]), ‘red fish,’ i.e. salmon, gave names to several localities. Misquamacuck or Squamicut, now Westerly, R.I., was ‘a salmon place’ of the Narragansetts.  The initial m often disappears; and sometimes, so much of the rest of the name goes with it, that we can only guess at the original synthesis. ‘Gonic,’ a post office and railroad station, near Dover, N.H., on the Cocheco river, was once ’Squammagonic,’—­and probably, a salmon-fishing place.

Kauposh (Abn. kabasse, plu. kabassak), ‘sturgeon,’ is a component of the name Cobbosseecontee, in Maine (page 26, ante), ‘where sturgeons are plenty;’ and Cobscook, an arm of Passamaquoddy Bay, Pembroke, Me., perhaps stands for kabassakhige, ‘sturgeon-catching place.’

Aumsuog or Ommissuog (Abn. a[n]ms[oo]ak), ’small fish,’—­especially alewives and herrings,—­is a component of the name of the Abnaki village on the Kennebec, A[n]mes[oo]k-ka[n]tti; of Mattammiscontis, a tributary of the Kennebec (see p. 25, ante), and probably, of Amoscoggin and Amoskeag.

Qunnosu (pl. _-suog;_ Abn. k[oo]n[oo]se; Old Alg. kino[n]je; Chip. keno’zha;) is found in the name of Kenosha, a town and county in Wisconsin; perhaps, in Kenjua or Kenzua creek and township, in Warren county, Pa. Quinshepaug or Quonshapauge, in Mendon, Mass., seems to denote a ‘pickerel pond’ (qunnosu-paug). Maskinonge, i.e. massa-kino[n]je, ‘great pike’ or maskelunge, names a river and lake in Canada.