1 82 The Story of The Bronx 



deposit, the lowest being of rich, black vegetation in that 

 condition of decay, or preservation, known as peat. The 

 grasses of the ancient meadows were plainly perceptible, 

 though they had been covered for centuries by the deposits 

 of sand, clay, or gravel at the bottom of what must have been 

 in earlier times a very considerable bay, within the boundaries 

 just given. The whole is now a vast meadow, through which 

 flows Tippett's Brook, rising and falling with the tide. 



Nature had placed in the middle of Spuyten Duyvil Creek 

 a reef which was bare at low tide, and which had been from 

 time immemorial a ford, or wading place, to and from the 

 mainland. The new ferry at Harlem could not divert travel 

 from this ford; and, as Verveelen lost his fees by its use, he 

 was directed by the Harlem authorities to fence off the ap- 

 proach to the ford. The fence he erected was torn down by 

 travellers, who continued to use the ford so as to save tolls. 

 John Barker, of Westchester, passed over it with a number of 

 cattle, and Verveelen claimed that he had been defrauded of 

 his ferriages. A suit brought by him in the Mayor's court at 

 Harlem was decided in his favor, and Barker was obliged to 

 pay the tolls; but Verveelen was directed to repair the fences 

 with the money. Again and again the fences were torn down 

 and travellers used the ford; until, finally, the Harlemites 

 recognized the futility of attempting to divert traffic from 

 this natural highway and proposed abandoning the Harlem 

 ferry. Governor Lovelace, to whom Verveelen appealed, 

 claiming that he would lose heavily by this- abandonment, 

 communicated with the Harlem authorities, February 27, 1669, 

 and suggested the removal of the ferry to the more convenient 

 "wading place." In this the authorities concurred on the 

 second of March; and the same day, Verveelen was granted 

 the ferry for three years by Governor Lovelace, to be main- 



