Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.Ruttenber, Edward Manning
History
Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.
Ruttenber, Edward Manning
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America
Oi-o-gue, the name given by the Mohawks to Father Jogues in 1646, at Lake
George, to what we now fondly call Hudson's River, is fully explained in
another connection. The stream has its sources among the highest peaks
of the Adirondacks, the most quoted springlet being that in what is known
as "Adirondack or Indian Pass," a deep and rugged gorge between the steep
slopes of Mt. Mclntyre and the cliffs of Wallface Mountain, in Essex
County. The level of this gorge is 2,937 feet above tide. [FN-1] The
highest lakelet-head sources, however, are noted in Verplanck Colvin's
survey of the Adirondack region as Lake Moss and Lake Tear-of-the-clouds
on Mount Marcy, [FN-2] the former having an elevation of 4,312 feet above
sea-level and the latter 4,326 feet, "the loftiest water-mirror of the
stars" in the State. The little streams descending from these lakes,
gathering strength from other small lakes and springlets, flow rapidly
into Warren County, where they receive the Sacondaga and Schroon. Between
Warrensburgh and Glen's Falls the stream sweeps, in tortuous course with
a wealth of rapids, eastward among the lofty hills of the Luzerne [FN-3]
range of mountains, and at Glen's Falls descends about sixty feet,
passing over a precipice, in cataract, in flood seasons, about nine
hundred feet long, and then separates into three channels by rocks piled
in confusion. In times of low water there is, on the south side of the
gorge, a perpendicular descent of about forty feet. Below, the channels
unite and in one deep stream flow on gently between the grained cliffs
of fine black marble, which rises in some places from thirty to seventy
feet. At the foot of the fall the current is divided by a small island
which is said to bear on its flat rock surface a petrifaction having the
appearance of a big snake, which may have been regarded by the Mohawks
with awe as the personification of the spirit of evil, according to the
Huron legend, "_Onniare jotohatienn tiotkon,_ The demon takes the figure
of a snake." (Bruyas.) Under the rock is a cave over which the serpent
lies as a keeper, extending from one channel to the other and which, as
well as the snake, comes down to us embalmed in Cooper's "Last of the
Mohegans," though some visitors with clear heads have failed to discover
the snake. In times of flood the cave is filled with water and all the
dividing rocks below the fall are covered, presenting one vast foaming
sheet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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