FOREST AND STREAM 



25 



tie, breeze rising, thecordouoJ; yachts Bailed gaily around 



the steamer, The baud poured a flood of tweet melody 

 upon the fitlll night air, and the flood of water laved the 

 graceful craft, whose gay wings, snowy with moonlight., 

 Bashed from all directions upon the ravished eye of the be- 

 bolder, Rosy and golden lights "learned from the boats 

 with long trucks of brilliancy across the rippling water, 

 ■while the new lighthouse, as though unwilling that oilier 

 lights should outshine it, shrunk and grew again, and, 

 giowiug with unusual splendor, sent, a gorgeous pathway Of 

 pellucid light heavenward athwart the bay." 



THE HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF 

 PAPER BOATS. 



Inquiries regarding the history and durability Of 

 boats occasionally reach ma through the medium of the 

 post, office. After all the uses to which paper has been put 

 daring the, last twenty years, the public is yet hardly con- 

 vinced that the flimsy material, paper, can successfully take 

 the place of wood in the construction of light pleasure boats, 

 canoes, and racing Shells, Yd, the idea has become an ac- 

 complished fact, 'l'he success of the victorious paper shells 

 of the Cornell College navy, which were enlisted in the 

 struggles of the two past seasons at Saratoga, against no 

 mean antagonists— the college crews of the United States— 

 surely proves that iu strength, stillness, speed, and fineness 

 of model the paper boat is without, a rival. 



When used in its own peculiar sphere, the improved pa- 

 per boat will be found to possess the following merits: Less 

 weight, greater strength, Stiffness, durability, and speed 

 than a wooden hoat. of (he same size and model, and the 

 molded paper shell will retain the delicate lines so essen- 

 tial to speed, while, the brittle woodeu shell yields more or 

 less to the warping influences of sun and moisture. A com- 

 parison of the strength of wood and paper for boats has 

 been made by a writer in the Cornell Times, a, journal pub- 

 lished by the students of that celebrated New York col- 

 lege: "Lot us take a piece of wood and a piece of paper of 

 the same thickness, and experiment with, use and abuse 

 them both to the fame extent. Let the wood be of one- 

 eighlh of an inch iu thickness— the usual thickness of shell 

 boats— and the paper heavy paslehoaid, both one foot square. 

 Holding them up by one "side, strike them with a hammer, 

 and observe the result. '1 he wood will be cracked (to say 

 the least), the pasteboard, whirled out of your hand, will 

 onlv be dented, at mo&t. Take ho!d and bend them. The 

 wood bends to a •erlaiu digrce, and then splits; the paste- 

 board, bent to the same degiee, is not affected iu the least 

 Take a knife and strike then, the wood is again split; lire 

 pasteboard, only pierced. Place them on the water, the 

 wood floats for an indefinite time} the pasteboard, after a 

 lime, soaks, and finally sinks, as was to be expected. But 

 suppose we soak the pasteboard in marine glue before the 

 itnetit, then we find the pasteboard equally as imper- 

 vious tb the water as wood, slid as buoyant, if of thesame 

 weight. But to be of the same weight it must be thinner 

 than the wood, yet, even then it stands the before mention- 

 ed' testa as well as when thicker; and it will be found to 

 stand all tests much better than wood, even when it weighs 

 considerably less. 



"Now, enlarging our piece,, and molding them into boats 

 of the same weight, we find the Following differences-.— 



being'slill' and liable to sp'it, eanonly temolded 

 I t|lO- comparative form. Paper, since it can be rendered 

 p fleetly pliable, can be pressed into any shape desirable, 

 ueiice, any wislied lor fineness of lines can be given the 

 model, and the paper will assume i lie identical shape, after 

 which it can be water-proofed, hardened, and polished. 

 Paper neither swells, nor shrinks, nor cracks, hence it does 

 not k-ak, is always ready for use, always amicable. As 

 to cost, there, is very little difference between the two, the 

 COit being within twenty, live dollars, more or less, thesame 

 for both. Those who use paper boats think them very near 

 perfection, and surely those who have the most to do with 

 boats ought to know, prejudice aside, which is the best. 



