476 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 5, 1888. 



reported it certainly does not make out a very strong ease, Ike 

 particulars as to Volunteer's design are interesting, Uioujdi how 

 she would be the same length, and with no advantage, if luistle 

 was designed for Soft, and Volunteer for 85ft. 10 4-fnn., is not quite 



, v , . , aid for a reasonable amount of time 



in which to huild to meet a new boat is fair enough, though ten 

 months seems a long period, hut the other side of the question, 

 that it leaves the designer of the challenger but a few weeks after 

 the conclusion of one race in which to design a new boat prior to 

 challenging, is entirely ignored in Mr. Burgess's ingenious 

 an«wer. The answer to the most important question, concerning 

 the required dimensions, has nothing at all to do with the ease. 

 Of course the old tonnage measurement is out ot date and useless, 

 and it is desirable that terms may be arranged before a yacht is 

 completed: but it would he much more to the pomt to hear how 

 Mr Burgess would like to be tied down absolutely to a tixed 

 length extreme beam, waterline beam and draft, with the penalty 

 of disqualification hanging over him if he understated them m 

 advance or overran them when in racing trim. Stall further, 

 would he consider the terms even which compelled htm to give 

 long in advance these leading details to his adversary, but to 

 waft in the dark until the race came off to know wnat the latter 

 would bring to heat liim? .i» 



We do not see that thus far the defenders ot the deed, either in 

 New York or Boston have made other than a very weak case, or 

 that they have answered in any way the charges originally made 

 in the Forest and Stream, which may he summarized as fol- 

 lows- The deed of gift is illegal, in that one surviving donor has no 

 rieht to alter the manifest spirit and intention of the original 

 five donors. But further than this the new deed is evidently not 

 his work so much as the work of others in no way associated with 

 the donors. In the same connection there is no evidence that the 

 action of the half dozen revisers represents 111 lany way the majority 

 of the seven hundred members ot the New York Y. 0. who 

 were not allowed to discuss or virtually to vote on the acceptance 

 or rejection of the proposed deed. , _ 



The deed is unfair in that it demands certain information from 

 the challenger while giving none in return or no security that he 

 will not he outbuilt; and it also reserves to the holders the right to 

 substitute a length rule for the rule of the club it they so desire. 



The deed is absurd, impracticable and inconsistent, in that it 

 imposes on the. challenger conditions as to building which no de- 

 signer can guarantee to comply with; it confines the racos to sizes 

 ofVachts never yet built, and not likely to be under any ordinary 

 demands of yacht racing; and itnullifies the accepted racing rule 

 of the club, by length and sail area, replacing it by a totally dif- 

 ferent rule. , , , . , , . . . ... 



The deed is obstructive and detrimental to American yachting 

 in that it shuts out every existing yacht from competition; it con- 

 fines international yacht racing to a new and special class of 

 yachts and a few very wealthy men, and does nothing to encour- 

 age the healthy and systematic development of designing, build- 

 inr and racing American yachts; and, further, it has already 

 brought discredit upon American yachtsmen and will operate to 

 prevent the competition which for three years has wrought such 

 good results to both sides. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Some lame attempts have been made to lustily the unsports- 

 manlike conduct of the New York Y. C. in their recent tampering 

 with the America Cup challenge. 



Mr. Burgess attempts to defend the questionable action of the 

 club, and in late Bostou papers winds up his views with this sen- 

 tence: "If they (the foreigners) can build a 90ft. cutter or 115ft. 

 schooner faster than we can the cup is theirs." 



Now, this sentence will strike all fair-minded persons as a 

 direct confession of the utterly unsportsmanlike conditions under 

 which the New York Y. C. seeks to maintain possession of the 

 Cup at all hazards except those of actual racing. 



As no such h. ats have ever existed and are not likely ever to 

 exist, the New York Y. C. might as well have set the limit at a 

 mile length for cutters and two miles for schooners. 



