^72 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 30, 1899. 
dilated upon here, and in the case of the dog cannot have 
led to anything but mischievous residts, for, running at 
the horse's heels under his master's carriage, he could 
not avoid having mud and filth splashed or kicked intrs 
his ears, which would engender disease and deafness. 
Possibly the latter may account for the fallacy that the 
Dalmatian was one of the most stupid of the canme race 
—he was often very hard of hearing. That tnese dogs 
were originally cropped to prevent them having canker 
in the ear. as has been suggested, is one of the most 
grievious fallacies. Canker is internal, and more likely 
to appear in a dog with cropped ears than not; but of 
course (he ears being cropped there can be no outer 
sores which are produced by shaking the head, and so 
flapping the ears and by scratching with the hindfeet. 
Bull terriers were doubtless cropped because in fighting 
dogs, which they originally were, the removal of the ears 
prevented an antagonist seizing them and thereby at- 
tacking a vulnerable part. When the show dog was made 
distinct from the fighting dog, a so-called "fashionable 
crop" was introduced to the former, the ears being in 
part cut off and treated ■'artificially and skillfully" to 
make them stand smartly erect — almost like a blunted 
needle at the point. A similar operation was performed 
on Black and Tan, or Manchester, terriers, upon English 
white terriers, and to a less extent upon Yorkshire ter- 
riers and upon Irish terriers. This barbarity continued 
in operation until quite recently (in 1895), when, follow- 
ing a conviction for cropping, the Kennel Club suddenly 
came to the conclusion — which the Irish Terrier Club 
had, to its credit, done years before— that the operation 
was useless and cruel, and they framed a rule which has 
led to its discontinuance. Xo greater fallacy ever ex- 
isted than the belief that cropping the ears of dogs was to 
their advantage, either .as a beauty mark or as a pre- 
ventive of disease. The poor shepherd or farmer genera- 
tions ago had some excuse for shortening the tail of the 
dog which assisted him with his flocks and herds, for by 
so domg he became exempt from taxation, so far as that 
identical animal was concerned. Hence we have a reason 
for the once common name of "cur" as applied to the 
sheepdog — a corruption of the word curtail, which in this 
connection "is a dog lawed or mutilated according to the 
Forest Laws, and is therefore prevented from coursing." 
Mavbe therefrom we have the origin of the still ex- 
istent docking of our terriers— not to keep them from 
coursing, for when used for this purpose their tails are 
left entire— but the countryman tried to escape the 
stringent tax by operating upon the dog which he kept 
to keep down vermin in a similar manner to that he em- 
ploved upon his shepherd's dog. Perhaps some day 
our humanitarians will succeed in causing a general dis- 
continuance even of this custom, which, though compara- 
tively painless when performed in the right way and at 
the proper tim.e, has been ruled to be illegal. 
There are other silly notions as to dogs, notably whtre 
their howling is believed to be prophetic of death in the 
family to which the dog belongs. Then it must not be 
forgotten that until veiy lately it was commonly believed 
that dogs were more liable to madness at a certain 
period of the year than at any other. This was sup- 
posed to be between the end of ~ July and September, 
when Sirius, the dog star, rises and sets with the sun. 
These were the so-called "dog days," when local mag- 
nates who considered the canine breed obnoxious would 
order a muzzling order within their jurisdiction until 
the supposed dangerous period had passed by. Such mat- 
etrs are. however, better ordained to-day, for the muz- 
zling of dogs is only ordered when a case of madness has 
been known to occur, and instead of being discontinued 
by a. certain sign in the constellation, is not withdrawn 
until all danger of the spread of the disease has passed 
away. — London Field. 
Fixtures. 
SEPTEUBEK. 
27. Taunton, ladies' day, Taunton, Mass. 
30. Corinthian, knockabout, Essington, Delaware River. 
OCTOBER. 
3-5-7. New York, America Ctip matches, Sandy Hook. 
The question of properly patrolling the course for the 
Artierica Cup races was the subject of a meeting of the 
Cabinet at the White House on Sept. 20. President Mc- 
Kinley was in conference with Acting Secretary of the 
Navy Allen. Acting Secretary of the Treasury Spauldmg 
and Secretary of War Root. A fleet of torpedo boats and 
revenue cutters, under the command of Capt. R. D. 
