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THE ALGONQUIAN SERIES Some ITnoian 3ffsbln0 Stations upon

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INDIAN BONE FISH-HOOK FROM A LONG ISLAND FISHING STATION.

SOME

INDIAN FISHING STATIONS

UPON LONG ISLAND

With Historical and Ethnological Notes

BY WILLIAM WALLACE TOOKER

NEW YORK

FRANCIS P. HARPER 1901

COPYRIGHT, 1901,

BY FRANCIS P. HARPER.

SOME INDIAN FISHING STA TIONS UPON LONG ISLAND.*

ILONG the Atlantic shore line of the Algonquian habitat, where the tide, without cessation, ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, we meet with many appellations bestowed by the red men on localities fre quented by them for the purposes

* This paper was read by the author before the Amer. Association for the Ad vancement of Science, Section H, at Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1894, and published in the Brooklyn Eagle Almanac for 1895.

204777

8 Some Indian Fishing Stations

of fishing. The reasons for the survival and retention of most of these terms to our times was not because of predilection for the aboriginal, but because, as is evi denced by facts, which I shall pre sent, that the greater number mark boundaries of conveyances of land by the Indians to the whites. These localities, having been well- known landmarks, not only to the natives, but also to the settlers, were chosen in order to indicate the limits of the tracts sold, so there could arise but little question, during the lifetime of the original grantors, as to the beginning or end ing of the land laid out by them.

Upon Lang Island. Q

The New England coast, of which Long Island necessarily forms a part, is especially rich in these appellatives. The Island it self, indented and environed in every direction by numerous tidal streams, coves, bays, and estuaries, which teem with marine life, prob ably has more — and in many re spects, a far more interesting num ber — of these particular names than any other portion of the coast hav ing the same limited area, or even a more extended one. It is true, however, that some of these de scriptive terms have not been re tained in actual use, but are hidden, as they have been for years and

IO Some Indian Fishing Stations

centuries past, in the dusty archives of town records, in the annals of long-forgotten lawsuits, and in the time-stained, moth-eaten convey ances of several decades following. That they were in occasional use for a long period after the settle ment of the Island is demonstrated by their record for generation after generation, until they disappear and are forgotten in the next.

Long Island has long been famed for its extensive fisheries. Not only is the Island noted for the great variety of its edible and other fish, but also for the vast quantity of oysters, clams, escallops, and other mollusks annually gathered

Upon Long Island. 1 1

from its waters, which has made them a factor in the preservation and consequent growth of its settle ments. We have all the evidence necessary to prove that it must have been equally well known before the advent of civilization.* The extensive shell-heaps dotting

* Fish must have been exceedingly plenty in the early days. Captain John Smith says (Arber's Smith, p. 418) : " We found in divers places that aboundance of fish, lying so thicke with their heads above the water, as for want of nets (our barge driving amongst them) we attempted to catch them with a frying pan ; but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with ; neither better fish, more plenty, nor more variety for small fish, had any of us ever seene in any place so swimming in the water, but they are not to be caught with a frying pan."

1 2 Some Indian Fishing Stations

the banks of every water-way indi cate a more numerous people than the size of the territory would seem to warrant under savage conditions, but this is easily accounted for from the fact that the waters af forded a more abundant and more certain food supply for the natives than could be obtained by their precarious methods of hunting, or by their crude processes of agri culture. The following study and analysis of these names of fishing stations amply bear out the truth of the foregoing remarks, as well as my essay on the Indian Names for Long Island proves the celebrity of the Island for its univalves and

Upon Long Island. 13

bivalves, and consequent wampum industry of its primitive peoples.*

These names are of two kinds : First, those formed by the union of two elements, with or without a locative suffix ; second, those which have a single element, the root- word, with its locative. The first are by far the most numerous on

*Wood, 1634 (New England Prospect): " Of their fishing, in this trade they be very expert, being experienced in the knowledge of all baites, sitting sundry baites for severall fishes, and diverse sea sons ; being not ignorant likewise of the removall of fishes, knowing when to fish in rivers, and when at rockes, when in Baies, and when at Seas ; since the English came they be furnished with English hookes and lines ; before they made them of their owne hempe more curiously wrought, of

