[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] 1688, known by the Indian name of Hoosack." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 27, 74.) The head of the stream appears to have been the outlet of a lake now called _Pontoosuc_ from the name of a certain fall on its outlet called _Pontoosuck,_ "A corruption," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "of _Powntucksuck,_ 'falls of a brook,' or outlet." "_Powntuck,_ a general name for all falls," according to Indian testimony quoted by the same writer. "_Pantuck,_ falls of a stream." (Zeisb.) Several interpretations of the name have been suggested, of which the most probably correct is from Massachusetts _Pontoosuck,_ which would readily be converted to Hoosick or Panhoosick (Pontoosuck). It was applicable to any falls, and may have had locative at Hoosick Falls as well as on the outlet of Pontoosuck Lake. Without examination or warrant from the local dialect, Heckewelder wrote in his Lenape tradition, "The Hairless or Naked Bear": "_Hoosink,_ which means the basin, or more properly, the kettle." The Lenape or Delaware _Hōōs,_ "certainly means, in that dialect, 'a pot or kettle.' Figuratively, it might be applied to a kettle-shaped depression in land or to a particular valley. _Hoosink_ means 'in' or 'at' the pot or kettle. _Hoosack_ might be read 'round valley land,' or land with steep sides." (Brinton.) Of course this does not explain the prefix _Pan_, nor does it prove that _Hōōs_ was in the local dialect, which, in 1652, was certainly Mahican or Mohegan.