The Parks and Cemeteries 303 



The park roads from the Fordham ridge are very steep. 

 There are several natural springs along the ridge and guide- 

 posts direct to them. The woods in the upper part of the park 

 are open to all visitors, and parties of botanists and children 

 come here for wild flowers, which, if care is not taken, will, 

 in a few years, be "conspicuous by their absence"; as the 

 careless and wanton picking of flowers will prevent them from 

 going to seed and thus reproducing the species. 



In the northeastern part of the park is "Indian Field," 

 where Simcoe defeated the Stockbridge Indians, and where 

 eighteen of them are buried, almost where they fell. At the 

 suggestion of the writer, a cairn of rough boulders, somewhat 

 similar to that at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was erected 

 in 1906, through the courtesy and co-operation of George W. 

 Walgrove, at that time Commissioner of Parks for The Bronx. 

 It bears the following inscription on a bronze tablet : 



"AUGUST 31, 1778. 



UPON THIS FIELD 



CHIEF NIMHAM 



AND SEVENTEEN STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS, 



AS ALLIES OF THE PATRIOTS, 



GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR LIBERTY. 



ERECTED BY BRONX CHAPTER, 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK. 



JUNE 14, 1906." 



June 14 is "Flag Day," and the monument was dedicated 

 with appropriate ceremonies. Since then, a flag-pole has 

 been erected, the rough ground cleared up, and many park 

 benches placed by the park authorities; and the spot has 

 become a popular meeting-place for the people of the neigh- 