14 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Long Island, and appear in the following well-marked forms, viz., Acombamuck, Ashataamuck, En- aughquamuck, Manhanset ahaqua- ziwvamuck, Messemamuck, Miamuck, Niamucky Rapahamuck, Ronconka- muck, Seabamuck, Suggamuck, Uncawamuck, and Unsheamuck. In order to avoid unnecessary

stronger material than ours, hooked with bone hookes." See the illustration of the bone fish-hook from Long Island. This hook, now in the author's collection at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, was found on a fishing station or village site near Sag Harbor, N. Y. It was illus trated and described in Abbott's Primitive Industry and in Rau's Prehistoric Fishing in Europe and North America. The cut has been loaned by the Smithsonian Insti tution.

i Upon Lang Island. 1 5

repetition of the second element in the foregoing list, it is well to observe that the terminal -amuck (varied as -amack or -amuk) in all these names denotes " a fish ing-place " or " where fish were caught," and is derived from the root dm or amd, signifying " to take by the mouth," whence dm-au, " he fishes with hook and line " ; Dela ware dman, " a fish hook," thus becoming by habitual use with its localizing affix -dm-uck or -dm-ack, a fishing-place where all kinds of fish ing were practiced, either by line, net, spear, or weir. The second form — the root-word with a locative suffix — we find in such names as

1 6 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Namkee, Nameoke, Nanemoset, and Nemaukak. These, as will be no ticed, are more simple in their syn thesis. Although differing in their terminals, the variation they pre sent in the root-word is due more to the English recorder than it is to the speech of the savage. Acom- bamuck was the neck of land formed by Dayton's Brook on the east, with Overton's Brook on the west, where the village of Bellport, Brookhaven town, is now located.

The deed from Tobaccus* the

Sachem of Unkechaug, June 10,

1664, was " for a parcel of land

. . . bounded on the south with

* Brookhaven Rec., vol. i. p. n.

Upon Long Island. 1 7

the Great Baye, and on the west with a fresh Ponde [Dayton's Pond] adjoining to a place comonly called Acombamacky and on the east with a river called Yamphanke" The deed for the territory west of the neck, granted by the same Sachem two years later to Governor Winthrop, reads : " Bounded on the west by a river called Namkee, and on the east to a place bounded by a fresh Pond, adjoining to a place called Acombamuck" This pond is now filled up, and is not the one mentioned in the first deed, as would seem from similarity of con text, but was a short distance to the west on Starr's Neck. Some of the

1 8 Some Indian Fishing Stations

recorded forms are Occumb amuck and Cumbamack; colloquially as Oc- cumbomock. Its prefix -Acomb, or Occumb, is the parallel of the Massa chusetts Ogkomt, " on the other side " (of water generally). The insertion of the consonant b or its substitute / in the Long Island forms of this adjectival seems to be character istic, although it may have been in every instance primarily due to an error. Therefore, Acombamuck was an appellative bestowed by the natives living to the eastward, be cause it was " over the water," or on the other side of their " fishing- place/' at the mouth of Dayton's Brook.

Upon Long Island. ig

Ashataamuck, or " Crab meadow," Huntington town, was one of the boundaries in the Indian deed of July 14, 1659, for a tract of land conveyed by Wiandance, Sachem of Long Island, to Lyon Gardiner for his services in ransoming the Sachem's captive daughter from the Narragansetts. The original deed, preserved under glass in the Library of the Long Island Histori cal Society, gives it : " We say it lyeth between Huntington and Seataucut, the western bounds be ing Cow Harbor, easterly Arhataa- munt" Every copy of the deed, of both early and late times, varies the spelling. Nassaconsett's deed to

2o Some Indian Fishing Stations

Richard Smith in 1665 has it Cat- aw amuck ; Dongan's patent, De cember, 1685, to Judge Palmer and John Roysee, "called Crab Meadow, or by the Indians Kat- awamac" ; Isaac De Reimer's peti tion, April 21, 1702, Katawamake — in English " Crab Meadow." Com parison of the various early forms shows that the use of r in the earli est is evidently an error ; also that the sound of the initial vowel a was very indistinct, on account of which it was dropped in all the later spell ings. These facts induce the belief that it should have been Ashatd- amuck, the " crab fishing-place " or " crab meadow," as it was popu-

Upon Long Island. 2 1

larly translated. These changes indicate that Ashatd is the parallel of the Algonquian [Mackenzie] Achakens ; Nanticoke, tah ! quah ; Delaware, schdhamuis^ " craw-fish " ; Virginia [Strachey], Ashaham, a " lobster " ; Narragansett, Ashaunt- teaiig (pi.), " lobsters." The radical signifies " they run to and fro, back wards and forwards." *

Enaughquamuck was an inlet con necting the Great South Bay with

* Loskiel (History of the United Mission, 1794, p. 98) says: "Large crabs are found in all rivers, which have the benefit of the tide. The mode of Catching them in use among the Indians, is to tie a piece of meat to a string of twisted bast which they throw into the stream. The crabs lay hold of the meat, and are easily drawn out."

