Its fishing and hunting facilities must have been superior and were capable of supporting a numerous population. The extensive shell-beds which are found at certain parts of the shore-line indicate a long period of settlement, and it is considered by Wood that the course of native migration had proceeded from the western end of Long Island to the eastern part. The tract composing the present borough, on the arrival of the white settlers was found to be largely a timbered district, around the margin of which the native stations were planted. The timber, however, was scant in quantity, as a result of the native practice

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

of annually burning off the underbrush, for the purpose of clearing spaces for cultivation and for the attraction of deer and smaller game. Large tracts of uplands were planted with corn, but the interior area was destitute of occupied stations, owing to the absence of watercourses. Compared with the large area of Kings county, the number of known stations is relatively small, and precise observations were not made in past times as to position and character. The interest and labor of modern local observers such as Austin, Armbruster, and Dove, in exploring and recording the position and condition of native occupied sites, together with the slender references in existing histories, have resulted in locating probably all of the chief places of residence of the one-time owners of the county. What is lacking, however, in regard to the native stations, is compensated by the existence of considerable definite information on the subject of native pathways. Records fortunately exist, by which the main Indian trails are identified with the King's highways and