Dec. 30, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



•B7S 



Words by E. Paituke Jomssov. 



Aiirlante sempUce. 



Music by J. AETHrR Gage. 



1. I am sail-ing to Hie leeward, Wteretlie current runs to seawarrt, Soft and slow, soft and slow Audthe 



2. M.v ca-noe is growing la-zy, In tHe at-mospHere so lia-zy,WliileI dream, — while I dream... Half lu 



.slum ber I am guid-log, In - dls-rinct-ly eastward glid-ing Dowa the stream, down the stream., 



Then its to and fro, and soft and slow, I'll pad -die In my bark ca - noe,. 



and fro and soft and slow, I'll pad -die in my old ca - noe.. 



The 



THE LOG OF THE FRANKIE. 



'92 Cruise of tlie Shenandoah C. 



BY THE COMMODORE. 



(Continued from Page uBW). 



water; so by carefully backing and filling I got around the dam at its 

 upper left hand end and carefully slipped through the maze of reefs 

 C. at hand into a clear little passage that led do^-n along under the face 

 of the dam to its point, and thence down to deep, Clearwater below. 

 I shot down this easily without touching a rock, followed by Lacy, and 

 the falls were run. 



_ ^ We went into camp a quarter of a mile below on our last year's 



Friday, Aug. 6, 1892.— We got an early start this morning with camp ground at Keyser's, so as to have a little fishing at this unusu- 

 Kemple's Falls as our objective, which place we readied In time for ally fine fishing place: and after lunch the tents were pitched over the 

 our noonday lunch, after which -we went into camp for the rest of the canoes, and George and I went up into the falls and fished aU the 

 day m order to enjoy the fine fishinp here. Our morning's cruise was I afternoon with very good success. 



pleasant and full of events. The wilderness of reefs above the dam We felt our way across the river on the navigation dam and fished 

 at Kite's mill required great patience and skill to successfully nego- i on the other side in the shade of the oUff, and in doing so discovered a 

 tiate, and the old broken-down dam was succe-ssfully shot, although clean, clear little channel through this very troublesome middle part 

 the chute was very rough and full of rocks. | of the falls, w hioh will much simplify our passage through at another 



We had a troublesome portage over the miserable brush and stone time if we can slip over the dam. With a vivid recollection of the ex- 



dam a mile below, which was finally accomplished by finding some 

 pieces of boards among the drift along the crest of the dam and plac- 

 ing them on the rocks to slide the canoes over. The day was intensely 

 hot, of course, and the glare of the sun upon the water would have 

 been unbearable but for our colored glasses. 



We picked our wav easily through the intricate mazes of the half- 

 mile of reefs below the dam and landed at the spring, a mile below, 

 where Gieorge and I lunched last year, to refresh ourselves with a 

 good drink of water. The several dams and rapids near Strickler's 

 were next tested, as was also the rattling little fall at the cliffs 

 below, which finally brought us to Kemple's— undoubtedly the rough- 

 est and worst place on the entire Shenandoah, with the exception of 

 the six miles of river immediately above Harper's Ferry. 



We fully expected to have a rough time of it here, and we were not 

 disappointed, for if ever canoeists were knocked and banged and 

 hustled around, we certainly were. We hadn't much trouble in 

 threading our way through the intricacies of the reefs at the upper 

 end, and then had the usual exhilarating rush down the "Devil's Run- 

 path," where we received a few trilling bumps from the rocks owing 

 to the low water. 



We then followed the channel over the right, around the open end 

 of the big navigation dam that puts out from the base of the cliffs 

 along the left banks, and from here on down we had a rough time of 

 it. At the end of the navigation dam, the channel twists sharply 

 around to the left: it is very harrow and swift, and there is a big rock 

 squarely in the middle of it right at the point where it will do the 

 most good; in trying to avoid shipwTeck on the rock, I was swept 

 bodily ashore or aground, on the reefs alongside the channel, and had 

 to disembark and let my canoe down by the stern painter. Lacy 

 shared the same fate, while George, profiting by our mishaps, did not 

 attempt the shoot at all, but felt his way cautiously along the face of 

 the dam and slipped over through a little gap further to the left, 

 without getting out. 