22 Some Indian Fishing Stations

the ocean, now closed, and its exact locality cannot be identified with certainty, as the beach bears many indications of former inlets or guts. In the memory of some of the older people a shoal on the south side in Brookhaven town was called Quamuck) and was visited by the local fishermen for the purpose of catching mummy chogs for bait. This seems to be a contracted form of our name. It is indicated as the limit of a grant to Lyon Gardiner, dated July 28, 1659,* when " Wian- dance Sachem of Pawmanack or Long Island, sold all the bodys and bones of all the whales that shall * Southampton Rec. , vol. ii. p. 34.

Upon Long Island. 23

be cast up upon the land, or come ashore from the place called Kitch- aminchoke [in another record Kitch- ininchoge = " The beginning place," Moriches Island] into the place called Enaughquamuck, only the fins and tayles of all we reserve for ourselves and Indians," etc. The year previous the Sachem sold Lyon Gardiner the right of herbage on same tract, viz.: " Which beach begins eastward at the west end of Southampton bounds, and west ward where it is separated by the waters of the sea cominge out of the ocean sea," etc. The name signifies " as far as the fishing- place " : Enaughqua — Massachu-

24 Some Indian Fishing Stations

setts, unnuhkuquat, " as far as"; Narragansett, anuckqua, " at the end of " ; as in Tou-anuck-quaqua, 11 how big" or "how wide is it"; Delaware, Ta-lekhiquot , " how far is it "; Otchipwe, enigokwa-aki, " as wide as the earth is " ; Enigokwa- dessing, " as it is wide." The grant to Gardiner is therefore from Kutchininchoge, " the beginning place " " as far as the fishing-place," Enaughquamuck*

* Van der Donck says (Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. N. S., vol. i. p. 209) : " To hunting and fishing the Indians are all extravagantly inclined and they have their particular seasons for these engagements. In the spring and part of the summer, they prac tice fishing. When the wild herbage be gins to grow up in the woods, the first

Upon Long Island. 25

The name of Shelter Island, Manhanset-ahaquazuwamuck, is for many reasons one of the most re markable Indian appellatives in New England ; and also one of the longest. The deeds from the

hunting season begins, and then many of their young men leave the fisheries for the purpose of hunting ; but the old and thoughtful men remain at the fisheries until the second or principal hunting season, which they also attend, but with snares only. Their fishing is carried on in the inland waters, and by those who dwell near the sea, or sea-shore. Their fishing is done with seines, set-nets, small fikes, weares, and laying hooks. They do not know how to salt fish, or how to cure fish properly. They sometimes dry fish to preserve the same, but those are half tainted, which they pound to meal to be used as chowder in winter."

26 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Sachem Unkenchie to James Far- rett (obtained in 1639), Farrett's to Stephen Goodyeare in 1641, Good- yeare's to the Silvesters in 1652, have all disappeared and no copies exist. They were all recorded in the Southold records in 1656, but the hand of some vandal tore them out years ago. Consequently the earliest record so far discovered of the full name occurs in 1656 after Silvester and company took pos session, viz.:* "Yokee, formerly Sachem of Manhansickahaquatuwa- mock, now called Shelter Island, did on the three and twentieth of March, 1652, give full possession * Southold Rec., vol. i. p. 158.

Upon Long Island. 27

unto Capt. Nathaniell Silvester and Ensigne John Booth, of the afore said Island of Ahaquatuwamock, with all that was belonging to the same," etc. Again in 1656:* " All that their Islands of Ahaquazuwa- muck, otherwise called Menhan- sack" Manhanset or Munhanset, for ease of utterance among the whites, appears more frequently in the records as the name of the Island. The latter part, however, appears in the Dutch archives in 1646^ disguised as Cotsjewaminck; and is varied in some of the Island histories erroneously as Ahaquashu-

* E. H. Rec., vol. i. p. 97.

f Coll. Hist. N. Y., vol. xiv. p. 60.