Evans, U. S. N., will be detailed to patrol the course. 
An indefinite rumor is current to the effect that Mr. 
Iselin and Sir Thomas Lipton have agreed, in the event of 
any interference, to start the race at some unknown time 
very early in the morning. 
During the past week Columbia has been at Bristol 
trying different sails, under way whenever necessary, and 
receiving the final preparations. On Saturday she left for 
Mew Rcchelle. arriving on Monday in tow of her tender. 
It is stated positively by various authorities that she will 
haul out on the Bristol railway for cleaning; that she will 
go into one of the drydocks at the Brookl3'n Navy Yard 
on Thursday, and also that she will, on the sam^e day, he 
docked with" Shamrock at the Erie Basin L)rydock, South 
Brooklyn. The first report is plainly -incorrect, but up 
to the time of going to press on Tuesday it is uncertain 
which of the Brookljm docks will be honored by her. 
Mr. Will Fife was at tlie Erie Basin on Mondaj- foi 
several hours, and Shamrock will certainly be docked 
there on Thursday mcjrning. It is stated that no attempt 
will be made to exclude the pubhc. 
On Sept. 24 Defender was placed out of commission at 
City Island. She left New London at 6:30 A. M. that 
day. and anchored off City Island before i P. M.. lier 
time for the eightv-four nautical miles being 6h. 30m.. or a 
speed of thirteen knots. 
Virginia, steam yacht, designed by G. L. Watson for 
Isaac Stern, of New York, was launched at the l^uih 
Iron N^Vjrks. Bath. Me., an Sept. 19 
The CourseUforllthea^Cup Races. 
Next week, for a few brief days, the great afl'airs of 
the world \Vill be set aside and sport will reign supreme ; 
the "Ramapo Steal," the Presidential nominations for 
1900, Captain Dreyfus and Jules Guerin, Com Paul and 
the LTitlanders, and even Admiral Dewey, will be for- 
gotten ; and for the moment the attention of a great 
part of .the world will be concentrated on the attempt of 
Sir Thomas J. Lipton to "lift" the America Cup. 
The locality of this contest is practically the same as 
that of all previous races for the Cup as an international 
trophy, the waters about Sandy Hook and the Port of 
New York; but in every contest from 1870 to and in- 
cluding 1887 at least one race has been sailed over the 
inside course of the New York Y. C, of which the Sandy 
Hook Lightship is the outer mark, the inner being above 
the Narrows near the city : this year, as in 1893 and 1895, 
the cotirse will be wholly outside Sandy Hook and on the 
open sea. The terms of the match call for cottrses of 
thirty nautical miles each, the first to be to windward if 
possible; if not, to leeward, a distance of fifteen miles and 
return; the second to be a triangle of ten miles to a side, 
the first leg to windward if possible. The accompanying 
chart shows the courses that can be laid out from the 
starting point, the Sandy Hook Lightship, 
As the story of the races will be read by many who 
have never visited the beautiful harbor of New York, it 
may be well to give some details of the locality. 
The city of New York is located at the joining of the 
Hudson or North River, and the short channel connecting 
New York Bay and Long Island Sound, and known as the 
East River. Until two years ago the city included prac- 
tically only the long, narrow peninsula between these 
two rivers, but now it includes Brooklyn, Staten Island 
and even the shore of the Sound to the north as far as 
City Island, the well-known yacht station. The extreme 
lower end of the peninsula of New York, known as the 
Battery, marks the northern limit of the Upper Baj', and 
just six miles south of the Battery is the strait known as 
the Narrows, barely seven-eighths of a mile wide, between 
Fort Hamilton, on the Brooklyn shore, to the east, and 
Fort Wadsworth, on Staten Island, to the west. , Be- 
tweeit the Narrows and Sandy Hook is the Lower Bay. 
roughly about twelve miles by seven in extent, cut off 
from the sea by extensive sand shoals. Through Raritan 
Bay on the west the Raritan River enters, and through 
Sandy Hook Bay on the south the Shrewsbury and 
Navesink rivers. Much of the Lower Bay is very 
shoal, though the main channels are deep. 