A couple of hundred yards below this is a large 4ft. fish dam, lymg 

 like a huge V, with the apex as usual down stream, and ^ith a rough 

 shoot at the point filled with rocks, over and among which the water 

 rushed and roared in resistless fury. I landed at the dam alone and 

 examined the shoot carefully with my pike pole and decided to essay 

 it. so I returned to my canoe, re-embarked, and with closed hatches 

 and apron pulled up to my cliin, I headed the Frankie down the fall; 

 she took ihe plunge gallantly, but smashed up on the rocks at the foot 



cellent biscuit we procured here last year, I had Miss Bettie Keyser 

 bake us five dozen this afternoon— they proved to be fully up to her 

 usual high standard. 



We brushed the sand and mud oflC our canoeing costumes, shaved 

 and otherwise made ourselves as decent and presentable as possible 

 under the circumstances and spent the evening at Kevser's, very 

 pleasantly entertained by Miss Bettie and younger sister. ' They have 

 a very nice parlor organ and I gave an impromptu musicale. 



Saturday. Aug. 6. — We got a good early start; this morning, and 

 before 8 o'clock we were packed and afloat again, and the cruise re- 

 sumed. Miss Bettie and her sister came down to see us start, and 

 remained standing on the bank until we passed around the bend a 

 short distance below and out of sight. We found the Newport mill 

 dam, a mile below our late camp, had been rebuilt and the shoot over 

 by the bank was no longer open, so we were forced to make a plunge 

 which we easily did by simply sliding the canoes, with closed hatches' 

 over the crest of the dam and pitching them head first into the deep 

 water below, while quite a little crowd of spectators looked on from 

 the mill. 



The stiff little rapid below the dam was easily shot and we landed 

 at the spring at its foot for a drink, and in flfl;een minutes more we 

 were pitching and tossing down the Columbia Falls. These falls, 

 while longer than Kemple's Falls and very rough, being fully a mile 

 and a half long, are not nearly as troublesome to npgotiate; and 

 while we had to exercise great patience, care and skill, we experienced 

 no special difficulty in running them, the lower half mile beinc the 

 roughest and worst. " 



We foimd a gang of men and t-eams engaged in rebuilding and 

 enlarging the aheady huge fish dam at the foot of the falls, and our 

 jump over this dam was quite exciting and was watched with great 

 interest by the workmen engaged on the dam. We landed at the 

 fine spring in the bank a hundred yards below the dam for a drink 

 and a smoke, and then had a pleasant uneventful hour's cruise to 

 Long's. 



Much to our happiness we found that the beastly old brush mill dam 

 here, probably the meanest to portage on the entire river, had been 

 completely removed, the mill also being torn down, and we passed 

 this erstwhile troublesome place with no trouble at all. 



Half a mile below Is the little white farmhouse up on the hill, where 

 the "jarney mansion " lives, and of course the boys could not pass 



„p ,h„ f„ii iJv." 'i ;r ;• "r ~r ' ^ithout landing and going to the house for a drink of water from the 



°^riu? '^'J* ^ wa,s nearly pitched out head first. . big iron-handled pump in the shed, and to purchase some canteloupes. 



the : They were rewarded by a glimpse of the "jerney," who is most amus- 



fnu fnrnf ^^f.^'^^y^ and the boat hung fast right in ucu uy ^ ^..^i>.^ j«ru^y, wno is most amus- 



fuU forceor the fall, vyhile the water swept ma gi;eat sheet over my I ingly shy. as many of the back country girls are. The two or three 

 decks, and closed batches. The canoe careened unnl 1 was nearly cap- ' smaller girls of the family— half-grown cliildren-proved to be bv no 

 sized and then swung round, grinding her keel to splinters on the piv- ' means so shy, however, as they followed us back down to our canoes 

 otal roek. until her hnw was riTf-^Mv „n «rr««o. .nnH v.i„>, .v,„ jo see us start, and then trotted along down to the river bank to the 



old stone dam a hundred yards below, to see us jump it, which we did 

 successfully. 



