The processes of trade, by which the products of the ocean were exchanged for those of the mountains, were probably the most potent influence in deciding the use of a given line of travel. Such barter would have extended over the whole year, since food and clothing were continuous necessities . Therefore the traffic could not always be conducted by the use of watercourses, and floating ice and storm made travel dangerous by the frail and sometimes clumsy canoe.

AND MONOGRAPHS

MANHATTAN

MANHATTAN

MANHATTAN

MANHATTAN 45

River, and the South River [East river]. .

that on the spring or other high tide, when the said rivers overflow they run into and cover the said swamp so as to meet one another." Armbruster considers that in ancient times the watercourses through the swamps may have been sufficient to float canoes between the Hudson and East rivers, At this favored place, sheltered from the west winds, provided with abundant water and nearby access to the river, the unfailing signs of Indian residence were found in masses of oyster-shells "abundantly strewn over the hill "on the western side of the lake." .

Modern excavations on the line of Pearl street reached these old shell-beds, indicating the existence of a native station situated about the line of that where it street,

passes through the one-time Kolch hill on its way to join Broadway. There were peculiar advantages for Indian residence in this situation, which become evident on examination of its original features. These have been brought