Holmes, Chief of the Bureau, wrote me, under date of March 8, 1906, as has been above stated, "The term Osseruenon (or Ossernenon, Asserua, Osserion, Osserrinon) appears to be from the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquoian stock of languages. It signifies, if its English dress gives any approximation to the sound of the original expression, 'At the beaver dam.' " This expert testimony has its value in the force which it gives to the conclusion that

^ The site of the Shrine was approved by the Society of Jesus mainly on

i examinations and measurements made by General John S. Clark, the locally eminent antiquarian of Auburn, N. Y., who gave the most conscientious attention to the work of investigation. The data supplied by Van Curler's Journal, which he did not have before him, may suggest corrections in some of his locations.

ON THE MOHAWK. 211

the castle in which Father Jogues suffered was at or near Aurie's 'Creek. The relation between Megapolensis's Assariie and Jogues's Osscru is readily seen by changing the initial A in the former to O. Aurie's, the present name of the stream, otherwise written Arie's, is Dutch for Adrian or Adrianus (Latin) "Of or pertaining to the sea." It is suggestive of the name Adriochten, written by Van Curler as that of the ruling sachem of the castle which he visited and called Onekagoncka in 1635. The only tangible fact, however, is that the stream took its present name from Aurie, a ruling sachem w*ho resided on or near it. In this connection the several names by which the castle was called, viz: Onekagoncka, Carenay or Cafieray, Osserucfion, Assariie, and Oneugioure, may be again referred to. As already stated, the "best expert authority" of the Bureau of Ethnology reads Onekagoncka as signifying, "At the junction of the waters," and Osseruefion, in any of its forms, as signifying "At the beaver-dam." Possibly the names might be read differently by a less expert authority, but Oneka certainly means "Water," and Ossera means "Beaverdam." Add the reading by the late Horatio Hale of Oghracke^ "At the beaver-dam," and the locative chain is complete at the mouth of Aurie's Creek (Oghracke).