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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 20, 189?. 



chased at the local stores an outfit of bedsted (full size) mattress, 

 covering, etc., together with an oU-stove and a few cooking utensils, 

 groceries, etc., I was all ready to move into my new quarters. Of 

 course the boat was the subject of much adverse criticism from the 

 natives, and I was tl^e recipient of no end of advice, but I had built 

 boats before and was Used to that sort of thing. 



For a tender I bought a well-proportioned little skiff or "flattie" 

 about 14ft long. She was easy to row, and by putting in a small cen- 

 terboard and rigging up a sprltsail, I found I had no occasion to use 

 the oars when there was a breeze, which was almost every day. The 

 nights were usually calm except during a norther. I was fortunate 

 n securing an old mushroom or mud anchor and some fathoms of 

 chain, enough to hold the craft in any situation I was likely to be 

 anchored. 



To abbreviate, I found the boat a great success, anchoring far 

 enough out in the river to insure quiet. I spent a few days at each 

 town along the river, dropping down with the tide gradually, as far as 

 the Inlet, from this to Mosquito, some 13 or 15 miles. I was towed by 

 one of the small steamboats running between Daytona and Titusville, 

 at a moderate cost. 



Mosquito Lagoon is pretty wide and exposed, so I worked down to 

 the Haulover Canal with a favoring north wind and through into 

 Indian Eiver, and across to Titusville. Here I anchored some two 

 weeks, and securing an old spar and piece of canvas I rigged up quite 

 a respectable mast and square sail, and bolting a lee board on each 

 side, I found with any kind of fair or quartering wind my house- 

 boat was as manageable as some catboats. I steered with a large oar 

 on a pin over the stern. 



From Titusville I cruised the entire river almost, as far as St. Lucie 

 and Eden, stopping as long as I felt inclined at the various places en 

 route. I was obliged to return North unexpectedly and sold my en- 



kept a httle dark. This well should have a cover or lid and should be 

 placed where it is least in the way. 



The shanty-boat can be moved with very httle trouble in water not 

 less than 6m. by fastening the stern of your skilf tightly to the front 

 end of the shanty-boat, leaving no slack, as this has a tendency to 

 draw your skiff back at every stroke of the oars. Now, get into your 

 ski if, and by long, steady strokes your boat will glide along faster 

 than you have any idea of. 



In the winter, when I shoot ducks over the au--holes in the ice, I put 



in the last few years— being an idle man. Consequently, I was very 

 well acquainted with love and marriage— as muTored in these precious 

 productions— and talked fluently on the subject, though little versed 

 in society small-talk. 



Suddenly, I know not why or whence, only that it was my fate, I felt 

 a wild desh'e surge up in me to make love to this woman." I tried to 

 stifle it— I might as well have attempted to stay the flow of Niagara. 

 My tongue seemed to separate itself from me— to begin a separate 

 ' existence. In a dazed way I Hstened to what it said, as thougli it was 











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SAN FRANCISCO HOUSE-BOAT, No. 1. 



A FLORIDA HOUSE-BOAT. 



tire outfit at almost first cost to a man clearing a piece of land for 

 pineapples, who, I learned afterward, hauled the boat on shore and 

 made it a permanent residence. 



Regarding the cost, as near as I can l emember, boat all complete, 

 tender, anchor, sail, etc., cost about $1.50. I am sure my expenses for 

 groceries and other eatables were not over fl.50 or 1§1. 75 weekly. 

 Fish, oysters, oranges, etc., cost nothing, visitors being usually 

 allowed to help themselves to oranges lying on the ground in most of 

 the groves. Occasionally the mosquitoes were troublesome, but I 

 had a good net and never lost my sleep on their account. I would add 

 that the looat was divided into two rooms, forward being the reception 

 and sleeping room, and aft the kitchen and general repair shop. 



Any one wintering on Indian River will get more comfort from this 

 plan "than living at a hotel or cramped up on a sail boat or yacht. 

 The scow drew but 8in. Perhaps after a year or two she might have 

 settled deeper in the water, but not much. E. D. 



The following description of a hunter's "shanty-boat," which comes 

 to us from Cincinnati, is likely to prove useful to many of our readers, 

 as it is easily constructed at a very small cost: 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



I notice in the columns of your valuable paper that the house-boat 

 or shanty-boat (as it is more commonly called) has come into question. 

