. When old New York was young . ofcontrivances to snare the fish in large num- [197] . AROUND THE COLLECT POND bers. Then the officials of the town inter-fered and passed an ordinance which was topreserve the sport. This ordinance read: It is ordained that if any person hereafter pre-sume to put, place, or cast into the pond, com-monly called Fresh-Water Pond, belonging to thiscorporation, any hoop-net, draw-net, purse-net,casting-net, cod-net, bley-net, or any other net ornets whatsoever, and shall take and catch any ofthe fish within the said pond therein, or by anyother engine, machine, art
. When old New York was young . ofcontrivances to snare the fish in large num- [197] . AROUND THE COLLECT POND bers. Then the officials of the town inter-fered and passed an ordinance which was topreserve the sport. This ordinance read: It is ordained that if any person hereafter pre-sume to put, place, or cast into the pond, com-monly called Fresh-Water Pond, belonging to thiscorporation, any hoop-net, draw-net, purse-net,casting-net, cod-net, bley-net, or any other net ornets whatsoever, and shall take and catch any ofthe fish within the said pond therein, or by anyother engine, machine, arts, ways, or means whatso-ever, other than by angling with angle-rod, hookand line only, he shall pay a fine of forty shillings. So that put an end to any newfangled andwholesale way of catching fish in the CollectPond. The swamp mentioned as being to thewest of the Collect stretched away to theHudson River. It was a miry morass, perme-ated with the waters of the Collect, coveredwith a thick growth of brush and such vege- [198]. AROUND THK COLLKCT POND tation as is usual in wet and marshy soil. Itwas a patch of ground useless and dangerousalike to man and beast. There was a certain Anthony Rutgers,who held a lease on the greater part of thisswamp, and about 1730 he suggested that hecould make this land profitable if he werepermitted to irrigate it according to his was considered a wild scheme, but thecity officials agreed to give him the tract ifhe could restore it to good ground. So hehad a ditch cut from the Collect Pond to theHudson River, drained the swamp, made itfirm land (it is now crowded with greatbusiness buildings), and this ditch, beingwidened, after a while became a canal,and so gave a name to the present CanalStreet. Quite close to the swamp in Rutgerss timelived Leonard Lispenard. He married An-thony Rutgerss daughter, and the improved [20,] AROUND THE COLLECT POND swamp, becoming his when Rutgers died,was then called Lispenards Meadow. But the cutting
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1902