Ad injury to a paper boat is easily repaired by a patch of 

 strong gaper and a coating of shellac put on with a hot iron. 

 As the paper boat is a novelty with many people, a sketch 

 of its early history limy prove interesting to the reader. Mr. 

 George Waters, the son of the senior member of the firm of 

 E. E. Wafers & Sous, of Troy, K. Y., was iuviled some 

 eleven years since to a masquerade party. The boy repair- 

 ed to a toy shop to purchase a counterfeit face; but thinking 

 the price '(eight dollars) was more than he could afford for 

 a single evening's sport, he borrowed the mask for a model, 

 from which he produced a duplicate as perfect as was the 

 original. While engaged upon his novel work, an idea im- 

 pressed itself upon his ingenious brain. "Cannot," lie que- 

 ried, "a paper shell be made upon a wooden model of a boat V 

 and'will not a shell thus produced after being treated to a 

 coat, of marine varnish, float as well, and be lighter than a 

 wooden boat?'' Tin; boy turned his attention to the de- 

 velopment of his bright idea; and being crowned with suc- 

 cess, he was soon "paddling his own canoe" —the first pa- 

 per boat— upon the. river. That first crudely constructed 

 paper shell is still a good hoat. The father of George, an 

 inventor of many successful mechanical devices, now ap- 

 plied his energies, lime and fortune, lo the perfecting of 

 the paper boat; and though his firm has struggled against 

 the prejudices of I he world, and losses both pecuniary 

 and incendiary, the great effort has been rewarded by suc- 

 cess as wejl as by the approbation of thousands of enthu- 

 siastic friends.— JS. II. Bishop, in the "South," 

 -»•••" — 



SdHOOTi op Navigation.— The Provincial Government 

 of Quebec has made provision for establishing a School of 

 Navigation for that Province. The institution was to have 

 gune into operation on the 1st of February. The school is 

 directly under the control of the Government, and W . C . 

 Seaton', Esq., late Nautical Master to the Society of Mer- 

 chant Venturers, Bristol, Eugiiind, has been secured to 

 Superintend the institution. The fees are .$15 tor those 

 wishing to pass for a male's certificate, and $20 for 

 those wishing a captain's certificate. No further charge is 

 entailed until certificates are obtained, 



HAii\ Aito ARt) Y ale.— The Yak Record of the -3d inst. 

 says ;— 



"It will not be pleasing to hear that unless a considera- 

 ble amount of money is raised by a month from to-day no 

 race will be rowed with Harvard this . 



, -*»» 



—Mrs- Elizabeth Goose— otherwise "Mother Goose — 

 died in Boston in 1757; and here is the Rev. ,T. L Manning, 

 pastor of the new Old South Church, asking that a memo- 

 rial statue should be erected to the venerable lady in one of 

 the parks or squares of that city, 



^ntiottal j§a$times. 



BASE BALL. 



The base ball season bids fair to open early this year, 

 and already the notes of preparation are to be heard. 

 About forty regular professional clubs will enter the arena, 

 of which but six will be League clubs, viz., four from the 

 west and two from the east. The Philadelphia Athletics 

 will join the International Association which will be the 

 majority association of the country. 



— A call has been issued for an Amateur Convention of 

 genuine amateur clubs to meet iu this city on March 14th. 

 But it will be difficult to find regular amateur clubs enough 

 to organize the meeting. There is one in New York, the 

 old Knickerbockers, and one in Brooklyn, the Nameless, 

 the other clubs are nearly all gale money amateiir nines 

 and not eligible to send delegates under the call in ques- 

 tion. 



—Base ball games at Prospect Park are expected to 

 begin about the last week in March judging from the mild- 

 ness of February weather thus far. The ball players are 

 eager to take the field. 



SKATING, 



Prospect Park ended up forty-four days of skating this 

 season on February 10th, and the same day- the Capitoline 

 Lake had its fifty -third day of skating. The sun has be- 

 come too powerful for the ice now, and the chances are 

 that the ice skating season is nearly over. 



