170 
FORESTAND STREAM 
these are made very heavy, so that a dog cannot overturn 
them, and they are glazed in the inside; if of iron, they 
should be enamelled inside; they must be kept thoroughly 
clean and sweet. Wheaten straw is by far the best for their 
bed, but sometimes when I have been hard pressed for 
straw I have used dried fern, shavings, or sawdust, but 
this latter you cannot use on benches made as I have de 
scribed. Barley straw brings on mange. The sleeping 
house must be well ventilated, the * ventilators of which 
should close or open as you may wish. Light ought to be 
let in from the roof of the sleeping apartment, so that 
when the door is closed they are not in utter darkness; dogs 
require light as well as horses or other animals. All shoot¬ 
ing dogs ought never be chained up, but have as much 
liberty as possible. Two hours’ exercise each day is 
not a bit too much for them, the more they have the 
harder, and in better wind they will be. Unless a dog has 
regular exercise he is not fit to go for an hour, and is as 
soft as pap. The kennel must be thoroughly washed out 
every morning, the beds shaken up, and renewed every few 
days, or as often as may be necessary. Many dogs are very 
dirty in their habits, and when this is the case of course 
they want to be renewed oftener, and especially in wet 
weather. I now come to that all-important point, feeding. 
Many do not know how to feed a dog, and though the ani¬ 
mal may have lots of food, he never looks well in his coat, 
because he is not judiciously fed. Whatever you give him 
let it be at a stated hour, say 2 o’clock, which is a good 
feeding time. Of course in shooting season you cannot do 
this, and must be governed by circumstances. I will com¬ 
mence with puppies first. Directly puppies are weaned 
they must be placed by themselves, with plenty of air and 
room, otherwise they will be stunted in their growth, grow 
crooked, and become foundered. They cannot be kept too 
well (that is in reason), as long as you give them the proper 
kind of food, which, when very young, should be good 
sweet milk, thickened with a little flour boiled in it, and 
given cold. They should be fed at least four times a day 
till three or four months old, little and often, that is if you 
wish fine large dogs, then twice a day, till they have at¬ 
tained their full growth, after which once a day is suffi¬ 
cient. Puppies should never have meat of any kind, but 
plenty of well boiled oatmeal. As they get older this may 
be flavored with paunch, or something of that sort, and 
some bony matter must be given to produce lime. Pup¬ 
pies, though they require to be kept very well, must not be 
allowed to get too heavy, or they will grow crooked in 
their fore legs, and their knees will go. Your oatmeal, 
whether the puppies or grown up dogs, must be well boil¬ 
ed, keeping it stirred ali the time, otherwise it will burn, 
and be rendered unpalatble. For grown up dogs make 
them good porridge of oatmeal, flavored with paunch; a 
dog in hard work requires a little meat, this must be well 
cooked.” • ^ 
—A correspondent, C. E. C., from Maryland, asks us the 
following questions:— 
Please inform me why m your paper of the 9th ulto. in 
giving the points for pointers, you do not allow them any 
points for retrieving? Do not pointers make as good re¬ 
trievers as setters? Where a person owns only one dog 
whether pointer or setter, is it not best for him to be a re¬ 
triever? I have a very fine pointer pup eight months old 
that promises to excel as a retriever, and would like to 
know the objections if any to pointers being taught to re¬ 
trieve.. 
Ans.— Pointers as a general rule are or ought to be used 
for open field shooting only, as their delicate organization, 
thin skin, slight coat, and having no hair between their 
toes, prevents them retrieving successfully through scrub 
oaks, thick cover, swamps and water. Nine times out of 
ten a shooter will tell his pointer to charge after he has 
just fetched a snipe or cock out of a heavy watery swamp; 
the dog having comparatively little clothing will take 
cold. It is true that a high blooded pointer will go any 
where, but not without ill effects to his person, such as 
drawing blood and otherwise materially injuring his phy¬ 
sique. W e'think it is quite sufficient for the pointer to stand 
his dead bird. We do not see any positive objection to teach¬ 
ing your pointer pup to retrieve, providing he shows the 
strong instinct in that direction you speak of, although the 
best authorities state that it injures the nose or scent of any 
high bred dog to teach him to retrieve. Pointers do not 
make as good retrievers as setters for the reasons stated 
above, and moreover if most of the celebrated retrieving 
pointers if traced back one or two generations it will 
very likely 7- b-s found that the grand dam or grand sire was 
a setter, which will account for this ixflsterent retrieving 
propensity. 
