April 8, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
273 
A special banner, emblematic of the "A. C, A. War 
Canoe Championship," together with a suitable "follow'" 
prize, donated by Com. Thorn, will be awarded the win- 
ning crew of the war canoe event. Flags for second and 
third places will be awarded also. There is promise of a 
■handsome cup, to be either a perpetual or limited trophy, 
in addition to the banner for the winning crew, announce- 
ment of which will be made later. 
Entries must be filed with the clerk of the course one 
hour previous to calling of any race. 
All events will be called promptly at hours desig- 
nated on bulletin board. Events postponed for lack of 
starters will not be called the second time. Stragglers 
will be ruled off the course. 
Al. T. Brown, Rochester, N. Y., Chairman. 
John W. Ely, Rochester, N. Y. 
F. B. Huntington, Milwaukee, Wis. 
A Few Stray Leaves from the Log 
of the Frankie. 
BV THE ' OOMMODORE, " 
\Cov.tinued from pagu 3156.] 
All ;ivas bustle and confusion in the morning. The 
camp was struck, the canoes packed and slid down 
the sandy bank into the river. A big farm wagon was 
brought down the laiie and backed up to the edge of the 
bank above the camp, and the heavy wooden skiff, Mac, 
was carried up and loaded on it. 
Prof. Murray having declared that nothing could in- 
duce him to continue on the river another mile, he 
decided to abandon the trip right here, so after the Mac 
was comfortably disposed of, he and Dunbar, and Bald- 
win Wayt climbed up into the wagon with the boat, 
and with cordial good-bys and well-wishes, were driven 
off down the I'oad four miles to Miines, from whence 
they would return home by rail. The Doctor and Lacy 
also intended to abandon the cruise and return home 
from Miines, but decided to accompany us down the 
river that far; so with farewell greetings to Mr. Coff- 
man and his family, who came down to see us start, 
we stepped aboard our canoes and were swiftly whirled 
away on the rapid stream. 
We found more ledges, fish dams, rapids and rough 
water generally crowded into the five miles of river 
between Coffman's and Miines than we had experienced 
in any ten miles above, and when we finally beached 
our canoes on the rocky shingle in front of Miines 
after a steady mile and a half of boiling, foaming down- 
hill rush of waters, plentifully strcM'n with rocks and 
ledges, where the big waves tossed us around and 
washed our decks and drenched our arms and shoulders 
in a way the like of which we had not before experi- 
enced, we were very glad indeed that the Mac party had 
not attempted the run. 
We were at Miines several hours. While here we 
received accessions to our supplies from Staunton by 
express, and I gladly embraced the opportunity to ex- 
press my sail back to Staunton, as I had found it to be 
but a useless encumbrance. At the expreSs office we 
found our quondam companion, the Mac, lying on the 
platform. It was a matter of much amusement to us 
at almost every ford, camp or stopping place on the 
trip, from the very start to Coffman's, wherever anybody 
gathered to see us, to hear the universal expression of 
opinion in favor of the Mac, and the universal distrust 
of the little narrow, frail-looking canoes. Every man 
who had an opinion to express stated emphatically that 
he would be everlastingly objurgated and otherwise im- 
precated if he wouldn't "take his chances in that 'ere 
skift, and didn't want nothin' to do with them 'ere new- 
fangled, cranky little punkin seeds of canoes!" 
IX. 
I was awakened very early in the morning by the 
vigorous citiwing of a big red rooster of undoubted 
lung power perched on the fence but a few feet from 
the Frankie's tent, and found it was raining heavily; 
OUR^CAMP. 
so, after housing sufficiently to shy a convenient cltlb at 
the rooster as a suggestion to him to sound his morn- 
ing biigle elsewhere, I wrapped myself snugly in my 
blankets and turned over and went to sleep again, 
soothed by the musical patter of the rain on the roof 
and sides of my tent. A late start was the conse- 
quence, and it was lo o'clock before we were again 
afloat. 
We packed the canoes where they lay and carried 
them down the high, steep bank, with the willing as- 
sistance of the curious little knot of rustics gathered 
around us, and launched them over the side of the 
ferry boat, stepped aboard and dropped gently down 
the smooth, still reach below the ferry, down the swift 
gravelly rapia J^loyf, fffQijn^} ^{i^ t>end, qi^I: pf ^^hx 
of the little hamlet, and along the giant ragged flanks 
of the Fort Mountain, which rises directly from the 
water's edge in a grand, imposing, tree-covered slope 
clear to its lofty summit, a couple of thousand feet 
above. The river is very- crooked in this region, and 
pursues a zigzag course back and forth across the narrow 
valley from ea.st to west and from west to east, in 
search of an outlet through the mountains, for nearly 
fifty miles. 