— Roller skating is still on the increase, and new halls 

 are springing up rapidly. On Monday night Apollo Hall 

 in W illiamsburg was opened for roller skating, and a hall 

 in South Brooklyn is to be opened for the same exercise 

 next week. As soon as the lease of the Hippodrome trot- 

 ting race management expires that place is to be trans- 

 ferred into a large roller skating palace. 



—At the Brooklyn Rink, on Febiuary 8tb, there was a 

 larger attendance on the occasion of the third fete night 

 entertainment than at either of the previous fetes, aud on 

 Saturday fully two thousand people were on the floor dur 

 ing the afternoon and evening. 



JJ«w §ubHcntions. 



The Plains of the GrtE.vr West. By Col. R. J. Dodge, 



If. S. A., with an Introduction by Win. Blaekrnore. G. P. Putnam's 



Sua*, Publishers, Ki Fifth avenue, New York. 



This is by far the most comprehensive and intelligent volume that has 

 ever been written of the Far West, It is alike invaluable to the sports- 

 man, the Battler, the overland traveler, the trapper, and the soldier. It 

 is written in the plain language of "one who has been there and knows." 

 The economy, strategy, diplomacy, expedients and vicissitudes of the 

 Plains are here so intelligently stated that any one who reads may profit 

 thereby with material advantage. Next to the compass, this book be- 

 comes a necessity. To be without either- involves great personal risk 

 and detriment. In 1856, Lieut. Ruxtou, of the British Army, gave us in 

 homely but well chosen language the first truthful information we had 

 received or the physical chaiacteristics of the Far West and its nomadic 

 inhabitants; its marvellous scenery and wonderful resources; and the 

 startling vicissitudes of a life there spent. Except through the few 

 gleanings from the observations of overland gold seekers bound to Oat 

 ifcunia, and Ihe Mormon emigrants, the whole region had been a sealed 

 book. Kuxton covered the whole ground, sufficiently it is true-yet Ut- 

 ile escaped his observation. The Bad Lands, the wonders of the Yel- 

 lowstone, the gold of Pike's Peak, the Boiling Soda Springs, all new 

 and startling terrestrial phenomena than are at this day verified, just as 

 he described them. But much of what was to him a wilderness now 

 blooms with grain fields, aud is resonant with the hum or industry. 

 Kuxton at that time advised well as to the policy to be pursued With the 

 Indians; and ins advice, if followed, would have hi ought peace instead 

 of perpetual war. What he predicted as to the destruction of the game 

 of the country has proved tine, ft was the good fortune of the writer 

 to have crossed the Plains at the time of Kuxlon's campaigning, and he 

 is thus enabled to make those intelligent comparisons which help to 

 form an opinion of the value and authenticity of a work like Col. 

 Dodge's. In an article published in Hat-pert Magazine, in Oc;. 1857, he 

 indorsed what Kuxton had then said, and nothing has since occurred to 

 reverse the opinions of either. 



Subsequently Max Grtene wrote a very l.ruthfut bookeulithd the 

 "Kansas Region. " which then included a vast territorial area, now di- 

 vided into several Slates, dwelling particularly upon ihe climate and 

 agricultural resources of the country This was a most valuable little 

 work that should have enjoyed a large circulation. "The Prairie Trav- 

 eler," by Gen. Marcy, is another book of great use to any one crossing 

 the plains, containing mauy mstruclions to govern the movements or 

 bodies of troops, and which are equally Well adapted to sportsmen and 

 hnnters. Tins is a feature likewise or Col. Dodge's book. As regards 

 Ihe game of the country, the author devotes to less than 114 pages to it 

 alone. Any of our sporting readers, therefore, who have ever turned 

 their loving eyes westward, will lose no time in giving the book a thor- 

 ough perusal . We shall place it on our shelf for constant reference. The 

 price Is $1 . 