—In a letter just received by us from G. Macdona, Esq., 
he state that his relative “the Kev. J. C. Macdona desires 
me to thank you for all your kindness, which he duly ap¬ 
preciates, and he hopes some fine day to accept some of the 
almost countless numbers of invitations from the gentle¬ 
men of America to accept their hospitality.” He says, “I am 
the owner of this valuable kennel, and am proud to say 
I have sent and am sending to young America, some of the 
purest and best prize blood of dogs in England, so that I 
suppose in due time “the daughters will whip the mothers,” 
in this as in other matters.” He also states “that when I 
see the rector the other part of your letter shall be attended 
to.” This latter sentence refers to his final determination 
as to whether he will bring over his dogs to America. 
THE POINTER’S HEAD. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Your correspondent at page 321 would not have needed to ask 
the question he did if he had a little more knowledge of anatomy. It is 
the peculiar form of head (brain) that gives a dog his merits. The 
pointer has large development between and in front of the eyes, down 
on the nose. Inside of the skull we find the olfactory bulbs largely de¬ 
veloped. Such a dog is easily trained. In the common dog these bulbs 
can be developed somewhat, but never to the extent we find them in the 
pointer or setter, that looks with its nose. J. C. D., M. D. 
—Several prominent gentlemen of Illinois have called a 
State convention of fish culturists to meet at Elgin on the 
5th of May. 
Yachting and Ranting. 
All communications from Secretaries and friends shovM be mailed not 
later than Monday in each week. 
HIGH WATER, FOR THE WEEK. 
DATE. 
BOSTON. 
| NEW YORK. J 
CHARL’ST’N 
] 
h. 
m. 
h. 
m. 
h. 
m. 
April 23.1 
5 
6 
1 
53 
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6 
April 24. 1 
1 6 
8 
2 
54 
2 
8 
April 25.. | 
7 
5 
3 
50 ! 
3 
5 
April 26.| 
7 
57 
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43 1 
3 
57 
April 27 . ! 
8 
45 
5 
30 | 
4 
45 
April 28. 1 
9 
25 
6 
13 
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25 
April 29. 1 
10 
4 
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4 
CANOEING. 
I NUMBER FOUR. 
1 T\/TENTION of the scale upon which the drawings of a 
i JLVJL canoe, in a late nu mber of this paper, was con¬ 
structed, was omitted by mistake; but owing to the 
j fact that the wood cuts were not absolutely 
accurate and were so small that the slightest devia¬ 
tion would result in a mistake of some magnitude when 
enlarged to the si’ze of a canoe, this is of little importance. 
We trust they will convey a general impression as to the 
shape and appearance of the boat, and be of service in locat¬ 
ing the well or cock-pit, the bulk-heads and the hatches. 
The scale used was one-eightli of an inch to the foot, and 
may be relied upon in the sail-drawing, which will render 
it unnecessary for us to give in preet the various dimensions 
of the sails constituting the rig we have advised. 
The lengths of the spars may also be determined from the 
same drawing, always leaving sufficient margin for them to 
be rebent when by use they have been entirely stretched. 
Pine or spruce makes an exceedingly good lower mast for 
the main sail. Ash answers well for the dandy mast and 
top mast, and spruce for booms, gaffs and spurts, we think 
is unsurpassed. 
