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. 35 INDIAN PATHS Long canoe trips across broad reaches such as the Lower bay, Jamaica bay, and the Sound, involved risk, and occupied the time and energy of a number of individuals, on a duty or an errand that could perhaps be as well performed by one proceeding afoot.

There were obstacles in some places to water-travel, such as tides, shallows, and the roaring torrents of Hell Gate, which had their effect in discouraging travel at certain water-passages, and thus diverted paths to other places. But from every direction of traffic or travel, Manhattan was accessible by water, and the lower part of the island stood at the parting of the waterways. We may assume, however, that canoes were rare possessions, objects constructed only by long-continued labor and the exercise of unusual skill with the crude stone tools available.