28 Some Indian Fishing Stations

wornock, and there the whole name is translated as " an island sheltered by islands." The late Professor E. N. Horsford suggested : " Island at the river's mouth and much shel tered stockade-place." This inter pretation is too labored, and is also contrary to its synthesis. Compari son of the various early forms of the first component, Manhanset (=Man-han-es-et), shows the termi nal to be in the diminutive form of the locative case. -Set, or -sett (=es- et), occurring as a terminal in many Long Island and New England names, does not mean small or little, but denotes a place " at or about," limited in extent, distinct

Upon Long Island. 29

from the island as a whole. Aha- quatu, or Ahaquazu, (=Narra- gansett, atihaquassu; Delaware, ehachquihasu, " it is sheltered or covered "), -wamuck — coaimick, has the prefix of the third person as used by Eliot : " his or their fish ing-place " ; thus making the name Manhan-es-et-aJiaquazu cnamuck, " at or about the Island sheltered their fishing-place," or " their sheltered fishing-place at or about the Island." This shows that the term was applied originally by other than those living on the Island. As this descriptive term necessarily re ferred to some definite locality and not to the Island as a whole, I

30 Some Indian Fishing Stations

would suggest, from personal obser vation and research on the spot, that Ahaquazuwamuckj " their shel tered fishing-place," applied to the body of water on the east side of the Island now known as " Cockles Harbor." Great and Little Ram Islands, now part of the Island at or dinary tides, forming its northern and eastern sides, made it, as it remains to this day, a place of shelter. The shell deposits, whitening its shores on every hand, bear silent testimony to its early inhabitants: and in its present name of " Cockles Harbor " is retained its celebrity for the clam and periwinkle. Joselyn says : * " A * Rarities, pp. 36-37.

, Upon Long Island. 31

kind of coccle, of whose shell the Indians make their beads called Wampumpeag and Mohaicks. The first are white : the other blew : both orient, and beautified with purple veins."

Mcssemamuck was a creek in the western part of Southampton town, near Riverhead. It is named in the celebrated " Occabog " meadows suit between Southampton and Southold, when, in 1660,* " Pau- camp, then 80 years of age, de scended from the house of the Sachems in the end of the Island," testified through Thomas Stanton,

* Book of Deeds, office Secretary of State, Albany, N. Y., vol. ii. p. 210.

32 Same Indian Fishing Stations

the most famous interpreter of his day, and taken down by William Wells : " that, the first in his time [Occabog Indians] did possess the upland and meadows in the swamp side of the head of the river, being in the west end of the Bay, five creeks, the first Messemennuck, the second Nobbs, the third Suggamuck, the fourth Weekewackmamish? the

* Weekewackmamish, now known as Mill Creek, "a place where reeds were cut." It is referred to in the deposition of Rev. Thomas James, October 18, 1667 (E. H. Rec., vol. i. p. 261), when acting as an interpreter for an old squaw, viz. :

" And that in those tymes the bounds of these Akakkobauk [Aquebaug, " head of the bay "] Indians came Eastward of the river Pehikkonuk [" the little plan-

Upon Long Island. 33

fifth Toyoungs" * There is some difficulty about locating this first creek, owing to the encroachment of water upon the land, for there is a tradition extant that the present Flanders Bay was originally land locked, and has been opened during the past two hundred years. It may have been Lo Pontz or Haven's creek, which flows into the Peconic River at Broad Meadows Point.

tation "] to a creeck which she named. And they gathered flags for matts within that tract of Land."

* Toyoungs. This is now known as Red Creek at Flanders. The name denotes " a ford or wading place." This name and creek is frequently referred to in the early records, as it was " a boundary place" for many years.

34 Some Indian Fishing Stations

This suggestion seems to be cor roborated by the early records.

Messemamuck denotes " an ale- wife fishing-place." (Messem = Massachusetts ommissuog, Narra- gansett aumsiwg, Pequot umsuages, Abnaki aums<x>-afc, " alewives "; alosa vernaliS) Mitch.) The name in all of these dialects means " little fishes " ; consequently, the whole name means, literally, " a place where little fishes are caught."