The club, by insisting on dimensions which have not been built 

 up to in the past and will not be built up to in the future, has 

 practically withdrawn the Cup from further competition, and in- 

 trench* s itself securely m its possession behind stipulations which 

 are prohibitive and therefore unsportsmanlike, to say nothing of 

 their entire illegality. 



>i be original deed specifically opened the Cup to challenge by 

 craft from thirty tons up, and under the rules of the club holding 

 the Cup; that is with just and proper time allowance for differ- 

 ence in size of the competitors, a very different offer to the yacht- 

 ing world from the document lately promulgated. 



The original deed contemplated a test between fair representa- 

 tives of the yachting fleets of the world. The new modifications 

 boycott all yachts which exist and leave the Cup open only to 

 challenge bv mythical craft having no being. Even should an 

 occasional venture be made in accord with the dimensions insisted 

 upon, such ventures would he but special machines contrived for 

 a special purpose, and would not in any sense represent the 

 national types or practices which the original deed of gift sought 

 to bring together in friendly comparison. 



Apart from the prohibitive clause here considered, the new 

 document bristles with other unfair requisites, such as the de- 

 mand for details and impossible information concerning the 

 challenging boat, with no corresponding information or restric- 

 tions imposed upon the challenged. We aro to be put in posses- 

 sion of the elements of the foreign craft, but. vouchsafe no return 

 in equity, nor do we agree to abide by the same length should tne 

 challenger be under 90 or 115ft. 



Furthermore, though the time of notice is set clown at ten 

 months, an absurd period in itself, the notice in reality may 

 amount to sixteen months, should the challenger, for likely 

 enough reasons, be unable to get his papers before the New York 

 Y. C. prior to five minutes past midnight Dec. 31, for the period of 

 notice would carry the challenge live minutes beyond tin.- expira- 

 tion of the "season" terminating with the last of October, and 

 could be made to stand over to the next "season," commencing 

 May 1. Sixteen months notice and all the risks of war, pestilence, 

 famine and bankruptcy to interfere with the consummation of 

 the race! Surely, the New York Y. C. does not realize that life is 

 fearfully short, or it would not interpose such barriers to inter- 

 national racing. And this is what the club believes to be 

 "encouraging" "challenges from abroad, as the donors of the Cup 

 expressly desired in the original deedl 



But it is not worth while to discuss the various clauses in de- 

 tail. The prohibitive dimensions and the abolition of time 

 allowance, high-handed and illegal actions in themselves, have 

 erected an impassable obstruction about the Cup and given a 

 quietus to international racing. 



The action of the New York Y. C. has been pronounced absurd, 

 unsportsmanlike and unlawful by all good authorities. It is 

 maintained only by a handful of interested persons and their 

 mutual admiration circle. 



It has been suggested that the club should hasten to recall the 

 blunder of its committee. Unfortunately it is too late for any 

 such remedy. The America Cup and the New York Y. C. have 

 lost standing abroad. A club which, as in the case of Mr. Sweet's 

 challenge, harps on a technicality, so that its legislation may bo 

 made retroactive, caimct he depended upon in the future, neither 

 can foreigners be asked to keep the America Cup conditions ever- 



lastingly on tap and themselves informed by cable of the latest 

 changes' overv twenty-four hours in the year. 



The deed of gift has been robbed of its stability, and no matter 

 what action may be taken in relief, the Cup cannot be reinstated 

 in favor among yachtsmen abroad, whose conservatism and 

 respect for established institutions naturally lead them to view 

 with disgust the selfish, not to say panicky, manipulation which 

 has for many years characterized the conduct of the New York 

 Y. C. in all matters connected with the America Cup, from the 

 time it insisted upon sailing a fleet against one vessel, then the 

 selection of a different vessel according to the state of the 

 weather, the then nomination of the competitor on the morning 

 of the race, then the fluking over the club course, and finally the 

 bovcotting of all existing yachts, the denial of time allowance, 

 and the staud-aud-deliver clause as to the challenger's elements 

 with no equity offered in return. 



The New York Y. O. may derive a great deal of satislaction from 

 having "engineered" the Cup safely into its looker for all time, 

 without the risk of further attack from abroad, but the public at 

 large views with regret the odium thereby cast upon American 

 sportsmanship and the cessation of the instructive trials which 

 were destined to become an annual event before the New York 

 Y. C. hauled off and lowered its colors with a lee gun. 



Public Opinion. 



HAULING UP DEEP YACHTS. 



WE lately published a description of a method for hauling up 

 keel yachts which brings from Lake Ontario the following 

 account ot' the way in which the operation is conducted there: 

 The water level is constant or nearly so. there being no tide. Two 

 hardwood planks, say Sin. thick and a little wider than the keel of 

 the yacht, each being 10 to 20ft. long, are needed. To each of 

 these side strips are nailed, making a groove fully wide enough for 

 the keel and preventing it running off the plank. The yacht ia 

 hauled in to the beach, the end of one plank is sunk under her 

 forefoot and the plank is .then pushed well under the middle of 

 the boat before she takes the ground. Two guys are carried out 

 from the masthead to posts on each side and tended by careful 

 men, the weight of the yacht being just taken by one guy, the 

 other a little slack. A sling is placed about the boat and the fall 

 made fast to it, and then a strain is put on to start her up the 

 plank. When the end of one plank is reached, the other is put in 

 front of it, and so the work goes on. The boat may be readily 

 shifted to any berth when once on shore. In shifting the guys 

 ahead, the weight is taken on one while the other is being moved. 

 When the yacht is perfectly upright no appreciable force is re- 

 quired to hold her, as she is balanced, but if she' is allowed to heel 

 any distance, it will require a great force on the guys to right her. 

 For this reason the guys should bo kept nearly taut all the time, 

 to check her in case of a sudden lurch. With good posts or cleats 

 for the guys, a deep boat may be easily ana safely handled; but 

 the strength of the support should be well looked to before a guy 

 is shifted. Every yacht should have a hole through the fore end 

 of keel itself for ' hauling up by, thus avoiding heavy strains on 

 masts, bitts, etc. 



THE TEN MONTHS LIMIT. 



IN commenting on the non-arrival of a challenge for the Cup 

 up to midnight on Dec. 31, the daily papers have nearly all 

 fallen into the same error, as the period of grace really closed two 

 weeics since, and a challenge received in the last week of Decem- 

 ber would insure no certainty of the races being sailed before 

 Nov. 1. By the terms of the deed of gift it is not that a challenge 

 must be received within ten months of the date, Nov. 1, hut that 

 all the races must be sailed prior to that date, and in order to 

 make a certainty of this the first of the three races should be set 

 not later than Oct. 21, or in other words the challenge must leave 

 England by Oct. 12 or oven earlier. The races are arranged f or 

 alternate days through one week, and two or three successive 

 days of had weatnor, or a mishap such as befell Genesta in '85, 

 may so delay the races as to cover ten days for three races. As 

 the game stops on Oct 31, no matter whether one or two races 

 have been sailed, all challengers, should there ever be any more, 

 must look to it that their full specifications and certificates are 

 in the club house on Madsion avenue at least two weeks prior 

 to the new year. 



SEAWANHAKA CORINTHIAN Y. C— The class in naviga- 

 tion under Captain Howard Pattorson has grown to such a size 

 that it has been divided, one part meeting every Tuesday and the 

 other every Saturday evening. During the past two weeks the 

 sessions have been held on Friday. On Jan. 7 the third lecture, 

 "A Cruise Along Shore by Corinthians, with Practical Illustra- 

 tions," will be given by Captain Patterson. The lecture will 

 begin at 8:30. On Jan. 11 the first regular meeting will be heid, 

 with electiou of officers. The attendance at the town club house 

 is very good, and it is becoming one of the principal yachting 

 centers about New York. 



THE NEW BURGESS FISHERMAN.— The discussion that 

 has followed the advent of the Carrie E. Phillips, Mr. Burgess's 

 new fishing schooner, has at last led to a challenge from her to 

 the rest of the fishing fleet, to race over one of four courses, 

 around Bermuda, to Cape Race and return, or one of two 100-mile 

 courses off Boston, for a sweepstakes of $1,000 each. It seems 

 probable that the Alice M. Stroples, of Gloucester, will accept, and 

 possibly several others may enter. 



Imwtrs to (Usorrespontlmtg. 



No Notice Taken of Aiiouymoas Correspondents. 



pigeon was coming back toward him he fired and killed his bird, 

 which had not been out of bounds at any time. Should this be 

 scored a dead or lost bird? As we have had great arguments over 

 this, we are very anxious to have your decision on the subject. 

 Ans. It should be scored as a dead bird, and a well won one at 

 that. 



J. G. S. — 1, The bite of a wild rabbit may be poisonous, just as 

 the bite of a man would be under some circumstances. 2. If pois- 

 oned by a bite you should consult a doctor. 3. No, it is not lawful 

 to hunt in close season, even if you do not intend to kill the game. 

 4. For live rabbits apply to Reiche & Bro., Park Row, Now York. 



E. D. B.— Did the bullets from the right and left barrels of the 

 45-caliber, double express by Bland, which you used in your tra- 

 jectory test, cross or meet at a given distance from the muzzle? 

 Was the recoil of the above-mentioned rifle very great? Can 

 buckshot cartridges be used in a full chokeborcd gun, without 

 injuring the gun in any way? Ans. 1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. Yes, if 

 chambered to fit the choke. 



J. M. S., Stockton.— 1. For the purpose you mention we recom- 

 mend the. 12-gauge, .15-70. 2. The drop of stock suited to you may 

 be determined by experiment, and when ordering your gun you 

 can give it, expressed by the distance from bottom of a straight- 

 edge, laid on the barrels, to the top of the butt plate. 3. Have one 

 barrel cylinder and the other choked. 5. The Ligowsky trap. 0. 

 The guns you name are reliable arms. 



J. G. W., New York. I have a tract of land within 150 miles of 

 New York, pine forest with lakes and brooks. Can a living be 

 made with the proper amount of diligence and capital, by raising 

 brook or lake trout, or bass for the New York market? Ans. The 

 information you give is too sligbt to base a reply on. If you want 

 an opinion on this you should engage some fishculturist to make 

 a personal inspection of the waters. Raising trout in inclosed 

 waters on artificial food has not proved profitable. 



S. G. M.— Try the vicinity of Turner's, in Orange county, New 

 York. 



H. L. S., Philadelphia.— The address is 912 Bergen avenue, Green- 

 ville, N. J. 



J. B. S., Hartford.— Tell me if the octagon rifle barrel has any 

 advantage over the round barrel. Ans. — None. 



T. M., Wheeling, W. Va.— The longer barrels will, as a rule, do 

 better; but it is not a rule without its exceptions. For practical 

 purposes the difference in execution is slight. 



J. J. K., Philadelphia.— What is the proper outfit for tarpon fish- 

 ing? Ans. A striped-bass rod, line and reel; rod 5 to 8ft., line of 

 linen, 12 or 15 thread, 150yds. long, and a multiplying reel largo 

 enough to hold it, and a 10-0 hook. Use half a mullet for bait. 



A. G. W., Melrose, Mass. — You will have some difficulty in secur- 

 ing the live grouse, and we think it not a profitable effort to try to 

 restock your grouse covers. Quail have been turned out in re- 

 peated instances with success; birds for this purpose are adver- 

 tised in our advertising pages. 



A. A., Montreal.— At a live-bird shooting match one of the 

 shooters came to the scratch, placed two shells in his gun (but 

 they both fell out), closed his gun, gave the word "pull," and 

 snapped both empty haarels at the bird; then he noticed his two 

 shells lying at his feet; he replaced them in his gun, and as the 



F. J. Philbrook, a machinist, well known as an expert 

 angler, made a curious discovery the other day. Mr. Phil- 

 brook lives near the water works darn, and while on his way 

 homo recently met some boys carrying three large fish, which 

 they had shot, and which' they pronounced to be codfish. 

 The fish were so thin and wasted in flesh that Mr. Philbrook 

 did not at first recognize the species, but he soon ascertained 

 them to be salmon. Having bought the fish, he succeeded 

 in inducing the boys to tell where they were captured, and 

 later he visited the locality, where he witnessed a remarkable 

 sight. On the Brewer side, a short distance below the dam 

 and fishway, a small stream, locally known as Dyer Brook, 

 comes into the main river. It is an insignificant rivulet, 

 nearly dry a part of the year, and having its source in some 

 swampy pastures not far back from the river. Yet some dis- 

 tance up this stream Mr. Philbrook found a shallow, muddy 

 pool, literally packed full of sea salmon of mature growth. 

 They were so frightened at his apfiearance that they splashed 

 about frantically and tumbled over each other, some even 

 jumping on to the land in their efforts to escape from their 

 prison pen and the new danger which threatened them. Mr. 

 Philbrook managed to secure them without injury, 16 in all, 

 and, carefully transporting them to the river, let them loose 

 in its waters. The fish were on the point of spawning. Their 

 peculiar freak in ascending this narrow and shallow creek, 

 floundeiing over its rocky shoals and muddy bars for such a 

 distance, can only be accounted for, it would seem, by some 

 serious defect in' the fishway of the dam. It is a matter for 

 the Fish Commissioners to look to. — Bangor Commercial, 

 Dec. 24. 



London Books. — While they are building and repairing 

 their nests they are most pugnacious and thievish, as not 

 only will they, as we have said, prevent a pair building in 

 what may seem to the majority an unsuitable site, but they 

 are constantly endeavoring to rob one another of their nest- 

 ing materials, and woe betide the unwary pair that are rash 

 enough to be absent from their nest at the same time; on 

 their return they will, in all probability, find the labor of 

 days destroyed, and nothing but the poorest foundation left 

 of what was on their departure, probably a very short half 

 hour before, a promising structure. Our observation leads 

 us to believe that only the very young and inexperienced 

 birds leave their home in company. As a rule, one bird re- 

 mains on guard while its mate goes afield, and the unfortu- 

 nate stay-at-home has often to fight against long odds in 

 defence of its nest, which would, were it not stoutly de- 

 fended, be torn from under it. Occasionally an enter- 

 prising pair will separate themselves from their companions 

 and build sufficiently far from the nearest rookery to be 

 free from molestation, though after their nest is built they 

 in many cases, apparently finding solitude not so pleasant as 

 they anticipated, desert it and return, no doubt in a penitent 

 mood, to their former friends. An instance of this occurred 

 in Kensington in 1885. when a pair of birds, no doubt from 

 the rookery in Holland Park, built their nest in a tall plane 

 tree not far from the parish church; but no sooner was it 

 complete than they deserted it. All, however, are not so 

 vacillating, and often they continue to rear their young from 

 year to year far from any of their kind. Many cases are on 

 record of these birds making choice of such unusual posi- 

 tions for their nests as the vanes on the spires of churches or 

 public buildings. One well-known instance which occurred 

 in London may be cited- we refer to the case of th e birds which 

 early in the century built between the wings of the dragon 

 forming the vane of Bow Church. They were dispossessed 

 when the vane was repaired, but removed to a plane 

 tree at the corner of Wood street, Cheapside, where they 

 continued to nest for many years, and became one of the 

 sights of London, or at least of the city. It would be im- 

 possible within the limits of this article to give even an out- 

 line of the rookeries of London, as during the early years of 

 the century London was comparatively a small city, and 

 abounded in trees, and consequently rooks were as common 

 as they now are in most of our provincial towns. When Lon- 

 don began to spread, as it did with marvelous rapidity about 

 the middle of the century, the rook, finding its home de- 

 stroyed, gradually withdrew to the suburbs, from which, as 

 we have said, it is slowly but surely being driven. In con- 

 clusion, the rook, by still nesting in London wherever it is 

 permitted, has most conclusively proved the falsity of the 

 theory generally held in the country that, if many of the 

 young birds are not shot as soon as they are able to fly, the 

 rook will desert its nesting place.— Sa turday Review. 



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