In a short time we were off Mauk's mill, and passed 
the dam with not a little difficulty and danger. Tlie 
dam, after crossing the river in a straight line until 
quite near the right bank, turns at right angles and 
runs for quite a distance down stream parallel with the 
bank until the mill is reached. Right in this angle there 
was a good-sized break, through wliich the water rushed 
in a furious torrent, with a drop of S or 6ft. in a couple 
of canoe lengths. It was rough beyond description, but 
we were game to tackle it, as there was plenty of water. I 
went first in the Frankie. and passed over the dam 
successfully, but after pitching and tumbling down the 
steep slope, smashing upon the hidden rocks at the 
foot of the break so badly that I was in imminent danger 
of a capsize. I threw oflf my apron and threw open 
my midship hatch, and gathered myself together for a 
hasty jump overboard to save my canoe and stores from 
A SAILING DINGHY. " 
irretrievable smash, when, with one or two more part- 
ing bumps I cleared the rocks. George pluckily fol- 
lowed in the Rosa, undismayed by my hard luck. He 
crossed the dam a little further to the left, and although 
he hung up badly on the dam, he escaped the rocks 
below, and we shot on down the swift rapid below the 
dam, waving our helmets in response to the congratu- 
latory salutations of the little settlement around the 
mill, which — men, women and children, including a 
sprinkling of pretty girls — were scattered along the bank 
in the dooryards to see us run the dam, and fully ex- 
pecting to see us get a spill. 
The day's cruise was simply a succession of rapids, 
falls and dams, interspersed with dams, rapids and falls. 
On the good water we had we took everything that of- 
fered, and although we met with no mishaps, we had a 
rough, wet time of it. 
Late in the afternoon, after picking our way through 
probably the worst and most trottblesome series of reefs 
we had yet encountered, we reached Goode's mill. The 
fall of the river was so considerable that there was not 
half a mile of slack water above the dam, although it 
was an unusually high one. The channel through the 
reefs above led us close along the left bank, and as I ex- 
pected, we found a shoot in the dam on this side also. 
It was such an unusually rough one that we landed 
to reconnoitre instead of going right through, as we 
had heretofore done. 
The dam was built on ii heavy line of reefs, and ran 
straight across the river from the right bank until 
within a few yards of the left bank, where it ended, 
and was joined at right angles by a heaAO' wall of timbers 
and rocks, which extended up the river some 30 or 
40yds., parallel with the left bank^ when it made an- 
other right-angle turn and came in to the bank. The 
shoot was formed by merely leaving off the top course 
of timbers on this short wall extending out from the 
bank. The fall was a perpcndictdar one of about 4ft., 
over which the water slid in a smooth, deep flow, with- 
out apron or other attachment to break its force or give 
it slope. Immediately below the fall the vvater reared 
itself up on end in -a huge, foam-crested coamer, nearly 
or quite as high as the fall itself, followed by a long line 
of lesser coamers down the swift little canal between 
the wing of the dam and the bank, which ended in a 
nasty ragged fall about a yard high, over the rough 
reef on which the dam was built. Below this was looyds. 
of quite rough rapids, 
"Well, what do you think of it.^" said I, as we gazed 
in dismay down upon this unpromising looking hole in 
the river. 
"Pretty rough," was George's not very reassuring 
reply. 
"T believe I'd rather walk," said I, as we made our 
way down through the underbrush and inspected the 
roiigh looking little canal, and the angry ragged fall 
at its foot. 
"What's the chances for a portage.^" 
"Poor. 1 don't see how we can get the canoes up 
this high, steep bank, nor how we could get them 
through this thick underbrush, after we get them up." 
"How about the other side of the river?" 
"Vf^lli bank looks c1^?(f oy^f t|]fff, bt^t ti^e riY(?r 
is a quarter of a mile wide, the current is so swift 
through the mill pool we'll have to paddle back Up 
the river that far before we dare venture to cross above 
the dam, and after we get over there we'll have to carry 
the canoes around the mill as well as the dam, as it is 
built right up from the water." 
