Terms, Five Dollars a Year. 
Ten Cents a Copy. i 
\NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1874 
j Volume 2, Number 5, 
1 103 Fulton Street. 
For Forest and Stream 
SPRING. 
O H, have you seen my wayward love 
Come tripping up the valley? 
Once more the silver streamlets flow, 
Why doth the maiden dally? 
She cometh from the sun-kiss’d lands, 
Sweet buds apd blossoms bearing, 
And all along her balmy way, 
The happy birds are pairing. 
Methought I spied her from afar, 
When southern winds were blowing, 
A misty vail was o’er her thrown, 
And robe all graceful flowing. 
I listened, and I seemed to hear 
The signal of her coming. 
Where emerald tipped, the willows waved. 
And sluggard bees were humming. 
The fleeting sunbeams hid away 
Among her golden tresses; 
Her little feet stepped daintily, 
Among the water cresses. 
She loitered by the roadside rill, 
Where mossy rocks were looming, 
She whispered to the violets, 
And set them all a blooming. 
With eager hope I keep the tryst, 
And wait the wayward rover, 
Till grown less coy, the charming maid 
Shall haste to greet her lover. 
But hark! the twittering swallows tell 
She will not longer dally; 
With blushing cheek and joyful tears, 
She meets me in the valley. 
F. W. A. 
[The lines “To Anas Canadensis” were inadvertently published la: 
week as^riginal. As they were sent us by “G. H. W.” in manuscrip 
/hey were carelessly handed to the printer without noticing the 
dentity with Bryant’s familiar “Ode to a Water Fowl.” So much goo 
'poetry is furnished us by valued contributors that we have no occasio 
:o copy from others without giving credit, and we are sure ourreadei 
vill acquit us of such intention. We hope G. H. W. feels better. Hi 
, greatest mistake seems to have been that he wrote anas at the top of th 
yerses instead of an ass at the bottom. 
fie Jpuf of the ffjjfinnie. 
tfOTES OF A CRUISE DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE IN A CENTR 
BOARD Grip. 
Chapter I. 
ft HAVE always been fond ot aquatics, though as fa 
1-yachting is concerned I am in the situation of theT 
i|f Alsace in the Ingoldsby legend, “I can’t do as I wo 
I must do as I can;” as I can’t afford even a fifteen ton 
ll'er, I do whaj I can with a boat. Before I left Engl 
#or Halifax, in 1872, I designed a little craft that wa 
Combine the advantages of a sailing and rowing boat, 
(ii o be easily managed by one person. I had her built ! 
. veil known Southampton boat builder, who took a g 
leal of pains with her, and turned me out a very nice 1 
( hip- As the style of the boat may be somewhat of a i 
T ni n niW « -C i. 1 . Ail . • -r < 11 
,lty on this sine of the Atlantic, I will describe her as 
(As I can. She is a clipper built gig, with a square and rt 
yiill stern, length, 15 feet; width, 4 feet 8 inches; dep 
yeet, rising at the stem and stern, so as to give ab( 
Aches sheer. She is decked for 3 feet 6 inches o: 
Kmgth from the bow, and for 2 feet 6 inches from the si 
4 hese decks are connected by a washboard on each 
finches wide; below the decks two bulkheads are f 
* J as t0 make a water-tight compartment fore and aft 
/my amidships a centre-board 3 feet 6 inches in leng 
laced the case of which, however, does not rise abovi 
'Vel of the thwarts so as not to interfere with the ro 
’ he is rigged for sailing with a sprit, mainsail and for 
Ll r jiq. The mainsail is used without a boom, except v 
inning, when it can be boomed out with a boat h 
i lie main slleet passes through a small block which tn 
ill a hawse at the stern, and the tack of the foresail is r 
tst either to the stern or to a small bumpkin 8 inches 1 
l# he sprit is made in two pieces joined by a ferule, so : 
tow of its being shortened and a reef taken in the n 
sail; the sails are altogether inboard, and I have found the 
rig extremely simple and convenient. I generally use 
about 2 cwt. of lead ballast, and sometimes about 80 lbs. 
water ballast in addition when out sailing by myself in a 
strong breeze. 