Rev. Thomas James, in his depo sition, dated October 18, 1667, said that " Paquatown the Montauk Councellor told him yet ye bounds of ye Shinnocuts Indians (since, ye conquest of those Indians wch

Upon Long Island. 35

formerly, many years since lived att AkkabanK), did reach to a river where they use to catch ye fish comonly call alewives, the Name of ye river he said is Pehik" Two old women also informed James "they gathered flags for matts within that tract of land, but since those In dians were conquered who lived att Akkobauk, the Shinnocut bounds went to the river Pehik Komik where ye Indian catched alewives." This shows that the creek emptied into the Peconic River, and that James here gives its English inter pretation. Wood's New England's Prospect, 1634, says: "Alewives be a kind of fish which is much like a

36 Some Indian Fishing Stations

herring which in the latter part of April come up to the fresh rivers to spawne, in such multi tudes as is allmost incredible, pressing up in such shallow waters as will scarce permit them to swimme, having likewise such long ing desire after the fresh water ponds, that no beatings with poles or forcive agitations by other de vices will cause them to return to the sea till they have cast their spawne."

Miamuck, a small creek on the west side of the village of James- port, now known as Kings Creek. It is recorded first in the Indian deed of Ucquebaug, dated March

Upon Long Island. 37

14, 1648,* viz.: " Provided the afore said Indians [Occumboomaguns and the wife of Mahahanmuck], may enjoy during their lives a small piece of Land to Plant upon, lying between the two creeks, Miamegg and Assasquage" Some of the variations occurring are Miamogue, Miomog, and Wyamaug. The pre fix miy or mia, is probably from the Narragansett Midwene, " a gather ing together," " to assemble"; Massachusetts Miy-aneog, " they gather together " ; Miy-amuck, " a meeting fishing place " ; that is, a locality near the mouth of the

* Book of Deeds, vol. ii. p. 210, office of Secretary of State, Albany, N. Y.

38 Some Indian Fishing Stations

stream where the Indians encamped or met together to catch fish, probably alewives or menhaden, used for fertilizing their corn fields. The land on both sides of the creek at its mouth is thickly covered with shell deposits and other evidences of Indian occupation.

Namkee, a creek on the boundary between the towns of Islip and Brookhaven. The name is still re tained as Namkey Point.

The Indian deed of 1666 to Gov ernor Winthrop has it : " Tobaccus gives a tract of land upon the south side of Long Island, meadows and upland, bounded on the west by a river called Namkee" Varied in

Upon Long Island. 39

1668 as Nanmicuke ; in 1670, Nam- cuke. This is from the generic namaus (Namohs, Eliot ; Abnaki, namts ; Delaware, namees), "a fish" — but probably, one of the smaller sort, for the form is a diminutive — and keag or keke, Abnaki khige, which appears to denote a peculiar mode of fishing — perhaps, by a weir ; possibly, a spearing-place. Schoolcraft derives the name of the Namakagun fork of the St. Croix River, Wisconsin, from Chip, " namai, sturgeon, and kagun, a yoke or weir," so says J. Hammond Trumbull.

Nameoke, a locality near Rocka- way village. It is traditional, and

40 Same Indian Fishing Stations

not found in the records or his tories. Name-auke, " a fish-place."

Nemaukak is mentioned in the Indian deed of Brookhaven town, dated 1655, "being bounded with a river, or great Napock [= " water- place "] nearly Nemaukak eastward." Hence Name-auk-ut, at the fishing- place. Perhaps the same place as the following.

Nanemoset> a brook of uncertain location. DeKay places it in Southold town.* " In 1663 the in habitants of Seataucut entered into an agreement with Capt. John Scott, to become co-partners in a tract of land bounded easterly with Nane- * Thompson, Hist. L. I., vol. ii. p. 321.

,• Upon Long Island. 41

moset Brook," etc. This was prob ably another name for Wading River Brook, Riverhead town, Namoss-es-et, " at or about the fish- place."

The narrow strip of land at Canoe Place, Southampton town, separating Peconic and Shinnecock Bays, where the Indians formerly dragged their canoes from one body of water to the other, was known as Niamuck. For the bene fit of local fishermen the bays are now connected at this point by a short canal recently dug by the State. The evidences of Indian sojourns, in the shape of wigwam sites, shell-heaps, etc., abound in

42 Some Indian Fishing Stations

the immediate vicinity. I have in my possession a wooden canoe paddle of great age, found very firmly embedded in the mud of the creek by a party while eeling.*

The Indian deed of the Topping purchase, April 10, 1662 :f " for a certain tract of land lying and be ing westward of the said Shinne- cock and the lawful bounds of Southampton aforesaid, that is to say to begin at the canoe place, otherwise Niamuck^ etc.; Indian

* This paddle is illustrated in Rau's Pre historic Fishing in Europe and North America, Fig. 340, p. 191, and is now in the possession of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

f Southampton Rec., vol. i. p. 167.