"That's so. I guess we'll have to run the shoot!" 
"Well, here goes!" said I, as I stepped into the 
Frankie; gave an extra touch to the fastenings of the 
fore and aft hatches, closed the well tightly m front 
of me, pulled the apron up to my chin and pushed off, 
while George remained on tlifr bank^ to -see- infi gOi 
through. 
My canoe slid smoothly over the dam arid swooped 
down the steep fall with a dizzying swing. She stuck 
her sharp nose squarely in the middle of the huge 
coamer below and drove right through it. The water 
rolled in a solid sheet clear over the canoe from stem 
to stern at least a foot deep, and the foaming crest of 
the wave struck me full in the face, completely drench- 
ing mj^ arms and shoulders, which were above the apron, 
while the water poured in around the aft corners of 
my apron by the fcubful, pretty effectually drenching the 
rest of my anatomy below the apron. The canoe shiv- 
ered and trembled with the weight of water on top of 
her, and I still wonder why her light canvas decks were 
not crushed in by the load. She finally staggered to the 
surface and fled, pitching afl^righted down the rough 
canal and plunged headlong over the 3ft. fall at the » 
bottom, where she hung up so hard and fast on the reefs 
that I narrowly escaped a capsize, only escaping by 
good management and dexterous, vigorous shoves with 
my paddle, assisted by the boiling torrent around me. 
I finally got oif into the smoother v/ater below, where, 
without waiting to run the rapid, I made a landing 
and scrambled ashore, and hurried along back up the 
bank in a quiver of excitement to see George make 
the plunge. 
"Now, darn you; let's see you go tln'ough!" was my 
excited exclamation (so George avers; I have no recol- 
lection of it myself), and through he went, pretty much 
as I did. 
He made a landing alongside of the Frankie, and as 
we sat on the bank, dipping the water out of our canoes, 
we congratulated each other on our successful passage, 
the while we vowed we would attempt no more such 
shoots. 
The river ran deep and still, though always swift, for 
miles. The Fort came down out of the clouds in a long, 
sloping, gracefully undulating, tree-clothed spur, which 
lost itself in the heavy woods along the river. The 
Massanutton range came to an end as abruptly as it 
began; the historic peak, used as a Confederate signal 
station, standing like a giant sentinel over the broad, 
reunited valley sweeping smilingly away to the distant 
Potomac. The railroad returned to the river again, and 
followed more or less closely along the bank; now 
directly along the water's edge, as it lay along some 
narrow little shelf in the side of the cliffs or hills, now 
taking a short cut through the level fields across some 
bend, to reappear again further "down. The dense forests 
along the banks gave place to smiling green fields; 
farmhouses and mansions appeared here and there, and 
the lovely, peaceful, twilight, pastoral surroundings were 
the more welcome after the wild solitude of the all-day- 
long cruise. 
Occasional short, steep, gravelly slopes appeared, 
down which the river rushed boisterously, but deepjy 
and free from obstructions, affording us fine coasting, 
with nothing to look out for but the big waves, which 
our canoes rode buoyantly. 
A densely packed excursion train thundered by up 
the road as we were pitching and tossing safely dovyn 
one of these rifts, and a whirlwind of handkerchiefs 
whitened the sides of the cars, evidently a tribute of ad- 
miration to our daring, which we retiirncd by waving 
our helmets. ■ 
We portaged around the Blakemdre dam. although it 
had an open shoot in it. The dam was a high one, and 
the shoot consisted of a huge trough of logs, down 
Mdiich the water pitched and roared at an angle of about 
RUNNING A DAM. 
60 degrees. The floor of the trough did not seem to 
extend below the water, and the torrent pitched off 
the end of it like a huge spout, and the enormous 
wave that reared its foaming, splashing crest high in 
air at the foot of the spout looked so menacing to small 
craft that we hadn't the sand to tackle the shoot, and 
so, very wisely I think, we carried our canoes around. 
Twilight had long been stealing its shadowy folds 
around us, and now darkness began to close in on us, 
accompanied by a light rain; but still on we pushed as 
hard as vve could drive, regardless of the occasional light 
rifts, our destination now not far off. We rounded one 
more bend, and the whitewashed side of the lofty rail- 
road bridge at Riverton gleamed through the fast falling 
5lia^e^ 9f nigli|, pjifl 111 a f^vv irim^te§ tiigrf Yf? W^T^ 