Altogether, I think the “Minnie” a success. She sails 
very well for h6r size, pulls easily either with sculls or oars, 
and is a good sea boat. She is so honestly and faithfully 
built that though she has been sent about by trains, steam¬ 
ship, and cart, beached and exposed to a scorching sun, 
yet she is as staunch and tight now as when she left the 
builder’s yard. I had occasion to go to Quebec last spring, 
1873, and before going designed an expedition'down the 
St. Lawrence. I shipped my boat on board a steamship 
going from Halifax to Quebec, and determined to cruise 
back along the south shore of the river as far as I could 
in twenty-five days, (which was all the time I could spare 
for-the trip,) and send my boat to Halifax from where my 
cruise terminated by whatever means I found most con¬ 
venient. My brother 0. volunteered to accompany me, 
though the accommodation on board the “Minnie” was 
certainly limited. We knew the river pretty well as far as 
Father Point, about 170 miles below Quebec; beyond that 
we determined to trust to a chart, sailing directions, and 
information from inhabitants of fishing villages. 
We got together wraps, waterproofs, fishing rods, a light 
singled-barrelled gun, &c., laid in a supply of tea, sugar, 
bacon, and biscuits: though we trusted to be able to get 
provisions from villages en route, yet we thought it advis¬ 
able to have a small stock in reserve. By means of stanch¬ 
ions fore and aft, and using the sprit as a ridge pple, we 
could stretch a waterproof sheet over the open part of the 
boat, as a protection against the weather. We proposed 
putting into a harbor of some sort every night, and either 
sleeping on board or on shore, as we found most conven¬ 
ient. 
^It required no little consideration to determine the best 
way of stowing all our gear into the space we had at our 
disposal; bqt by careful packing we succeeded in arranging 
it so as* not to interfere with the working of the boat, 
and on the 3d of June, at 2 P. M., the Minnie was ready 
for sailing. The morning had’been calm, but with the ebb 
tide the wind blew up from the east, dead ahead. How¬ 
ever, we took each an oar, pulled over under the lee of the 
opposite shore, and proceeded to make sail. As it was now 
blowing a pretty stiff breeze, I took down a reef before 
setting the mainsail, for I have had sufficient experience in 
boat sailing to know the folly of carrying too much sail on 
a small craft. “There they goes, a carrying on,” was the 
remark of the old boatman, watching a boat, manned by 
amateurs, under a press of canvas; “there they goes a 
carrying on; they fears nothing, because they knows noth¬ 
ing.” 
The tide was setting down strongly, so we made good 
way. In one board we reached nearly to the upper end of 
the island of Orleans, and going about tacked down be¬ 
tween it and the south shore, the usual ship channel. Op¬ 
posite the pretty wooded cove called Patrick’s Hole, we 
passed a number of outward bound vessels at anchor, wait¬ 
ing for a fair wind down the river. At Point St. Laurent 
the channel narrows, and the wind and tide meeting caused 
rather a “lop.” We shook out our reef after passing this 
point as the wind fell. Our destination that evening was 
an island in the middle of the river, called Isle Reaux, op¬ 
posite the lower end of the island of Orleans; as we got 
near it the tide gradually failed us, and when we were 
within a mile the flood began to make, so we took in our 
sail, rowed to the upper end of Isle Reaux, and cast anchor. 
The chief, I might say the sole, inhabitant of this island is 
a Scotch farmer, and old friend of ours, and as soon as we 
had cast anchor he came off in a “flat” or “dory,” took us 
ashore, and made us welcome^ apd so wo found ourselves 
in comfortable quarter* after our- sail of about twenty-five 
miles. 
June 4—We decided not to continue our voyage to-day as the 
weather was so disagreeable, raining and blowing hard 
from the east. We hauled the Minnie up on the beach at 
high water, and in the afternoon accompanied our friend 
M., who was going to take a load of farm produce in his 
boat to an outward bound vessel anchored about seven 
miles further down the river. We beat down as far as the 
.neighboring island, Grosse Isle, and landed at a wharf there 
to visit the island while our friend went on to the ship. 