The gunter is difficult to describe. It consists of two 
light gun-metal or brass castings of nearly the same shape 
as the caps at the mast heads of our ordinary sloops or 
schooners. These are secured together by a light metal rod 
on either side, braised on the castings, of such a length as 
will make the measurement from the top to the bottom of 
this gearing eight inches, the proper distance. The gunter 
should of course be as light as is consistent with strength, 
and distance of three eighths of an inch should be left be¬ 
tween the holes for the masts in each casting, which will per¬ 
mit the standing part of the mast rope to be spliced in 
around the upper one and will keep the masts sufficiently 
apart to prevent the rope jamming in hoisting or lowering 
away, besides giving it a fair lead from the centre of the 
gunter. The top mast sets up abaft the lower mast and may 
be Added with apiece of heavy wire or have a shoulder eight 
inches from the heel, which will rest upon the upper part 
of the gunter and prevent its slipping through. Very fre¬ 
quently the holes in the after side of the gunter are made 
square, and in these cases the tube for the dandy mast is 
also made square of the same size, upon the theory that 
when short sail is desirable, the gunter may be lowered 
down to the deck, the top mast unshipped and replaced by 
the dandy mast with its sail. This can be done, no matter 
what may be the size or shape of the after holes in the 
gunter or the size or shape of the tube for the dandy mast, 
provided they are alike, but we would suggest that two 
reefs will be found preferable to this proceeding, the only 
disadvantages connected with reefing, viz., the weight and 
length of the boom, being much more than counterbalanced 
by the difficulty in disconnecting the main sail from the 
lower mast, making up and stowing the sail. All that is 
necessary to say concerning the size of the large holes in 
the gunter is, that they should be just enough larger than 
the lower mast to permit the gearing to travel freely when 
desired. It will be found a good plan to have a sheave near 
the mast head and one just above the deck, connected on 
the forward side by a groove sufficiently deep to receive the 
mast rope or halliard, the standing part of which will be se¬ 
cured as we stated, to the gunter; then the rope should be 
led up between the masts, rove from aft forward through 
the upper sheave, down the groove on the forward side of 
the mast and through the lower sheave from forward aft. 
The gunter will travel outside the mast rope. An objection 
to this plan is that the cutting out of so much wood for re¬ 
ception of the sheaves weakens the mast to an objectionable 
extent, especially at the lower sheave where the leverage is 
very great. Our opinion is, that if tlie[mast be made of 
clear grained pine and one and three quarters inches in 
diameter, it will stand the pressure of sail in a breeze as 
long as the canoeist will, perhaps longer, if his judgment is 
not be relied upon. At the bottom of the gunter should be 
secured a becket for the heel of the spreet. So in lowering 
away, to reef the whole head of your sail comes down stand¬ 
ing, and on the boom at the proper positions should be lashed 
small metal hooks in which can be fastened the grommets 
worked into the reef cringles, mentioned in our last article. 
The hooks on the boom should be so attached that they will 
have some play, for the flapping of the sail has more force 
than one woukHmagine. The • old-fashioned jaws for the 
boom seem to answer the purpose as well as any metal 
goose neck we have seen tried. 
The main sheet for so small a sail as our canoe’s main sai 
will of course be a single rope, but a very , good plan is to 
have a thimble spliced in the end working on a rope traveler 
of about two feet in length on the boom, which divides the 
strain upon that spar and prevents its betiding or “buck¬ 
ling,” as it is called, and spilling the wind Out of the sail. 
The brails may be rove in this way. Clove hitch the mid¬ 
dle of the piece of rope set aside for this purpose around 
the boom about one-tliird of its length from the clew of tl 
sail; reeve an end from aft forward on either side tlirouo-i 6 
small blocks at the lower mast head; bring the ends dow/ 
and knot under the boom a couple of feet forward froin 
your standing part; these knotted ends are the haulingp art 
and will, if hauled fair, brail up each side of the sail alike- 
in addition these brails, when hanging under the boom as 
we have suggested, make excellent “lazy jacks” and hold 
the slack sail in reefing. 
The jib may be set by having an out haul, which reeves 
through the stem post or a small block lashed to it, and "a 
halliard which reeves through a block at lower mast head 
It is impossible to have the jib halliard block at the top'- 
mast head, although the jib would be greatly enlarged by 
so doing; for owing to the movable.nature of the top mast 
one reef would put the jib in the water. The jib sheets are 
single and it is well to knot the ends of the two together to 
prevent their getting adrift. As the jib has a boom one 
sheet might be made to answer, but it will be found very 
convenient to have two, in order to catch your jib to wind- 
ward in putting the canoe about. 
The dandy now only remains to be described. "With a 
rope span on the gaff a single halliard will be found to 
answer. A small block at the mast head is in this case 
better than a sheave, and if the end of this halliard is fasten¬ 
ed to the throat of the gaff the slack rope will be taken up 
vyhen the sail is twisted, and there will always be an ex¬ 
cellent down haul in case the gaff is ever given to obstinacy 
when it is desirable to have it come down. No brails are 
necessary for this sail, but a pair of lazy jacks will hold the 
slack when lowered away. The dandy sheet reeves through 
a block lashed to the stern post or through a hole in the 
stern post itself. We must add.that the credit of adapting 
the spreet sail to the gunter is due to Mr. W. Baden 
Powell. 
