Piskawn, of record as the name of a stream on the north line of Troy, describes a branch or division of a river. Rale wrote in Abnaki, "_Peskakōōn,_ branche," of which _Piskawn_ is an equivalent. Sheepshack and Pogquassick are record names in the vicinity of Lansingburgh. The first has not been located. It seems to stand for _Tsheepenak,_ a place where the bulbous roots of the yellow lily were obtained--modern Abnaki, _Sheep'nak._ _Pogquassick_ appears as the name of a "piece of woodland on the east side of the river, near an island commonly called Whale-fishing Island," correctly, Whalefish Island. [FN] This island is now overflowed by the raising of the water by the State dam at Lansingburgh. The Indian name does not belong to the woodland; it locates the tract near the island, in which connection it is probably an equivalent of _Paugasuck,_ "A place at which a strait widens or opens out" (Trumbull), or where the narrow passage between the island and the main land begins to widen. In the same district _Pogsquampacak_ is written as the name of a small creek flowing into Hoosick River. * * * * * [FN] "Whale-fishing Island" is a mistranslation of "Walvish Eiland" (Dutch), meaning simply "Whale Island." It is related by Van der Donck (1656) that during the great freshet of 1647, a number of whales ascended the river, one of which was stranded and killed on this island. Hence the name. Wallumschack, so written in return of survey of patent granted to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1738, for lands now in Washington County; _Walloomscook,_ and other forms; now preserved in Walloomsac, as the name of a place, a district of country, and a stream flowing from a pond on the Green Mountains, in the town of Woodford, near Bennington, Vermont. [FN-1] It has not been specifically located, but apparently described a place on the adjacent hills where material was obtained for making paints with which the Indians daubed their bodies. (See Washiack.) It is from a generic root written in different dialects, _Walla, Wara_ etc., meaning "Fine, handsome, good," etc., from which in the Delaware, Dr. Brinton derived _Wálám,_ "Painted, from the sense to be fine in appearance, to dress, which the Indians accomplished by painting their bodies," and _-'ompsk_ (Natick), with the related meaning of standing or upright, the combination expressing "Place of the paint rocks." [FN-2] The ridges of many of the hills as well as of the mountains in the district are composed of slate, quartz, sandstone and limestone, which compose the Takonic system. By exposure the slate becomes disintegrated and forms an ochery clay of several colors, which the Indians used as paint. The washing away of the rock left the quartz exposed in the form of sharp points, which were largely used by the Indians for making axes, lance-heads, arrow points, etc. Some of the ochre beds have been extensively worked, and plumbago has also been obtained. White Creek,