We soon reached Massanutton. or White House Ferry, where the 

 road winding around among the defiles of the Massanutton Mountains 

 from New Market to Luray, crosses the river, and where we have 

 always heretofore camped, and where George and I spent .Sunday last 

 year, but we decided not to stop here this year, as the place offers 

 such poor facilities in the way of a camp ground, but to drop down 

 f'ight miles further to Bisler's Ferry, where there is a fiae spring on 

 tie bank at the water's edge as well as better camping ground. 



We didn't find Postmaster Strickler at the store and post olHce, but 

 Miss Minnie was in, and she welcomed us so nicely and did the honors 

 of the office and store so gracefully that we were quite reconcUed to 

 the absence of her father. We did not see Mr. Brubaker either, who 

 has left the white house (which stands abandoned and empty; and 

 moved into a fine new hi ick mansion a little further back from the 

 river. We exchanged mail with the ones at home while here, and the 

 boys wrote their Berryville friends to meet us with their picnic pany 

 at Castleman's Ferry on Thursday next, as we expect to reach that 

 point on our way to Hai pt-r's Ferry about that time. We e.tpeet to 

 reach Harper's Ferry un Friday evening and return home rby rail ) on 

 Saturday. " 



We took lunch in a light sprinkle of rain on our last year's camp 

 ground, and at 2 o clock pushed off from the ferry boat and turned 



the canoes up in the shallow water at the left end of the dam, where 

 there was an overflow running down the sloping face of the dam, until 

 they grounded, and then stepping overboard and easing them down 

 the slope until deep water was reached in the boat channel below. 



As we progress further down the river we are struck with the num- 

 ber of fish jumping out of the water on all sides, and they were es- 

 pecially numerous below the dam. George has kept our table pretty 

 well supplied with fish during the cruise by keeping his rod and fly 

 tackle handy on the deck of his canoe and whipping the stream at 

 hkely places. I have done but little fishing of this kind this cruise, as 

 it seems to be too much trouble. 



New York C. C. 



The disaster of last October has proved a serious one for the New 

 York C. C, so much so that the future of the oldest canoe club in the 

 United States is just now very doubtful. Besides a very heavy indi- 

 vidual loss to members, in canoes and other property, the club loss, 

 the expense of raising the scow and repairing the house, will amount 

 to about S1,000. Even with this heavy item covered and the house 

 once more in good condition, ihe que.stion of a safe anchorage still re- 

 mains. The impossibility of securing such an anchorage at Benson- 

 hurst has suggested the return to Staten Island, the old home of the 

 club, but even th^re the anchorage difficulty is a serious one, and in- 

 volves the danger of another expensive wreck. 



The club has fully demonstrated, by a series of expensive experi- 

 ments, that a floating house is impracticable in any location on Staten 

 Island or the Gravesend shore which gives a svitable sailing ground, 

 and a shore house is the only possible resort. The high prices at 

 which the waterfront is held offer a serious obstacle in this direction, 

 and what course will finally be decided on is still doubtful. The club 

 is now desirous of selling the present floating house, the hull being 

 comparatively new and perfectly strong and sound, while, the roof and 

 framework of the structure are uninjured, only the siding being dam- 

 aged. After being raised the house was towed to the builder's ship- 

 yard, and the slight damage to the hull made good. The position of 

 the club at the present time in membership and finances apart from 

 the special expense of the wreck, is very satisfactorj% the fleet is en- 

 larging every year, especially in the direction of canoe yawls and 

 small cruisers; and, apart ftom the purely canoeing features, the club 

 is the best located and most promising of the boat sailing organiza- 

 tions about New York. With a suitable shore location on Gravesend 

 Bay, and the increasing facilities for access from New Y^ork, it offers 

 exceptional advantages to canoeists and boat sailers, andanj' change 

 of location or other backward step would be a serious loss to local 

 canoeing and sailing. 



The annual meeting of the club was held on Dec. 20, the following 

 officers oeing elected: Captain, H. H. Smvthe; Purser, Wm.Whitlock; 

 Trustees, F. C. Moore, Geo. H. Daley and 0. J. Stevens. 



