_Kussuhkoe,_ meaning "High;" with substantive _Kussuhkohke,_ "High lands," the place of settlement being described as "Near the Highlands," which became the official designation of "The Precinct of the Highlands." _Kussuhk_ is pretty certainly met in _Cheesek-ook,_ the name of patented lands in the Highlands, described as "Uplands and meadows;" also in _Quasigh-ook,_ Columbia County, which is described as "A high place on a high hill." The Palatine settlers at _Quasek,_ wrote, in 1714, that their place was "all uplands," a description which will not be disputed at the present day. (See Cheesekook, Quissichkook, etc.) Much-Hattoos, a hill so called in petition of William Chambers and William Sutherland, in 1709, for a tract of land in what is now the town of New Windsor, and in patent to them in 1712, a boundmark described as "West by the hill called Much-Hattoes," is apparently from _Match,_ "Evil, bad;" _-adchu,_ "Hill" or mountain, and _-es,_ "Small"--"A small hill bad," or a small hill that for some reason was not regarded with favor. [FN] The eastern face of the hill is a rugged wall of gneiss; the western face slopes gradually to a swamp not far from its base and to a small lake, the latter now utilized for supplying the city of Newburgh with water, with a primary outlet through a passage under a spur of the hill, which the Indians may have regarded as a mysterious or bad place. In local nomenclature the hill has long been known as Snake Hill, from the traditionary abundance of rattle-snakes on it, though few have been seen there in later years. * * * * * [FN] "I think your reading of _Muchattoos_ as an orthography of original _Matchatchu's,_ is very plausible. I think _Massachusetts_ is the same word, plus a locative suffix and English sign of the plural. It was formerly spelled in many ways: Mattachusetts, Massutchet, Matetusses, etc. Dr. Trumbull read it as standing for _Mass-adchu-set,_ 'At the big hills'; but I learn from history that Massachusetts was originally the name of a _hillock_ situated in the midst of a salt marsh. It was a locality selected by the sachem of his tribe as one of his places of residence. He stood in fear of his enemies, the Penobscotts, and this hillock, from its situation was a 'bad,' or difficult place to reach. So Massachsat for Matsadchuset or Mat-adchu-set plainly means, 'On the bad hillock.'" (Wm. R. Gerard.) Cronomer's Hill and Cronomer's Valley, about three miles west of the city of Newburgh, take their names from a traditionary Indian called Cronomer, the location of whose wigwam is said to be still known as "The hut lot." The name is probably a corruption of the original, which may have been Dutch Jeronimo.