From the Narrows there are three ways to the open 
sea, first by the East Channel, now very little used, but 
which it is proposed to dredge in the course of the next 
two or three years to a depth Avhich will make it the main 
approach to the city. Next, to the west^ is the Swash 
Channel, used by all small vessels and the river and 
coasting steamers, the quickest and most direct way from 
the Battery to the lightship. Still further to the west is 
the Main Channel, now barely deep enough for the largest 
of the Atlantic liners, 'and with a sharp elbow, the South- 
west Spit, for them to turn as best they may. The Main 
a»d Swash channels practically cross just off the point of 
Sandy Hook, the former continuing with a slight bend to 
the south, under the name of the Ge4ney Channel, and the 
latter, in a straight line, forming the South Channel. The 
Sand}' Hook Lightship lies in the axis of the Gedney 
Channel, and four and three-quarter miles distance from 
the entrance buoy, while it is seven and one-half miles 
from the point of Sandy Hook. The Scotland Lightship, 
named from the wreck of the liner Scotland, over which 
it was located many years ago, lies in the axis of the 
South Channel, one mile from the entrance buoy and two 
and one-half miles from the Gedney Channel buoy. The 
Scotland Lightship is four miles from the point of the 
Hook, and two and three-quarter miles from the shore at 
the nearest poitit; the Sandy Hook Lightship is distant 
four and one-eighth miles from the Scotland, the bearing 
being W.S.W.15-16W. The distance from the Battery to 
the Sandy Hook Lightship by the Main Channel is twen- 
ty-four miles, and by the Swash Channel twenty-one and 
one-quarter miles! 
The steamers which follow the races start from one to 
two miles above the Battery, on the North or East, river, 
which distance must be added to these just given. Pier i, 
North River, from which the New York Y. C. and variotis 
other steamers start, or where they stop for psssengers, is 
practically at the Battery. All the smaller steamers follow 
the shorter way through the Swash Channel out and 
in, regardless of tide, but some of the largest will have 
to take the longer way, by the Main Channel. With a 
start off the Sandy Hook Lightship at il A. M., it will 
be necessary to leave the city but little after 9 o'clock, in 
order to be" at the line in season to obtain a place in the 
big fieet. and to observe the canvasing of the two yachts, 
the course signals, etc., so as to understand fully the 
meneuvering for the start. It has been frequently the 
case in the past that even steamers managed by the yacht 
clubs have been so delayed in leaving their pier that they 
have entirely missed the start of the race. On some of 
the public boats it is the custom to wait as long as 
possible, putting back to the pier after starting, and re- 
sorting to other similar tricks to catch the dollars of a 
few tardy ones who have missed the more punctual 
boats, so that those on board who may have been at the 
pier by 9 o'clock go down the Bay finally at the tail of 
the fleet, and arrive at the line after the yachts have 
started. A similar trick of waiting for a few more has 
been worked in the case of boats advertised to start at 
noon or I o'clock, for the convenience of those unable to 
get away from business for the entire day, but who de- 
sire to see the finish. By this system of d«lay the steamer 
is held '^o long that the fleet is returning after the race 
before she passed the Hook. It is well to remember that 
after the fare, of from $3 to $6, is once paid at the pier 
on boarding a steamer, the passenger has practically no 
redress if the steamer men are disposed to act dis- 
honestlj^ 
The waters outside Sandy Hook are admirably adapted 
for racing courses, being deep, comparatively free from cur- 
rents, with a mean rise and fall of tide of but 4.70ft. The 
courses are almost entirely outside the ten-fathom curve, 
the depth varving from twelve to thirty fathoms, with no 
• Mudhars to disturb the tidal flow and no obstructions of 
l.iiid except the well-known Shrewsbun^ Rocks, just 
below Seabright, and extending about a mile from shore. 
The Navesink Highlands, just inside Sandy Hook, is a 
bold promontory nearly 200ft. high, but except for it the 
land is low, the hook itself is a mere sand spit almost 
level with the water, and the whole Jersey beach is low. 
the bluffs at Long Branch being only 30ft. high, while at 
a couple of miles inland the elevation is but 60 to looft. 
The Long Island shore is also made up of a succession of 
low beaches with a moderate rise to the center of the 
island. 