CANOE NEWS NOTES. 



Congratulations are in order. Rear-Corn. C. F. Schuster, Jr., of the 

 Eastern Division, was married on Wednesday, Dec. 20, at Holyoke, 

 Mass., and on Thursday, Dec. 28, Mr. Louis S. Drake, a well known 

 member of the Newton Boat Club, of Newton, Mass., is to become a 

 benedict. 



otal rock, until her bow was directly up stream and high out of the 

 water. It was impossible for me to work her off, so all there was left 

 for me to do was to step overboard nearly up to my waist and lift her 

 off, which I did with as much grace as I could muster under the cir- 

 cumstances. 



Lacy, wlio sometime.-^ exhibits considerable sense, showed his pres- 

 ence of mind on this occasion by promptly declining the shoot and 

 quietly disembarking on me side of the dam ashort distance above, as 

 soon as he .saw mj' predicament, and lifting his canoe over the dam 

 re-embarking below, while Ueoree. who dearly loves a good stiff shoot' 

 could not resist this one, but came shooting down by me while I was 

 still hanging on the rock. He swerved a little further to the left, how- 

 ever, and missed the rocks by a hair's breadth and passed on with fly- 

 ing colors. 



The final plunge of the falls is very bad, much the worst of all, and 

 another big fl^hdam in it, the counterpart of the one just passed, didn't 

 i uprove it any, and the shoot at the apex was plainly impracticable. 

 We had trouble in negotiating this dam last year, so George, who was 

 in the lead, when he reached it, made no attempt to run it, but com- 

 promised by beaching the Shenandoah on the flank of the dam close 

 to the right bank, lifting her over into the swift water below and Ist- 

 ting her drift ahead of him at the length of her painter as he waded 

 down the final steep slope of the rapid to the siiJi. deep water below 

 now and then giving her a hft or shove off the reefs as she occasion- 

 ally hung. 



I had a theory, founded on my last year's experience, that with a 



1 had a theory, founded on my last year's experience, that with a our bo\vs down the river with Bixters as our obiective We easily 

 June more care coptoess J oould navigate this nasty litUe piece of negotiated the dam at Mark's Mill, around the bend'^betow; by ruiinl 



Our Turkey Shoot at Akin. 



When I awoke Thanksgiving morning and heard the wind rattle the 

 slats of the window blinds, and the rain drops pattering against the 

 glass, I thought the prospect rather discouraging for our turkey 

 match at Akin. But about 9 o'clock the wind lulled, the rain, with the 

 exception of an occasional flurry, ceased, and grasping rifles and am- 

 munition cases we boarded an electric car for Akin. When we entered 

 we found the car pretty well filled with a party of riflemen who had 

 come up on the early morning train, some of tliem were from Albany, 

 and some from Schenectady. It was our first meeting since the tur- 

 key matches of last winter and our greeting was rather hilarious. 



Akin is only about two miles from Amsterdam, so we reached our 

 destination before we got really quieted down. We went over to 

 Groat's Hotel, where the match was to come off Against the wall of 

 the sitting room several handbills were displayed announcing that 25 

 turkeys and 100 chickens were on hand for the sportsmen to practice 

 on. That was good news, though we afterward found the number of 

 fowls was slightly exaggerated. 



The first thing in order was to inspect the proposed range, a new 

 one that had never been shot over. It ran straight away across the 

 Mohawk flats for about forty rods, then across the Mohawk River and 

 Erie Canal and up a slope to a lone apple tree. The distance was sup- 

 posed to be about eighty rods, but it certainly looked to be nearer half 

 a mile than a quarter. 



Harry Coats took his rifle out of the case and fired several sighting 

 shots, using the same elevation that he usually did for 80 rods. We 

 looked closely and carefully through a good field glass, but could not 

 spot one of his bullets. They either fell way short, or struck so dead 

 in the soft sod that they did not throw any dirt. 



