[Footnote 29: Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of Lake Superior, &c., Pt. II p. 400.]
[Footnote 30: Râle gives Abn. _mitsegan_, 'fianté.' Thoreau, fishing in a river in Maine, caught several sucker-like fishes, which his Abnaki guide threw away, saying they were '_Michegan fish_, i.e., soft and stinking fish, good for nothing.'--_Maine Woods_, p. 210.]
5. -AMAUG, denoting 'A FISHING PLACE' (Abn. _a[n]ma[n]gan_, 'on pêche là,') is derived from the root _âm_ or _âma_, signifying 'to take by the mouth;' whence, _âm-aü_, 'he fishes with hook and line,' and Del. _âman_, a fish-hook. _Wonkemaug_ for _wongun-amaug_, 'crooked fishing-place,' between Warren and New Preston, in Litchfield county, is now 'Raumaug Lake.' _Ouschank-amaug_, in East Windsor, was perhaps the 'eel fishing-place.' The lake in Worcester, _Quansigamaug_, _Quansigamug_, &c., and now _Quinsigamond_, was 'the pickerel fishing-place,' _qunnosuog-amaug_.
6. ROCK. In composition, -PISK or -PSK (Abn. _pesk[oo]_; Cree, _-pisk_; Chip. _-bik_;) denotes _hard_ or _flint-like_ rock;[31] -OMPSK or O[N]BSK, and, by phonetic corruption, -MSK, (from _ompaé_, 'upright,' and _-pisk_,) a 'standing rock.' As a substantival component of local names, _-ompsk_ and, with the locative affix, _-ompskut_, are found in such names as--
[Footnote 31: Primarily, that which 'breaks,' 'cleaves,' 'splits:' distinguishing the _harder_ rocks--such as were used for making spear and arrow heads, axes, chisels, corn-mortars, &c., and for striking fire,--from the _softer_, such as steatite (soap-stone) from which pots and other vessels, pipe-bowls, &c., were fashioned.]
_Petukqui-ompskut_, corrupted to _Pettiquamscut_, 'at the round rock.' Such a rock, on the east side of Narrow River, north-east from Tower Hill Church in South Kingston, R.I., was one of the bound marks of, and gave a name to, the "Pettiquamscut purchase" in the Narragansett country.
_Wanashqui-ompskut_ (_wanashquompsqut_, Ezekiel xxvi. 14), 'at the top of the rock,' or at 'the point of rock.' _Wonnesquam_, _Annis Squam_, and _Squam_, near Cape Ann, are perhaps corrupt forms of the name of some 'rock summit' or 'point of rock' thereabouts. _Winnesquamsaukit_ (for _wanashqui-ompsk-ohk-it_?) near Exeter Falls, N.H., has been transformed to _Swampscoate_ and _Squamscot_. The name of Swamscot or Swampscot, formerly part of Lynn, Mass., has a different meaning. It is from _m'squi-ompsk_, 'Red Rock' (the modern name), near the north end of Long Beach, which was perhaps "The clifte" mentioned as one of the bounds of Mr. Humfrey's Swampscot farm, laid out in 1638.[32] _M'squompskut_ means 'at the red rock.' The sound of the initial _m_ was easily lost to English ears.[33]