 For the benefit of those who can afford to spend a few weeks shooting 



LIFE ON A HOUSE-BOAT. ~: 



1 . ArcMbal't Fltzsplutter studies Thames scenery from his house-boat. 2 

 He Is awaKeiied one night by hearing a sepulchi-al voice In his sleeping 

 apartment. S. ' Tls but the harmless voice of the coalman, who has been 

 delayed on his journey and arrives after dusk. 4. Fltzsplutter, who Is 

 rather nervous, almlesisly fires up the chimnev. 5. The chimnev beinK 

 rather foul, the result somewhat astonishes the ''coaler." (!. A cry 'of ven- 

 geance Is uplifted, also the coals. 7. And they are shot down on' Mr. Fltz- 

 splutter, who has a painful impression that he is tablni? part in one of 

 BrocK's beneats. 



each fall and spring and wish to get all the possible comfort and pleas- 

 ure out of It at very little expense, let me say, build a shanty-boat on 

 the lake on which you are accustomed to shoot. I have spent six win- 

 ters in one of these boats on the St. Mary's Reservoir, O., and find it 

 the most comfortable way of living where one does a great deal of 

 shooting. My boat is 16x8ft. inside the cabin with a deck of 4ft at 

 each end, also a door at each end, and a wuidow on each side This 

 boat is fitted up with four bunks, a cook stove, pantry, leaf-table and 

 stools. There is plenty of room imder the decks to put decoys etc 

 when your boat is locked up. ' '' 



A shanty-boat is not complete without a well. This should be Sxift 

 and 2ft. deep. Slops, etc., can be thrown through this which will im- 

 mediately settle at the bottom of the water. It wlU rarely xt ever 

 freeze in the coldest weather. I have also taken some fine flshfor food 

 hrough the well in my boat; they can not see into the boat if it is 



it on runners and take it within 100yds. of the air-hole. If there is a 

 little snow on the ice I cover the entire boat, windows and all, with 

 white muslin, which makes the boat almost invisible. Then after cov- 

 ering myself with a bed sheet I take a small stool with me and walk to 

 the edge of the air- hole and place my decoy on the ice; I would only 

 have to get about 10ft. from these to be unseen by the ducks. 



1 have killed many ducks in this way, the most of them being gold- 

 eneyes and goosanders, the latter I only used for feathers. If I got 

 cold I would only have to go to the boat to get warm and would be 

 buck in five minutes. When the day's shooting was done I would take 

 out my skiff, which was also on runners, and slide off into tke water 

 and gather in my game. 



When spring begau to show I would strip my boat of her muslin and 

 take her to some secluded spot near the mouth of a creek, for these 

 creeks afford good feeding grounds for the pintails and maUards in 

 the spring, when the ice is breaking up. When the shooting was over 

 and I wished to return, I would put my skift" 

 inside of the shanty-boat, lock her up and 

 give the kej' to some near farmer, paying him 

 ahttle to go through her occasionally. When 

 the next season came she was all read}''. I 

 always buUd my own boats. Duck- Hawk. 



Our various correspondents have depicted 

 the pleasures of a house-boat life in glowing 

 colors, but there is an obverse side", and in 

 justice to those of our readers who may be 

 tempted to become "arkonauts," we cannot 

 do other than describe it to them through 

 the following pathetic tale from the Luck to 

 Lock Times by Mi-. F. Whelan Boyle, of 



"the fatal HOrSE-BOAT." 



It was just four years ago, the second 

 month of a lovely summer. June had sup- 

 Xjlied a foretaste of a gorgeous July. I was 

 fond of boating; Indeed, I was more than 

 fond of it — ^it was a passion with me, and at 

 this time of year I almost lived upon the 

 water, punting about by myself generally, or 

 lazily lolling m the stern "of a httle skiff of 

 which I was the owner, skipper and crew. 



I had heard of Henley, of course. I had 

 pictured to myself the delights of the regatta 

 week, but never tiU then did I think seriously 

 of sharing them. At last I had made up my 

 mind that I would go, and for one brief week 

 enjoy the water carnival. 



Once at Henley, surrounded by the Ufe and 

 color which in July makes it an elysium where 

 those favored of God may disport themselves, 

 I was carried away by the airy joyousness of 

 the place I declare after a few hours I felt 

 positively happy, and when I met Jones of 

 St. Johns — we had been at Cambridge to- 

 gether- -I shook his hand quite cordially. He 

 asked me where I was staying. I happened 

 to be putting up at a quiet little hotel a few 

 miles from the town. 



'•What?" said Jones when I told him, 

 "AVhy, you miss half the fun, my boy. A house-boat is positively 

 the only thing here. I tell you what. We have a vacant berth in the 

 Winkle; Brown — you remernber Brown of Trinity— has disappointed 

 us; come and take his place and I promise you we wiU make j'ou 

 jolly." 



I went on board almost immediately, if indeed it can be called going 

 on board, a craft that has little in common with a boat except that it 

 floats. The Winkle was one of the handsomest establishments on the 

 river— a veritable little palace, and yet not so little, neither, for there 

 were twelve of us on board, and we were by no means crowded. We 

 were as well constituted a party, myself excepted, as an}' hostess 

 could wish. Six ladies of various ages were complemented hy six 

 men, also of various ages. Two of the former were married, one 

 being the mother of Jones, whose father was also on board. Two 

 Misses Jones and two other young ladies completed the fairer portion 

 of the party. The men were of the regulation pattern — just the same 

 as one would expect to 

 meet;— and they did not 

 interest me. I wish to 

 goodness they had. 

