Aug. 31, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



191 



was more to his taste, calmly refused to race, and, in consequence 

 Mr. Howard has found that his boat has been built in vain, and the> 

 yachting world have been befooled. I am of the opinion that some 

 notice should be taken of such unsportsmanlike conduct, particularly 

 by one who is about to receive the hospitality of the nation to which 

 Mr. Howard belongs. I certainly think that the Minima Y. C. would 

 be quite justified in withdrawing the backing of the challenge. Trust- 

 ing for your valuable comments on the matter, I am, dear sir, 



"Aug. 12. A Genuine Sportsman." 



This genuine sportsman is evidently unaware that Mr. Brand's visit 

 to America is entirely due to Mr. Howard, whose letter of last Marsh 

 resulted in the offering Of the Seawanhaka C. Y. C. trophy. Under 

 these circumstances it is hardly probable that Mr. Brand has treated 

 Mr. Howard as badly as "Genuine Sportsman" asserts, as the two 

 have worked together in arranging the American trip. 



Yampa and Amphitrite. 



Undoubtedly the match between the schooners Yampa and Amphi- 

 trite on Aug 14 was one of the most interesting features of the year. 

 Yampa, by her fine performance in a moderate wind in the B. Y. S. 

 match on Aug. 7. had made a great impression, but it was generally 

 concluded that Amphitritp held her on the beat between Spithead and 



old A. C. A. man, and, we earnestly hope, will bring back many miss 

 ing faces to the camp-fires of next summer. For a dozen years past, 

 since the first Grindstone meets, Mr. W. B. Huntington has been a 

 regular attendant, and of late years he has taken a very active part 

 in the selection and arrangement of the camp site, being at the head 

 of the camp site committee in 1893 and 1895. The office of commo- 

 dore has been several times offered to him, but he has declined to 

 accept it, and only consented this year on the solicitation of many 

 old members. In his hands we have no fear of the success of the 

 Association next year. 



AMERICAN CANOE ASSOCIATION. 



Sixteenth Annual Meet. 



BLUFF POINT— LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 



Again, for the sixteenth time in the history of the A. C. A., the tents 

 have been struck, the duffle packed, and a pleasant camp abandoned 

 reluctantly by a gay party of canoeists, and the meet of 1895 has 



The ladies' camp was much better than either Grindstone or Jessup's 

 Neck, in both of which It was very small; here there was a fine grove 

 of trees on a bluff above the lake, and on one side of the main camp, 

 the headquarters and mess shed being between. 



The sailing course was so laid out that it was visible from the entire 

 waterfront, there was no walking half a mile for every race, as at 

 Willsborough, or crawling through the briars as at Stave Island, or 

 wading out to a little rocky point as at Long Island; all hands went 

 about their ordinary vocations in camp, the racing men busy with 

 their boats, an idle crowd of men and ladies sitting in the shade at 

 headquarters, and when a race was' on they could see all, or nearly 

 all , of the course. 



The general arrangements were most excellent, though far less pic- 

 turesque and exciting than the arrival by steamer; the railroad and 

 wagon service was very convenient and the camp could be reached 

 quite readily by foot from the station. The mess was very well 

 managed, the meals being plentiful and well cooked, and served in a 

 comfortable pavilion specially built and fitted with electric lights. 

 The charge was $1 per day, and the usual plan of selling meal tickets 

 was not followed, each person registering on' the occasion of his first 

 meal and being left to his honor to pay on leaving for the number he 

 had attended. The arrangements for tent floors, lumber, etc., were 

 very satisfactory. The post-office facilities were poor, or the readers 



HEADQUARTERS. 



»"!->wes. Two days later Amphitrite upset all calculations of the R. 

 Y. S. handicappers by beating Viking (late Wendur) in a long set-to 

 by the wind. No douot Amphitrite was laid on the wind as she never 

 was before, and her achievement was regarded quite as one of the 

 best things ever witnessed in the way of schooner racing. After all 

 the praise had been bestowed on Amphitrite, it was only natural that 

 Mr. Palmer should express a desire to try and straighten Amphitrite 

 out again. He stated that the disqualification of Yampa by the R. Y 

 S. was justified— in fact, that there was no help for it in the face of 

 the rule, of which, however, he was ignorant, and nothing stood in the 

 way of another match with Amphitrite. The sailing committee of 

 the R. Y. S. undertook the management of the race, and it was sailed 



become but a memory. It is safe to say that while to the older mem- 

 bers the camps of to-day have lost some of the charms of ten years 

 back, and even the new men, though they may not know it, miss the 

 close cameradie and good fellowship which prevailed when the 

 attendance was made up mainly of the same men year after year, that 

 the present camp will be remembered with pleasure, and will be 

 referred to in future ypars without the uncomplimentary comments 

 called forth by recollections of trials and discomforts at some other 

 meets. With the reservation, on our part at least, and many old 

 canoeists will agree with us, that Lake Champlain is not the ideal 

 water for canoe cruising or canoe racing, the present site, described 

 last week, is one of the best yet selected for the Association, having 



MAIN CAMP FROM LADIES' CAMP. 



of the Forest and Stream would have been treated to a longer story 

 last week, a portion of it arriving too late and being consigned to 

 oblivion. 



