Page:The Old New York Frontier.djvu/49

 siska, meaning mud, and hanne, a stream." It had been overheard, he says, by some of the first settlers in times of high water in such expressions as "Jah! Achsisquehanne," meaning how muddy the stream is. Authorities to whom the author appealed have cited Hecke welder's interpretation, and among them the late James C. Pilling, who devoted many years to a study of the Indian languages. Dr. Beauchamp, however, gives Quen-isch-achsch-gek-hanne as a word from which Heckewelder once thought Susquehanna might have been derived by corruption. This word means "river with long reaches," which is a fair equivalent for "crooked river." It is certainly a more accurate description than "muddy stream."

The Iroquois had another name for the Susquehanna, Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh, which means "great island," and to which Gehunda, the common word for river, was added to get Great Island River. At the mouth of the stream, lying squarely athwart it, is an island perhaps a mile long, that was formerly known as Palmer's Island, but later has been called Watson's Island. It lies exactly where lived the Susquehanna Indians. The mainland opposite has been found to be very rich in weapons, domestic utensils, etc., many thousands of specimens having been found, and sometimes as many as a hundred in a single place. On this island was made the first white settlement in that part of Maryland some twenty-five or thirty years after Smith's visit. The Susquehanna is remarkable elsewhere for the number and size of its islands, especially in Pennsylvania. Where the Juniata flows in, exists an island of very unusual size. On the Guy Johnson map of the country of the Six Na-