This was a great disappointment to us, as it would be useless to" 

 shoot unless we could see where our bullets struck. While we were 

 lamenting the landlord came down and asked us what we thought of 

 the range. We told him it was no good in its present condition, with 

 snow on the ground it might be all right. So, after some talk, it was 

 agreed to abandon the long range and shoot over the 40-rod offhand 

 range instead. 



The firing point for this range was from the hotel piazza, and we 

 were to shoot up against a very steep side-hiU, the pitch was, in fact, 

 nearly as great as an ordinary shingle roof, and made it somewhat 

 like shooting game out of a tree. 



The turkeys were carried up, and one of them was tied to the stake 

 the landlord acted as score-keeper, and called for the names of all 

 who intended to shoot. Eleven men registered. No. 1 toed the mark 

 and the trouble began. The first three shots failed to score, and No. 4 

 stepped to the firing point. He was armed with a Winchester repeat- 

 ing rifle .1,5-90-300, and when he raised it to his shoulder and took aim 

 the crowd of spectators who stood near, and partly in the Une of fire 

 shrank back as far as possible, while still gazing intently at the tur- 

 key, who was then sitting down comfortabiy in the dead grass and 

 preening his feathers. 



The gun was fired, and an instant after the roar of that enormous 

 charge was heard, there was a great commotion in tm-key. The bird 

 sprang instantly to thehmitof his tether, then with many vigorous 

 flops and bounds he whirled round and round, and over and over, 

 while his great strong wings beat a rapid tattoo against his sides or 

 the groimd. The commotion soon subsided, and he turned partly over 

 and was still. Then a mighty yell arose from the crowd, and they 

 warmly congratulated the lucky rifleman over his splendid shot. 



When the man in charge of the turkeys got there he did not waste 

 any timf^ looking for blood, he saw at once that the turk was very- 

 dead, so he cut him loose and tied on another bird. 



The landlord gazed reproachfully on the author of the mischief, 

 and remarked that if we kept on at that rate there wouldn't be much 

 profit in it for him, as he had lost a dollar and a half turkej' and only 

 forty cents was on the book for shots. He was assured that it was 

 an accident that probably would not occur again very soon, and after 

 moving us back along the piazza a little further the match was allowed 

 to proceed. 



There were but few rules and no formality about this match ; it was 

 in fact, a free-for-all, go-as-sou-please affair for everybody, and all 

 appeard to enjoy themselves to the utmost. The spectators, of whom 

 there were a hundred or less, walked round freely among the shoot- 

 ers, and crossed the range back and forthwith either a total disregard 

 of consequences or else a trust in Providence that was most touching 

 if not startling, to an observer at all accustomed to the rules and 

 regulations enforced on an established rifle range. It may be that for 

 this occasion the 



"Sweet little cherub that sits up aloft 

 To keep watch for the Ufe of poor Jack," 

 like some of the city pohce, had had his precinct changed, and been 

 assigned to the special duty of lookmg out for the lives of the reckless 

 fools who deliberately walked around in front of loaded and cocked 

 rifles. 



The shooters were mostly armed with repeating rifles, and the shoot- 

 ing was very rapid. Shortly before noon I downed No. 10 turkey, and 

 stopped the match until after dinner, because that was the last one 

 they had on hand. The landlord assured us, however, that there 

 would be plenty more raady for us after dinner, and at once hitched 

 up his team and started one of his men off to a neighboring farmer's 

 to get some more, and we adjourned to the sitting-room to discuss the 

 match and await a summons to dinner. 



So far as we had gone the cost of shots and value of turkeys very 

 nearly balanced, and as the bar trade was good the proprietor had 

 very little reason to complain. 



When we were summoned to the dining room we found as good a 

 dinner .as was ever set before hungry men, and the morning's sport 

 had given a keen appetite for its enjoyment. Then, with the inner 

 man well braced up and every one in the best of humor, we agam gave 

 our attention to the turkeys. 



The man had returned from his call on tlie farmer and had brought 

 back two turkeys with him; they were good ones; the combined 

 weight was a little over iieibs. No more could be got that day, and 

 the landlord said when we had them killed he would set up chickens 