The weather was good, that is, it was at no time oppressively warm 

 and there was comparatively little troublesome rain. On the night of 

 the second Sunday there was a very heavy thunderstorm, but it did 

 no damage. On the night of Aug. 22 there set in a heavy southeast 

 gale, with rain and high winds, lasting all of next morning. There 

 were one or two more minor rains and several heavy showers during 

 the nights. Perhaps the worst part of the weather was that it was 

 plways just soing to rain, even when the sun was shining and the sky 

 brightest. On some of the finest day-! sharp s-hort showers would 



SHORE OF MAIN CAMP. 



in a humming breeze on the 14th. It has generally been supposed 

 that Yampa is what is termed an up to-date schooner, but in point of 

 fact she was built in the same year that Amphitrite was (1887), from 

 designs by Mr Cary Smith, and she compares with the Gosport 

 schooner as follows: 



L.W.L Beam. Draft. Sail area. Rating. 



Yampa 111.4 27.0 13.7 10,033 187 



Amphitrite 95,5 19.4 14 8,230 131 



It will thus be seen that Yampa had an enormous advantage in 

 length, beam and sail area, in fact the two yachts can be taken as fair 

 representatives of the prevailing type of yacht of the two countries 

 eight years ago, but in all probability some of the later American 

 schooners would he able to sail round Yampa. However this may be, 

 yachtsmen were delighted to see her in the match at Cowes for Lord 

 Iveagb's cup. Her performance was much admired, and no one be- 

 grudged her what was at first thought a well-merited victory. Her 

 defeat on the 14th was probably due to the greater strength in the 

 wind and to the fine handling of Amphitrite.— The Meld. 



The American Canoe Association has for several years been par- 

 ticularly fortunate in the selection of its chief officer, in each case the 

 office seeking the man. The selection just made at the annual meet, 

 of a commodore for 1890 is one that will meet the approval of every 



some of the good features of two famous old camping grounds, Grind- 

 stone Island and Jessup's Neck. With all the drawbacks of the 1890 

 camp, the trouble and expense of transportation, the starvation 

 and the tyranny of the ever-to-be-execrated caterer, there is but 

 one opinion among A. C. A. men as to the advantages of the camp- 

 site itself, the high open plateau between the two bays, the clean 

 pebbly beaches and the deep blue waters; the camp was one of the 

 most showy ones, with its long lines of white tents and bright flags; 

 and with the long wharf, the promenade on the bluff in front of the main 

 and ladies' camps, and the compact arrangement of the tents, there 

 was a sociability and intimacy that was never found in the more scat- 

 tered camps of Willsborough, Long Island, in Lake George, Croton 

 Point or Bow -Arrow. This same compact arrangement of the main 

 camp about the wharf as a center was one of the charms of Grind- 

 stone, though many tenls were pitched apart in the grove, and after 

 the experience of many years there is no excuse in the choice of 

 future camps for selecting a site that is not adaptable to such an ar- 

 rangement. 



In the present case there was no wharf as a central point of the 

 camp, and the tents, comparatively fewer than in many past years, 

 were strung out over a long stretch of beach, but the ground offers 

 every opportunity an I inducement for just such a compact and showy 

 camp as at Jessup's Neck and Grindstone; and, best of all, like these 

 two places, the camp faces the morning sun. This in itself is no small 

 matter, being one of the defects of Stave Island. Willsborough and 

 Croton Point, which are cool in the early morning, when warmth is most 

 needed, and hot in the August afternoons. While the center of the 

 camp was an open meadow, there were a Dumber of detached trees 

 for those who preferred to camp in the shade, to say nothing of the 

 grove beyond, where the Lowell and Knickerbocker men were 

 camped. 



LADIES' CAMP AND MAIN LANDING. 



drive all bands to shelter and wet the blankets and duffle laid out to 

 air, passing away in a few minutes. The violent squalls of Wills- 

 borough, just a few miles south, were not experienced, but the neigh- 

 borhood of the mountains, on both sides of the lake, makes a heavy 

 rain a possible contingency at a few moments' notice. 



The winds were very bad, not north and south, as they are supposed 

 to be on Lake Champlain, but mainly N.W., and very strong and 

 puffy. The camp was situated just north of a break in the hills, and 

 north and south of the course were small bays, the wind coming out 

 of each in different directions, in sudden and violent puffs. Never 

 have the sailing men worked as hard and never have hulls and gear 

 been tested as at this meet; maDy races have been sailed in stronger 

 winds than most of those during this meet, but not in such hard, 

 variable and vicious puffs, from several quarters in succes-ion. If 

 the opinion of the real racing men Is of any value after the expe- 

 rience of 1887, 1891, 1892 and 1895, Lake Champlain is no place for 

 canoe racing. 



ATTENDANCE. 



In point of numbers the meet this year was a disappointment, the 

 register showing some 175 names. A comparison with other years 

 would show nothing, as the attendance is often swelled by members 

 and visitors from the immediate locality of the camp, as at Croton 

 Point, thirty miles from New York, last year; and Brophy's Poin' 

 five mdes from Kingston, in 1893. The fact is that the A. C. A 

 should; show a much larger attendance at a met t, at lea' t 

 300 instead of something like half that number. Why Lhe attem - 

 ance at the meets does not grow, in fact hardly holds its own is 

 a question frequently asked, and for which each man has his own 

 pec answer and specific remedy ; but in our opinion the chief cause 

 is the disgust and disappointment due to bad arrangement? 

 sometimes avoidable and sometimes not. The great expense" 



