4

Unofficial.

Dear Mr, May,

While having little doubt that the
name Tin Can was derived from tintchin, I have always had some
doubt as to whether it was a word of the local abo. language ,
for,according to some reliable authorities it was a Brisbane
aboriginal's word. One of the mangroves in the Wide Bay Dis-
trict was locally called pirri, the name being inspired from the fact
that the aerial root of the tree look something like fingers.

Of course, it may be an alternative name. Many trees in
the Wide Bay district have the same names as they are known
by the Brisbane aborigines; and, again, there are more than
one species of mangrove. No one seems to know who named
the bay, It would be interesting to know if Andrew Petrie
named it when on the Mary River expedition in 1842. He then
had a couple of Brisbane natives with him, who apparently
gave him the native names for some of the places he named at
the time, as, for instance, Marouchidore (Muru-uchi-dya) after
the Brisbane name of the black swan, for which the local word
was kuluin. It is to be regretted that he left no diary
regarding his expedition.

Yours faithfully
FJ Watson