Grosse Isle is used at a quarantine station for vessels with 
emigrants on board coming up the St. Lawrence. How 
when passengers make the voyage from Europe in steam¬ 
ships crossing the Atlantic in ten or twelve days, or in well 
appointed sailing ships, it is comparatively seldom that they 
are required to make a stay here, but in by-gcme years, 
when famine and pestilence raged in Ireland, and vessels 
brought a freight of diseased and starving human beings 
to America, the little island has .witnessed many scenes of 
woe and misery. In one little burying ground at the upper 
end of the island over 5,000 emigrants were buried in the 
season of 1847 alone, who came to America only to find 
r grave there. We had spent many summers on the island 
as youngsters, and renewed our acquaintance with the 
well remembered bays, woods and paths, and wondered 
that they should have shrunk so much since we had seen 
them last. We spent about two hours in wandering about 
the island and seeing our old friends. Then M. called for 
us on his way back, and scudding before the wind we were 
soon at Isle Reaux again. 
June 5.—We caulked the forward deck this morning, as the 
seams had opened a little from exposure to the sun at Quebec. 
At high water, half past two, the Minnie was launched, the 
things stowed on board, and we got under weigh under sail. 
The wind was still from the east, so we were close hauled. 
Our first board was a good one, bringing us to the village 
of St. Thomas, on the south shore, and we beat a schooner 
that had got under weigh near us, hollow. We tacked be¬ 
tween the south shore, Margaret and Crane islands, and 
reached the beginning of the “traverse,” from the south to 
north shore. In going over to the Beaujeu bank here, we 
encountered a nasty sea caused by the shoal and the strong 
ebb tide setting against the east wind. The “pillar” light¬ 
house now came in sight on a rocky island, where the first 
steamship, “Canadian,” was run ashore on a clear moon¬ 
light night an d> wrecked. About seven o’clock, when near 
the village of Lislet, we decided to go no further, and ac¬ 
cordingly brought up under the lee of a wharf, made the- 
Minnie fast behind a fishing boat, and landed. An “inhab¬ 
itant” offered us a lodging in his house, which we accept¬ 
ed; shortly afterwards we met another inhabitant. “Are. 
you not afraid,” said he, “of sleeping in a house whey they 
have the picotte?” This made us rather uneasy; we didn’t 
know what picotte was, and I thought it sounded unpleas - 
antly like “picotte,” (pitted with small pox;) however, 
there were no symptoms of that disease apparent, so we 
didn’t leave our quarters, but took our supper, made up a 
bed with our wraps on the floor, and were soon in a state of 
indifference to “picotte” and everything else. 
June 6—I rose early this morning and found a light westerlj 
wind blowing, so hastened to rouse C., get our gear to¬ 
gether, and start. We paid our entertainer for our lodg¬ 
ing, and did not carry away With us any unpleasant remin¬ 
iscences of Lislet. . The picotte,, we concluded, was not in 
our host’s family circle. We left Lislet about seven, with 
an hour’s ebb tide. Thg fair wind lasted a very short time, 
then it fell calm,, and we took to. our oars and rowed along 
the south shoi;e, keeping close in after the tide turned. 
About noon, a point, called Point St. Roque was reached, 
where we put ashore for dinner, and I made a fire while C. • 
went to; requisition the neighboring houses for bread. He 
requisitioned in vain; he was offered some bread made of 
buckwheat flour, which would have done for ballast had 
we wanted it, but he declined it as an article of diet. An 
inroad was therefore made into the biscuit, and after some 
fried bacon and tea, we spread ourselves out on the sand 
till three o’clock, when the tide turned, and we got under 
weigh and continued our row. The south shore of the St. 
Lawrence is very well cultivated and settled; villages are 
seen every six or seven miles or so between Trois Pistolles 
and South Quebec; there is a strong family likeness between 
