The Algonquian series

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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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