 Why did Providence 

 place ; on board that 

 fatal boat five utterly 

 commonplace men 

 with no ideas beyond 

 stocks and shares or a 

 good dinner, and half 

 a dozen young women 

 —not beautifiU — but, 

 stUl, women. It was 

 evening— a lovely sum- 



I a strange voice; heard, appalled, the flood of amorous words I was 

 compeUed to utter. So did Miss Jones— that is, at first. Whether she 

 had had more experience in this kind of thing than myself I cannot 



I presume to say. Anyhow, after the first burst of passion, of which I 

 was the unwilling mouthpiece and hearer, she smiled demurely, mut- 

 tered something about "so sudden" and began softly to stroke jut 

 hair. ' ' 



I was horror-stricken ; and when my fiendish tongue said in a low 

 seductive whisper, "Will you be mine, dearest?" I almost shrieked. 



She said she would. She confessed that her young heart (her young 

 heart, indeed! She was thirty as surely as shewasa woman) had gone 



I out to me from the first moment we met. It was very sudden, though, 

 and I had better wait a month or two before I spoke to papa. 



I would have said— if my tongue had permitted me— that I would 

 cheerfully wait, not only a paltry month or two, but a year or two, or 

 a century or two. As it was. I murmured in a regretful voice, "So 

 long;" and bid her good-night. 



How shall I describe the horrors of that week? If it had ended at 

 the younger Miss Jones it would have been bad enough, and though it 

 might have indicated incipient insanity, I should not have been past 







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SAN FRANCISCO HOUSE-BOAT, No. 2. 



all hope. But it was far, far worse than that. I seemed to be con- 

 sumed with unmeaning love for every female creature with whom 1 

 came in contact. I say seemed, for I felt none of it. I could not be left 

 for five minutes alone with a woman without expressing an extra va 

 gant passion for her, and deluging her with sickly seutunentalities. 



The second day I proposed to the elder Miss Jones, who accepted 

 me (there couldn't have been much coufldence between the sisters), 

 and to the two other young ladies, who didn't. The third, still un- 

 satiated, I laid siege, in tongue alone-for I was as innocent of wrong 

 as any man— to Sirs. Jones, and suggested elopement. On the fourth 

 I was kicked out of the boat during the progress of an important 

 race, and my luggage thrown into the river. On the fifth, as I was on 

 my knees vowhig all kinds of luve to the chambermaid at the hotel 

 where I had gone on ray eviction from the Winkle, my father entered 

 the room and led me gently away. 



I have never spoken to a woman from that day to this. As long as 

 there are women in the world 1 must never re-enter it. I bear no 

 enmity against the sex, far from it, but I believe that if I were to meet 

 with the man who introduced me to the amorous atmosphere of that 

 fatal house-boat in some quiet corner my madness would take some 

 other and more violent form than that which now distinguishes it. 



A hunter's shanty boat. 



mer evening, deepening into night— than which nothing I know is 

 more delightful. Numberless Japanese lanterns shed a soft light 

 upon the river. The strains of a piano mingled with the more decided 

 tones of a banjo, and a rich tenor voice chanted a nigger melody 

 from a boat near. We were all on the roof, dinner being but jus't 

 over, in soliiudes a, deux for the most part, as far as the limits of a 

 house-boat deck admitted of solitude. 



I sat at the feet of the younger Miss Jones, who was gi-acefully dis- 

 tributed over the surface of a commodious deck chair. When I say 

 distributed I mean the reader to understand that the younger Miss 

 Jones— Bessie was her name— was of somewhat large proportions, I 

 was smoking, Mam'selle Bessie liked it. she said, and so did I, for 

 though I was an inveterate smoker that particular cigar seemed 

 sweeter to me than any I had ever consumed. We talked of various 

 things, of the river and boating, of course. Then we proceeded to 

 discuss the latest novel, one with a purpose, if I am not mistaken. 

 iMarriage was its tbeme. Naturally, we discussed marriage. I had 

 read most of the^ellow-backed absurdities which had been pubhshed 



Mosquito Fleet Y. C. 



The annual Fast Day race of the Mosquito Fleet Y. C. was saUed on 

 April 6 over the following course; Around a flagboat off the Marine 

 pier, leaving it on starboard; around a mark off the middle shaft, 

 leaving it on the starboard ; thence to finish; five mUes. There were 

 ten starters, the times being: 



Length. 



Elapsed. Corrected. 



..15.00 



a 08 45 



0 63 45 



, ,14.11 



2 10 56 



0 65 51 



..14.09 



2 15 13 



0 59 58 



,14.08 



3 36 36 



1 01 16 





2 17 20 



1 01 45 





2 34 00 



1 02 06 





2 27 24 



1 02 14 





2 27 59 



1 14 5i» 





Withdrew. 



..14.10 



Withdrew, 





Princess, S. Ware _ 



The judges were Thomas A. McGuire, W. O. Elliott, W. F Berry 

 and James Bertram^ 



The Seawanhaka Cor. Y. C. has chartered the steamer Albertina 

 for the use of its members on the day of the naval parade, April 2" 

 the boat to leave the foot of Twentieth street, North River at 10-.10 

 A. M. The club has started a class of instructi(m in "First Aid to the 

 njured," under the dfrection of Fleet Surgeon J, West Roo.sevAit 



