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In the number of this Magazine for December last, Mr. W. P. Dole discusses the long-debated origin of this word in a way which appears to be final. I was myself at the time convinced by his arguments, and probably still would be, were it not that Mr. Dole himself gives a clue which I have since followed to a different conclusion. He states that the word occurs in the supplement of Littré's great Dictionary, as used in Saintonge, France; but, believing in the indigenous origin of the word, Mr. Dole suggests that Littré is mistaken as to its use in France. The extreme improbability that Littré, the great French lexicographer,. could be mistaken in such a matter, led me to investigate it more fully, with the following results.

Littré's definition of the word in the supplement to his "Dictionnaire" is as follows:—

"Aboteau—s. m. Barrage, obstacle mis au cours de l'eau, dans la Saintonge.

Etym. A et bot, qui signifie une digue, Gloss. aunisien, p. 74."

(Aboteau—subs. masc. Barrier (or dam), obstacle placed to the passage of water, in Saintonge. Etymology, from A, at, and bot, which means a dike. From the Glossaire aunisien, page 74.)

Saintonge, it should be remembered, is the ancient province of France from which the Acadians were brought to Nova Scotia.

I have not been able to find the Glossaire aunisien, but in Jonain's "Dictionnaire du patois Saintongeais," as I learn from Mr. Thos. Kiernan of the Harvard College Library, occurs the following: