It appears that the old road laid out to the vineyard purchase in 1759, "extended north from Harris's mill at the west side of Cantatoe ridge on the east side of the "Deer's Delight," and so through to the purchase.d

a llth May, 1772, John Farnam conveys to James Holmes a lot of laud ljuig iu Bedford near a place called Aspetonjr. b Report of Water Commissioners.

< Van der Donk's Hist. N. N. New York Hist. Sec collect. d Book of Co. Roads, Co. Clerk s office, lib. L. A. D. 1728.

THE TOWN or BEDFORD.

Deer must have been very numerous here in 1656, for the same authority just quoted says, "the land abounded with them every where, and their numbers appear to remain undiminished; we seldom pass through the fields without seeing deer more or less, and we frequently see them in herds; there are also white bucks and does, and others of a black colour. The Indians aver that the haunts of the white deer are much frequented by the common deer, and that those of the black species are not frequented by the common deer."*

The wolf appears to have abounded in proportion to the other wild game. So destructive had this ferocious animal become in 1694 that the town of Bedford offered "twenty shillings bounty for the killing of wolves."

In the northern part of the town, called " Cantatoe," the place of Katoona's residence, is situated the "Jay homestead;" for four generations the residence and estate of the Jay family, and descending to them from their ancestor Jacobus Van Cortlandt who purchased it of the Indian Sachem Katoonah, in 1703. Here the Hon. John Jay spent the latter part of his life. The house is delightfully situated on a gentle slope backed with high and luxuriant woods.