This creek, and neighboring waters, are also celebrated for their shad fishery. The season for fishing commences in ^NTarch, and continues throughout April and May. It is entirely governed by the influx and reflux of the tide, or the last of the flood and ebb. The fishermen make four hfts every twenty-four hours. The aggregate value of this fish, (the Aiosa Sapidissiyna, Rap.,) taken in the Hudson river and neighboring waters south of the Highlands, amounts to $100,000 annually.

The small settlement of Kings Bridge bordering on the Haarlena river, took its name from a ferry and bridge established here at a very early period of the Colonial administration. The Westchester side of the bridge ("where stands the Macon^'s mansion,) was formeriy an island

a SciuUfi of Wastington Irvlag, p. 19S.

THE TOWN OF YONKERS. 6n

called by the Indians Paperinemen, as we find the Director General, ■\VilIiam Kieft. granting unto Matys (Mattliew) Janscn the isle of Paperinemen, iSth August, 1646.'' 1674, John Archer, lord of the manor of Fordham, laid claim to a neck of land called Humock Island, commonly called by the Indians Paperinemen, which he asserted he had by patent. But it would appear that governor Lovelace had already settled an individual by the name of Ven-elen upon the island to keep a ferry for the accomodation of passengers between the island and the Westchester shore. To satisfy Archer's claim, howe^•er, the secretary of the colony, Matthias Nicolls, agreed to pay a yearly rent for the same.