Upon Long Island. 43

deed of 1666: "lying from a place called Niamuck, or ye canoe place." Variations : Niamug, Niamock, Nia- mack, 1667.

Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull sug gested in a private letter to Wm. S. Pelletreau, Esq.,* the transcriber of the Southampton town records, that the name signified "between the fishing-places," which fully de scribes the spot. Dr. Trumbull is correct, as analysis shows : Massa chusetts [Eliot] nde, " midst," " in the middle of," as in noetipuhkok, 11 in the middle of the night " ; Delaware lawi ( — nawi), "middle, between " ; noe-amuck, " in the mid- * In possession of the author.

/| /| Some Indian Fishing Stations

die of the fishing-place," referring to both bodies of water, for the termi nal, to an Indian mind, always be longed to water. Eliot would prob ably have written it noeamohke; see the second variation.

Raconkamuck was the large pond of water situated in the three towns of Islip, Smithtown, and Brook- haven. It is still retained in the modern and more softened form of Ronkonkoma as applied to the lake and to a village in its vicinity. The Indian deed from Nassakeag, for Smithtown, dated April 6, 1664, says : " Saels which they had for merly made unto Raconkumake, a fresh pond about the midle of Long

i Upon Long Island. 45

Island " ; Nicolls patent for Smith- town, 1665 : " Bounded eastward with the Lyne, lately runne by the inhabitants of Seatalcott [Brook- haven] as the bounds of their town, bearing southward to a certaine ffresh pond called Raconkamuck" Some of its orthographical varia tions are Raconckamich, 1675 ; Ra- conchony, 1697 ; Ronconcamuck and Rockconcomuck, 1725. The signifi cation of the name is given in vari ous histories and essays relating to Long Island as " the white sand pond," on account of its sandy beach ; but, as is usual with such interpretations, there is nothing whatever in the name to warrant

46 Some Indian Fishing Stations

such a meaning. The late Professor E. N. Horsford suggested " a wild goose resting place " (in its migra tions) from Ron, noise of flight (as of a bird); konk, " a wild goose " ; omack, " inclosed place." While being a very pretty and poetical rendering of the name, we are com pelled to reject it for a more practi cal and reasonable one. There is no question but the terminal in all the early forms is amuck, which ap plies to a fishing place of a man only. While we acknowledge that konk sometimes occurs as an onom- atope for " wild goose," it is a mis take to find it here. Therefore this interpretation does not need serious

Upon Long Island. 47

consideration. The initial letter r is an error, originally caused by not hearing and recording the sounds properly, although Cockenoe, " one who understands the marks," or " the interpreter," the Indian who laid out the boundaries, hav ing been intimately associated with the Indians of Norwalk, Conn., was more inclined to the r sound than were the Montauks who em ployed him. Therefore I believe Raconk or Ronkonk to be a variant of the Massachusetts wonkonous, Narragansett waukaunbsint, Mohi- gan wakankasick, Abnaki coakanr- azzen, Otchipwe wdkdkina, " a fence." Thus we have, as the re-

48 Some Indian Fishing Stations

suit of this derivation, wonkonk or wakonk-amuck, " the fence or boundary fishing place," because the fences were the " live hedges " running through the forest, lopped by the Indians and whites on the boundary line of the towns of Brookhaven and Smithtown, all terminating at the pond — the fish ing place.

