through it,--which stretches _across_, not _with_ the stream. There is
such a lake in Minnesota, near the sources of the Mississippi, just
below the junction of the two primary forks of that river; another
('Pemijigome') in the chain of small lakes which are the northern
sources of the Manidowish (and Chippewa) River in Wisconsin, and still
another near the Lacs des Flambeaux, the source of Flambeau River, an
affluent of the Manidowish.

The same prefix or its equivalent occurs in the name of a lake in
Maine, near the source of the Alligash branch of St. John's River. Mr.
Greenleaf, in a list of Indian names made in 1823,[83] gave this as
"BAAM´CHE_nun´gamo_ or _Ah_P´MOOJEE`_negmook_." Thoreau[84] was
informed by his Penobscot guide, that the name "means 'Lake that is
crossed;' because the usual course lies across, not along it." There
is another "Cross Lake," in Aroostook county, near the head of Fish
River. We seem to recognize, and with less difficulty, the same prefix
in _Pemigewasset_, but the full composition of that name is not clear.

[Footnote 83: Report of American Society for Promoting Civilization of
the Indian Tribes, p. 52.]

[Footnote 84: Maine Woods, 232.]

PEMI- denotes, not a _crossing of_ but _deviation from_ a straight
line, whether vertical or horizontal. In place-names it may generally
be translated by 'sloping' or 'aslant;' sometimes by 'awry' or
'tortuous.' _Pemadené_, which Râle gives as the Abnaki word for
'mountain,' denotes a _sloping_ mountain-side (_pemi-adené_), in
distinction from one that is steep or precipitous. '_Pemetiq_,' the
Indian name of Mount Desert Island, as written by Father Biard in