■-- 
CANOE CRUISING. 
Halieax, N. S., April 2, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Since Mr. Macgregor published his little book, “A 
Thousand miles in the Rob Roy,” this subject has attracted 
a good deal of attention amongst boating men in Great 
Britain and other parts of the world where Englishmen 
happen to have their abode. Canoe clubs have been es¬ 
tablished, and a great deal of ill-directed ingenuity has 
been devoted to inventing gimcracks connected with these 
little craft, in the vain endeavor to make a boat about half 
the size of a skiff, possess all the requisites of a well-ap¬ 
pointed yacht, sailing power, sleeping accommodations', 
cooking arrangements, &c., &c. The man who expects all 
this will certainly be disappointed. Canoe cruising is un¬ 
doubtedly hard work, and any one who is fond of creature 
comforts, and not prepared to rough it, had better let it 
alone. On the other hand, there is a sense of “glorious 
independence” about it; river and lake scenery can be seen 
to great advantage, it is a healthy and invigorating exer¬ 
cise, and a man of observation will find much to interest 
him in paddling down a river; good fishing" can also often 
be procured, especially in this country, and a rod and 
tackle are no encumbrance in a canoe. 
It is with a view to cruising on inland waters, therefore, 
that a canoe should especially be designed; and I may say, 
as the result of some years experience, that the paddle is 
the best and most convenient means of propulsion. A sail 
is useful as an adjunct; it is pleasant for instance when a 
fair wind springs' up, to be able to set sail and run merrily 
before it, leaning back on the cushions, instead of having 
the mechanical grind of striking the water with the paddle, 
first on one side, then on the other; but a fair wind cannot 
always be ensured, and the attempt to utilize a foul one by 
beating to windward against it, may perhaps be interesting 
and amusing to any one who has a pet gimcrack that he 
has spent a good deal of money and thought upon; but the 
probability is that, with the current in his favor, which is 
likely to be the case, if he hauled down his sails and al¬ 
lowed his boat to drift, he would save himself a great deal 
of trouble and get on very nearly as fast. If a man wishes 
to have a sailing boat which he can handle easily himself, 
take a short cruise along the coast, up harbors, &c., &c., 
he had better order a stout wholesome boat, 15 feet or so 
in length, 5 feet 6 inches beam, with a fair amount of 
depth, and with either a small fixed keel or centre-board, 
as his tastes incline. He will find this a much more com¬ 
fortable and useful craft than a damp, cramped, nonde¬ 
script machine, which is not adapted for sailing, and which 
has too much complicated gear to make a good cruismg 
canoe. . .. 
A few remarks on some of the different types of civil¬ 
ized canoes that have been invented may be interesting. 
First, the “Rob Roy” class. These canoes have been so 
often and fully described that particulars of their length, 
breadth, depth, &c., would be superfluous. They are short, 
handy canoes, and are probably more used for cruising 
than any other. The improved Rob Roy, with rounded 
deck, water-tight compartment at each end, locker for pro¬ 
visions at the' side, a small standing lug or latteen sail, 
an eight-foot paddle with oval blades, is a very good crait 
indeed. For cruising in America, however, where camp¬ 
ing gear must sometimes be carried, the “Rob Roy 
rather small, and is somewhat slow to paddle against 
stream or in a seaway. , , 
Second, the Nautilus type. This appears to be the ia- 
vorite class of canoes in America. The original “Nautilus ^ 
was designed by Mr. Baden Powell, and was supposed t 
be an improvement on the Bob Roy. A canoe of this cia 
is shorter, rather wider, and deeper .than the latter, o 
has a good deal of “sheer,” and is a very pretty ldtle.^o 
to look at. Taking her beam, which is only about 28 iu 
es, into consideration, she carries a large spread of can ‘ i 
and is usually “dandy rigged” with a small foresail, ox J 
sliding spreet mainsail, and leg of mutton jigger; ai_ 
sail is inboard. The inventor designed her for a sa s 
canoe” especially. To a certain extent she fulfills this 
dltion, and is the best of the kind known—that is, she 
run and reach fairly, go about, generally without tn 
of a paddle, and sail close hauled without upsetting a 
moderate breeze; nevertheless, Mr. Powell, m sai » 
matgiyi at Portsmouth with a canoe called the > 