A Mad World and its Inhabitants. By Julius Cham- 

 bers, New York. D. Appleton & Co. 



llr. Chambers's experiences in a lunatic asylum, now offered in book 

 form, will not be altogether new to the American public. They are, 

 however, deeply interesting, holh m respect of their own peculiar charr 

 acter and of the legislative reforms to which their original publication 

 led. The hook is a result of that enterprise which pervaded every 

 branch of American journalism. The laws regulating the admission of 

 paticnte to lunatic asylums, and their treatment, when immured called 

 for exposure, and the author undertook the task. He details with a 

 grim humor the course of study, and the preparation necessary for a 

 candidate for a certificate of lunacy, aud then shows how successfully 

 he passed his own medical examination, and was, by the doctor's flat, 

 transformed into a madman. Then came the horrors and abuses of the 

 asylum, relieved by clearly drawn portraits of his fellow patients. 

 Statements are made respecting the brutality of the keepers, which ap- 

 pear almost incredible. The author succeeded in demonstrating, firsily, 

 the indifference and easily satisfied ignorance ol the examining "ex- 

 perls," secondly, the carclesi negligence ef Ihe judge who gran'ed the 

 warrant for his committal", and thirdly, the aduiirablo condition of the 

 asylum . In other words, he showed that all the usages and laws rela- 

 ting to ihe confinement and treatment of ihe insane « ere erroneous, 

 and that the entire system was rotten. This was no mean achievement, 

 and nothing but courage and a strong sense of duty could have earned 

 him through even his brief term of imprisonment. He let light in upon 

 one of the darkest spots of the social fabric, and led people to question 

 if tbe semi-starvation, kicks and cuffs of the asylnui Wei 

 lo re-seat reason "in her throne." The style in which the story is told 

 Is in every way admirable. 



The Yellowstone National Pahk By Prof. Thomas 



0. Arther. Edinburgh, Scotland: 



Already the European public is awakening lo the knowledge that Iher-e 

 is, fur away in the center of North American, a district more realy won- 

 derful than any which the most inventive fiction writer has ever Imagin- 

 ed, and full of Interest, aa we&retold by the Earl of Dnntayen iu his 



inimitable book, ''The Great Divide,' and by others who have explored 

 this Wonderland. Tbe XUvMtttd. London ,V-w.s, not very long ago, gave 

 numerous excellent engravings of the most, remarkable points in that 

 large apace or" 500 miles, which has been set aside by the Untied Slates 

 Government in perpetuity as a public park or recreation ground . Bur IE 

 is admited by every writer, on the subject, that it is all but lmp< 

 by words t» convey the slightest idea of the remaikable natural fenluria 

 of the district, large portions of which volcanic, and diversified 

 with geysers, which for number and grotesqueness throw those of Iceland 

 into the shade. Neither can engravings, or even photographs, 

 give much more satisfaction, for the niosi, astonishing of afl the. wonders 

 is that of color. There the rocks and mountains and tbe twisted and 

 distorted masses of earth arc tinted with brilliant colors— red, orange, 

 yellow, &c., such as we havo never bean accustomed to associate with 

 them, and which, consequently, render them different in their physical 

 aspects to any thing before seen. So much did this impress the inde- 

 fatigable, Pr fessor flayden, when he was the geologist in charge of ,lhe 

 Government exploration and survey of the district, that he obtained 

 subsequently the service of a very skillful British artist in water-colors, 

 to take on the spot colored sketches of some of the most beautiful and 

 remarkable scei s in the district. Mr. Moran's beautiful drawings bear 

 testimony to the fact that no pains had been spared to make them faith- 

 ful representations of the remarkable scenes they represent. To give 

 equally trustworthy reproductions Of these drawings, was most desirable, 

 so that the marvels of Wonderland, as it is often now called, might be 

 seen by all the world. This has been doue iu a very magnificent volume 

 published by Messrs. Prany & Co., or Boston, U. 8'. It contains fifteen 

 chromoliths, of such excellence, that we are surprised to find that firm, 

 eminent as it is, bringing out so large a work In a style which would do 

 credit the Imperial Slate Printing Lstabiisbmeut of Austria, long so fa- 

 mous for its perfection in the glyptic arts. There is a softness and 

 atrial depth not often seen in chromoliths, and as the work has been 

 brought out under the careful supervision of the eminent geologist who 

 surveyed the country, wo have ample guarantees that the drawings are 

 faithfut representations. Tbe work is necessarily a costly one, but no 

 public library can well do without it; and to those who can aliord.to put It 

 in their libraries, It wilt be a great source of pleasure. The letterpress 

 description of the pictures is by Professor Hay den himself. 



