The Dutch termination -hoos, meaning in that language, "Water-spout," may have given rise to the interpretation "The Great Falls," but if so the reading was simply descriptive. The presumption that the name was Mohawk-Iroquoian was no doubt from the general impression that the falls were primarily in a Mohav/k district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on both sides, was held by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the name

' "L. Tntervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Povvnal's Map.)

ON THE MOHAWK. 20I

from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls.^ When the falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream having cut its way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in massive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or "Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five miles apart, at Wf.terford and West Troy respectively.