Rapahamuck was a locality at the mouth of Birch Creek, South ampton town. The creek was des ignated earlier as Suggamuck. In the allotment of meadows in 1686 the lines were run " to a marked tree in Rapahamuck Neck . . . down the neck to Rapahamuck Point

Upon Long Island. 49

. . . the island by Rapahamuck" Nathaniel Halsey's will, March 7, 1745 (Pelletreau's Abstracts), gives " one lott of meadow called Rapa- hannock"

The sound of r is intrusive here, and the same reasons for the use of this phonetic element apply as in the preceding names. Rapah- = Massa chusetts and Narragansett appe'h, " a snare," or " trap "; primarily " to sit " or " lie in wait "; hence we have Appth-amuck, " trap fishing-place," which may have been a weir erected by the Indians, or a net placed across the mouth of the creek in the manner mentioned by Wood's New England's Prospect, 1634, viz.:

^o Some Indian Fishing Stations

" When they use to tide it in and out to the Rivers and Creekes with long seanes or Basse Nets, which stop in the fish ; and the water ebb ing from them they are left on the dry ground, sometimes two or three thousand at a set." There is no similarity, except in the radical structure of the first element, be tween this name and the well- known Rappahannock River in Vir ginia, as might be supposed from the strong resemblance.* I have

*This name belonged originally to a village of the Indians where there was a Sachem's residence. From being the prin cipal village and tribe on the river, the latter took the name Toppah-anoughs, " the encampment people " (see Arber's Smith).

Upon Lang Island. 5 1

devoted considerable study to the latter, and can therefore speak with some authority. The former ap pears as Nappeckamack or Nepera- hamack, Saw-mill Creek, Yonkers, Westchester County, N. Y.*

* Nappeckamack — var., Neperhan, Nep- pisan, etc. This name has been generally translated as the " rapid water settle ment," which is evidently an error ; both the n and r are intrusive. The suffix, amack, or amuck, denotes "a fishing-place"; the prefix appeh "a trap"; hence we have appeh-amack, "the trap fishing-place"; neperhan {apehhari} " a trap, snare, gin," etc. At the locality where the name was originally bestowed, the Indians probably had a weir for catching fish, and this fact gave rise to the name of the settlement." See History of Westchester County, Edited by Major Frederic Shonnard, 1900, for Amerindian Names in Westchester County (Tooker).

C2 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Seabamuck was the first neck of land east of the Connecticut, or Carman's River, Manor of St. George, Mastic, Brookhaven town. A record of 1675 states that " Francis Muncy before he died exchanged his meadow in the ould purchas with Samuel Daiton for his lott of meadow at Seabamuck in the nue purchas." August Graham's map, surveyed for William Smith in 1693, has it Sebamuck; some of its later forms, occurring in the last and present century, are Sebonack and Sebonnack. This variation has been translated by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull as from Seporiack, " a ground-nut place," which is correct

Upon Long Island. 53

as far as a similarly formed name in Southampton town is concerned ; but this derivation is not warranted in this case, as its early form, Seaba- muck, indicates. As the name is sometimes applied to the river (the largest on the island) and to a locality at its mouth, I would trans late as " the river fishing-place." *

* Captain John Smith (Arber's Smith, p. 365), says of the Virginia Indians, who did not differ materially from those of Long Island : " Betwixt their hands and thighs, their women use to spin the barkes of trees, Deere sinewes, or a kind of grasse they call Pemmenaw, of these they make a thread very even and readily. This thread serveth for many uses. As about their housing, apparell, as also they make nets for fishing, for the quantitie as formerly as ours. They make also with it lines for

54 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Seab (— Unkechaug Seepus ; Massa chusetts seip ; Otchipwe sibi, " a river "). Seap occurs in South ampton town in Seapoose (— Narra- gansett sepoese, "little river"), the inlet connecting Meacock Bay with the ocean having been so called for the past two hundred and fifty years.

Suggamuck was the creek near Flanders, Southampton town, now known as Birch Creek. The mouth

angle. Their hookes are either a bone grated as they noch their arrowes in the forme of a crooked pinne or fish-hooke, or of the splinter of a bone tyed to the clift of a little sticke, and with the end of the line, they tie on the bate. They use also long arrowes tyed on a line, and wherewith they shoot at fish in the river."

Upon Long Island. 55

of the creek was called Rapa- hamuck. It is designated by its Indian name in the deposition of the old Sachem Paucamp, taken down by William Wells in 1660 : " being in the west end of the bay, five creeks . . . the third Suggamuck" etc. The name signifies " a bass-fish ing-place " (Sugg — Massachusetts [Wood] suggig should have been msuggig, " bass "; Narragansett Mis- siicakeke-kequock, " Basse," " striped bass " (Labrax lineatus).) The prefix probably refers to its size, " Those that are great or mighty"; Massa chusetts, missugken, " mighty " ; Cree, missiggittu, " he is big." A creek on Shelter Island is

56 Some Indian Fishing Stations

called "Bass Creek" from the numbers formerly caught there. Wood says, 1634:* "The Basse is one of the best fishes in the country, and though men are soone wearied with other fish, yet are they never with Basse ; it is a delicate, fine, fat, fast fish, having a bone in his head which contains a sawcerfull of marrow, sweet and good, pleasant to the pallat, and wholesome to the stomach. When there be great store of them we only eate the heads, and salt up the bodies, for winter. Of these fishes some be three and some foure foot long, some bigger, some lesser ; at some * New England Prospect.