Field and Foiiest. Very interesting and valuable 's 



the article from the pen of Mr. David tScott, with which Field and For- 

 est for January upens. While the Tendency in Birds to Vary their Hal) 

 its is a topic which might be made to riU a volume, Mr. SeoLt in tbe brief 

 space which he sceupies has treated the subject in ah able manner, and 

 although we by no means agree with him tn some of the deductions 

 which he arrives at, we welcome his article as an additional evidence of 

 the new and more philosophic spirit which is pervading science. The 

 time has passed when the description of new species was lhe sole end 

 aud aim of each Naturalist, and at present the fearfcw in silence ; i 

 voting themselves to gathering facts lookiug to the establish n. 

 general laws. 



An article on Dorypltora <leennlineata gives some interesting facts 

 wrth tegaid to the habits of this destructive beetle, and should n t read 

 by agriculturists. We notice also a valuable catalogue of tbe Mosses ol 

 tbeDistrlctof Columbia, prepared by Mr. Rudolph Ojdberg, There are 

 several shorter articles, all of them instructive. 



Fuld and Forest is a monthly periodical of much value, printed at 

 Washington, and we wish for it the success it so well deserves; only w e 

 would prefer if it had not so nearly appropriated our own title. 



In the Naturalist for Febiuary we arc given a must at- 

 tractive account by Dr. Thomas H. Streets, of the Natural tli story of 

 the Fanning -Group of Islands of the Paci.'ic Ocean, Dealing wiih the 

 fauna of an almost wholly unknown region, Dr. Strtets's paper Is In- 

 structive and valuable. A somewhat detailed account is given In the 

 next article of the Explorations made iu Co orado in 18;li by Dr. liny- 

 den's Survey, the main points of which havo already been published in 

 this journal. Messrs. D. II. Jordan aud II. R. Copeland fuml-h notes 

 on the habits of ihe .Sand Darter, aud Wm. B. Flint writes on Ihe Dis- 

 tribution of Plants iu New Hampshire aud Vermont. An ait., :,, 

 Prof. Cope on the Suessoniau Fauna in North America gives in popular 

 form Ihe details of recent geological discoveries in New Mi xico, by 

 which the Eocene beds in that territory have been found to be oj ihe 

 tame age with the Lower Eocene of France aud England. The author 

 also quotes at some length from tbe celebrated Darter in reference to ihe 

 increase iu tbe size of the mammalian brain from the early Tertiary u. 

 tbe present time. We notice, however, that, through some inadvertence, 

 the Professor has omitted to mention in this connection the name 01 

 Marsh, whose restaiehes in this direction have been regurded as so iiu - 

 portaut by alt paleontologists. Tbe other articles of the number are on 

 the Vitality of Certain Land Mollusks by K. K. C. Stearns in , 

 cles by J.S.Kingsley. The General Notes are interesting and the Scien- 

 tific News and Proceeuin gs of Societies cover a wide field. 



Tiffany & Co., Silversmiths, Jewelers, and 

 Importers, have always a large stock or sil- 

 ver articles for prizes for shooting, yachting, 

 racing and other snorts, and on request they 

 prepare special designs for similar purposes. 

 Their timing -watches are g uaran teed for ac- 

 curacy, and are now very generally used for 

 sporting and scientific requirements. Tiffany 

 & Co., are also the agents tn America for 

 Messrs. Patek, Philippe & Co., of Geneva, of 

 -Whose celebrated watches they have a full 

 line. Their stock of Diamonds and other Pre- 

 cious Stones, General Jewelry, Bronzes and 

 Artistic Pottery is the largest in the world, 

 and the public are invited to visit their estab- 

 lishment without feeling the slightest obliga- 

 tion to purchase. Union Square. New York. 

 Adv. 



