316 The Story of The Bronx 



summer time, a number of parties get permission from the 

 Park Department to camp out along the shore. Upon one 

 visit, the author came across a party from the De La Salle 

 Institute, whose members were engaged in practical field 

 work in surveying, having surveyed the island and its sur- 

 roundings in true Coast Survey fashion. On the northeast 

 end of the island is a great boulder, known as the "Gray 

 Mare"; and on the southeast end is another one, known as the 

 great Indian rock "Mishow, " around which, tradition asserts, 

 the Indians used to conduct their religious and other rites. 

 As will be seen in the picture, advantage has been taken by 

 some campers of the laxity of supervision on the part of the 

 park officers to deface the rock with the name of their camp. 

 In 1905, a regular camping-out place was opened on Rodman's 

 Neck, north of the City Island Bridge, to which the name 

 Orchard Beach has been given; it is very well patronized as a 

 summer beach city, and the other place has been closed. 

 From time immemorial, all the waters surrounding these 

 islands have been famous for the quantity and diversity of 

 the fish that have been caught in them. On Sundays and 

 holidays, the waters are dotted with the boats of the fishermen, 

 who come here from the distant city for a day's sport. Many 

 Indian relics have been found in the neighborhood, including 

 hatchets and tomahawks of stone, and arrows and javelins of 

 flint, quartz, and horn. That it was a favorite place with the 

 aborigines is shown by the great number of shell beds, or 

 mounds, that one finds along the shores of the Sound, or by 

 the quantities of broken shells that are turned up by the plough 

 in the fields. The quahaug, or hard clam, furnished most of 

 these shells; as from them, the Indian made his sewant, or 

 wampum, which was used as money, as well as figuring in 

 many of his ceremonies, and, also, for recording history. 



