m a _mitchihikan_ or _mitchikan_, a 'wooden
fence' constructed near its banks, by the Indians, for catching
deer.[29] Father Allouez describes, in the 'Relation' for 1670 (p.
96), a sort of 'fence' or weir which the Indians had built across Fox
River, for taking sturgeon &c., and which they called '_Mitihikan_;'
and shortly after, he mentions the destruction, by the Iroquois, of a
village of Outagamis (Fox Indians) near his mission station, called
_Machihigan-ing_, ['at the _mitchihikan_, or weir?'] on the 'Lake of
the Illinois,' now _Michigan_. Father Dablon, in the next year's
Relation, calls this lake '_Mitchiganons_.' Perhaps there was some
confusion between the names of the 'weir' and the 'great lake,' and
'Michigan' appears to have been adopted as a kind of compromise
between the two. If so, this modern form of the name is corrupt in
more senses than one.[30]

[Footnote 29: Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of Lake
Superior, &c., Pt. II p. 400.]

[Footnote 30: Rale gives Abn. _mitsegan_, 'fiante.' 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 peche
la,') is derived from the root _am_ or _ama_, signifying 'to take by
the mouth;' whence, _am-aue_, 'he fishes with hook and line,' and Del.
_aman_, 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 _ompae_,
'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 w