"In Iroquois r and l are interchangeable, and s frequently sounds like sh. Thus we can understand how in Cartier's orthography Oserake (pronounced with an aspirate) became Hochelaga, the well-known aboriginal name of what is now Montreal. That this name meant simply 'At the beaver-dam' is not questioned. It is rather curious, though not surprising, that two such noted Indian names as Saratoga and Hochelaga should have the same origin. In Ochseratongue the name is lengthened by an addition which is so evidently corrupted that I hesitate to explain it. I may say, however, that I suspect it to be a 'verbalized' form. It may possibly be derived from the verb atona, 'to become' (in its perfect tense atonk), added to osera, in which case the word would mean, 'where a beaver-dam has been forming,' or, as we should express it in English, 'where the beavers have been making a dam.'
"With regard to the Mahican name Amissohaendiek or Amissohaendick (whichever it is) I cannot say much, my knowledge of the Algonquin dialects not being sufficient to warrant me in venturing on etymologies. I remark, however, that 'beaver' in Mahican, as in several other Algonquin dialects, is Amisk or some variant of that word. This would apparently account for the first two syllables of the name. In Iroquois the word for 'beaver-dam' 'has no connection with the word 'beaver,' but it may be otherwise in Mahican." . . .
Dr. Brinton wrote:
. . . "I have little doubt but that the Mahican term is practically a translation of the Iroquois name. It certainly begins with the element Amik, Amisk or Amisque, 'Beaver,' and terminates with the locative ck or k. The intermediate portion I am not clear about. There is probably considerable garbling of the middle syllables, and this obscures their forms. In a general way, however, it means 'Place where beavers live,' or 'are found.'"
Father Le June wrote Amisc-ou, "Beaver," an equivalent of Amis-so in the text. Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Amisk, a generic name for beaver-kind, has been retained in the principal Algonquian dialects." The district was a part of Ochsaraga, "The beaver-hunting country of the Confederate Indians," conquered by them about 1624. The evolution from Ochsera-tongue (deed of 1683) appears in Serachtogue (Dongan, 1685); Serasteau (contemporary French); Saractoga (Cornbury, 1703); Saratoga (modern). The Ossarague, noted by Father Jogues, in 1646, as a famous fishing-place, is now assigned to Schuylerville.
Aside from its linguistic associations, the Batten Kill is an interesting stream. It has two falls, one of which, near the Hudson, is seventy-five feet and preserves in its modern name, Dionandoghe, its Mohawk name, Ti-oneenda-houwe, for the meaning of which see Hoosick.
[FN-1] "At a place called the Still Water, so named for that the water passeth so slowly as not to be discovered, yet at a little distance both above and below is disturbed and rageth as in a sea, occasioned by great rocks and great falls therein." (Col. Hist. N. Y., x, 194.)
[FN-2] The war in which the Mahicans lost and the Mohawks gained possession of the lands here occurred in 1627, as stated in Dutch records (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 48), sustained by the deed to King George in 1701. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 773.) There was no conquest on the Hudson south of Cohoes Falls.
[Sacondaga,] quoted as the name of the west branch of the Hudson, is not the name of the stream but of its mouth or outlet at Warrensburgh, Warren County. It is from Mohawk generic Swe'ken, the equivalent of Lenape Sacon (Zeisb.), meaning "Outlet," or "Mouth of a river," "Pouring out," and -daga, a softened form of -take, "At the," the composition meaning, literally, "At the outlet" or mouth of a river. (Hale.) Ti-osar-onda, met in connection with the stream, means "Branch" or "Tributory stream." (Hewitt.) The reference may have been to the stream as a branch of the Hudson, or to some other stream. The stream comes down from small lakes and streams in Lewis and Hamilton counties, and is the principal northwestern affluent of the Hudson.