Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-03-14
DRIfTWOoD IN BAY.
A Perennial Source of Fuel Supply for
 People Dwelling on Its Shores.

T.
 People Dwelling on Its Shores. Hello. here's my woodward again."
 Thus a dweller on the shores of Gravesend bay, as he looked abroad over its now ice covered surface, and saw, almost at his door, ,big ice foe about twenty by forty feet in dimen- sions, with frozen in to the middle of it.a log from which a considerable part of the wood had been cut away. This was his wood yard, from which he had begun taking wood two days before. On the first day he had spied the log in the ice at some little dis tance from the shore and had made his way out to it over the ice interyen. ing and cut from it as much wood ah he could before the ebb tide began tt run. The ebb. carried the foe with the log in it along with great masses of ice all around it down as far as Coney Island point, but the next flood brought it back and, by the chances of wind and tide, brought it this time nearer to the shore dweller's home than it had been before. so that on this second day
  than he had on the first.
 On its next return his floating wood yard had brought up almost at his door; and on that day he finished ths log. The next ebb carried this particu- lar ice foe out logless.
 It is an ancient custom on the part of people living near it. that of gath ering driftwood for fuel from the wa ters of Gravesend bay. In old times, when the country back of the bay was ised for farms, farmers used to come town and gather driftwood with the fishermen. There are few farmers in that region now, and far fewer fisher men on the shores; but there are still some gatherers of driftwood. and these not necessarily poor people by any | means.r ou >g
 They may be people very comforta. bly, circumstanced and owning horses and wagons able to haul the wood they gather. shore dwellers of long tenure, fishermen and waterman. The wood they gather, or so much of it as they need, they saw and split and stack up for their own use: the surplus they sell.
 ''Driftwood for Sale" is line famil. far among the advertisements in the local newspaper. The driftwood gath. cred from the waters of Gravesend bay is the flotsam and jetsam of the har. Dor of great city; refuse and stuff of all sorts which the ebb tide regularly sucks out from the slips and spaces around the city's wharves to float with | whatever like stuff it may meet in the stream, down the harbor and through the Narrows; thence to be carried by a tide eddy or driven by the wind into Gravesend bay. The driftwood thus brought down in summer comes in what are called tide streaks, the stuff loose and scattering and swaggling, but with some sort Of outline formation, within the limits o! broad streak on the water; and at ; that season people go out after the driftwood in the bay in boats. In win. ter the driftwood comes down mixed with the ice or resting on it or frozen into it, as for instance was that log that the shore dweller succeeded in cutting out in three successive morn. ings, wind and tide kindly favOring; and in winter people go out on the ice with hand sleds, on which they bring the driftwood ashore, as they go in boats in summer.
 So there is always likely to be driftwood found in the bay, which has been for generations perennial source of fuel supply for people dwelling Oh ;tc chopnS