Upon Long Island. 57

tides a man may catch a dozen or twenty of these in three houres. The way to catch them is with hooke and line. These are at one time (when alewives passe up the Rivers) to be catched in the Rivers, in Lobster time at the Rockes, in macril time in the Bayes, at Michel- mas in the Seas," etc.; see Rapa- hamuck.

Uncawamuck, once designated a creek in Southold town near Mat- tituck, now known as Reeve's Creek. It is mentioned as a boundary in the Indian deed of March 14, 1648, to Theophilus Eaton and Stephen Goodyear for " the whole tract of land, commonly called Ocquebaiick.

58 Some Indian Fishing Stations

Bounded on the east with the creeke Uncawamuck which is the next creeke to the place where ye canoes are draune over to Matti- tuck."

Uncawa or Unkawa, Massachu setts Ongkouwe, " further," " ut most," " further side," the further " fishing-place," because it was the eastern limits of the tract sold by these Indians, living at the creek Miamegg before mentioned.

Unshemamuck was the " Fresh Pond," on the boundary between the towns of Huntington and Smithtown. The late J. Lawrence Smith, in his notes on Smithtown, remarks : " It is no longer a pond ;

Upon Long Island. 59

it has all grown up to meadow." The final decree settling the bound ary between the two towns in 1675 gives the following : " From the west most part of Joseph Whit man's hollow and the west side of the leading hollow to the fresh pond, Unshemamuck" variants Un- chemau, 1677 ; Unskeamuk, 1685 ; Unshemamuke , 1688; Oshamamucksy 1694. The name denotes an " eel fishing-place," and is probably the same as Oushankamaug on the old Winsor bounds, Connecticut, which Dr. Trumbull translates as a " fishing-place for eels or lam- phreys " : Delaware, Schachamek, " an eel," from Ouschacheu,

60 Same Indian Fishing Stations

" smooth/' " slippery " ; Otchipwe, ojdsha, " it is slippery." At certain seasons of the year eels enter these ponds for breeding, and are de tained therein by closing of the in lets. As soon as they are reopened, they leave the pond and are caught by the wagon-load.

Owenamchog was the name of a fishing station located somewhere on the Great South Beach in the town of Brookhaven, which differs somewhat in its component parts from the other well-marked form Ongkotie-nameech-aukey " the further fishing-place." It is mentioned in a memorandum on file as being the eastern bounds of land sold by the

Upon Lang Island. 6 1

Sachem Tobaccus to Setauket po- ple in 1668.*

There are other appellatives on Long Island of like derivation, but the forms are not fully indicated, owing to lack of records, conse quently must await further dis covery and study. The various modes of fishing by fire-lighting,t

*Brookhaven Rec., vol. i. p. 23.

f Beverly (Hist, of Virginia, 1722, p. 130), remarks : "They have another Way of Fishing like those on the Euxine Sea, by the Help of a blazing Fire by Night. They make a Hearth in the Middle of their Canoe, raising it within two inches of the Edge ; upon this they lay their burning light-wood, split into small shivers, each splinter whereof will blaze and burn End for End like a candle ; 'Tis one Man's Work to attend this Fire and keep it flam-

62 Some Indian Fishing Stations.

nets, pounds, traps, and pots, as practiced by the fishermen of to day, do not differ materially from that pursued by the Indian of the past.

ing. At each end of the Canoe stands an Indian, with a Gig or pointed Spear, set ting the Canoe forward with the Butt-end of the spear, as gently as he can, by that Meanes stealing upon the Fish, without any Noise or disturbing of the water, Then they with great Dexterity dart these Spears into the Fish, and so take them. Now there is a double Convenience in the Blaze of this Fire : for it not only dazzles the Eyes of the Fish, which lie still, glar ing upon it, but likewise discovers the Bottom of the River clearly to the Fisher man, which the Day-light does not."

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