The chart shows the largest sector of a circle which 
can be laid off from the Sandy Hook Lightship as a 
center with a radius of fifteen miles, also the slightly 
larger sector for a radius of ten miles, as required for the 
triangular races. The range of courses possible for the 
windward and return races is from E.N.E.^^E., which 
would bring the mark close in to the Long Island shore 
near the Jones Inlet; to S.W^. by S.3^S., on the Jersey 
shore just above Asbury Park. If necessary, the wind- 
ward leg for the triangular course can be laid a Utile 
outside of either of these points. With the wind any- 
where from N. of E. to almost S.W.. a good course can 
be laid off to windward, and with a N.W. wind a start 
to leeward can be made, as has frequently been done ; ths 
worst of the probable winds being N.E., in which case a 
fifteen mile course to windward or leeward cannot be laid 
out, and there is little to .spare for a ten-mile leg to 
windward and no room for it too leeward. At times the 
start has been made from the Scotland, but very little is 
to be gained by the change. In many of the previous 
races the course has been either the extreme northerly 
one, the wind drawing along the Long Island shore, or 
the westerly one, parallel with the Jersey beach. In some 
cases the yachts have rttn straight off first before a N.W. 
wind, beating home. The following extracts from the 
almanac may prove useful for reference : 
-Sandy Hook. 
.— -Time ofTide. — , ' r-Rise and Fall of Tide,— , 
High Water, Low "Water. HighV-'ater. Low Water. , — Sun. — 
Oct. A.M. P.M. A.M. P.M. Ft. Ft. Ft. Ft. Rises.Sets. 
3.. 6:23 6:38 0:09 0:32 4:07 4:05 0:01 0:01 5:58 5:40 
5.. 7:35 7:51 1:16 1:46 5:01 4:06 0:01 0:03 6:01 5:37 
7.. 8:52 9:11 2:29 3:09 5:02 4:05 0:01 0:04 6:03 5:33 
10 11:15 11:46 4:41 5:40 4:09 4:02 0:02 0:01 6:06 5:28 
12.. 00:51 1:18 6:51 7:48 4:02 4:07 0:04 0:00 6:08 5:25 
14.. 3:05 3:29 9:14 9:46 4:06 4:08 0:01 0:03 6:10 5:22 
The time of high water at the Battery is about forty - 
six minutes later than Sandy Hook. 
The new moon falls on Oct, 4- 
The Interlake Y. R, A. 
The following report was sent to us for publication, and 
we believe that the matter with which it chiefly deals is 
one that should be made public in the interests of the 
sport. We can well appreciate the spirit which has im- 
pelled the writer to take up a diffictilt and distasteful task, 
Avhich is sure to bring him much ill will and condemnation. 
The question is one which comes up at almost all large 
gatherings, the rights of the great majority of decent, 
gentlemanly sportsmen as opposed to a small but active 
hoodlum elevent. While no true friend of yachting or 
canoeing desires to publish to the world at large the dark 
side of the meets, the question con.stantly comes up, as 
we know from experience, whether the time has not come 
for a bold and open denunciation of an evil that is too 
great to be longer overlooked. 
In a case like the present it is much easier to go quietly 
out of office, leaving all responsibility on one's successor, 
than to inaugurate a crusade on general principles. We 
hope that Com. Bliss' remarks wHl be read by all yachts- 
men. 
To the Members of the Interlake Yachting Association: 
Gentlemen — While it has not been customary for the 
commodore of this Association to render any report con- 
cerning our annual meets, it seems to me to be necessary, 
from the fact that the office of commodore is only held 
for a year, and consequently faults are overlooked froin 
year to year, and never corrected. 
Our yachting etiquette is an almost unknown quantity. 
It is not followed up by individual clubs, consequently, 
when we have our meets, very few know enough to salute, 
when joining the squadron, report to the officer in com- 
mand, observe the color-gun morning and evening or be 
prepared to receive the officers on inspection. On these 
points and many others we are absurdly w.eak, and our 
members should post themselves on yachting etiquette 
during the coming winter. 
Another matter that is much more serious is our be- 
havior at Put-in-Bay during the times set apart for our 
meets. From year to year this has improved, but there 
is room for so much more improvement that the writer 
almost dreads the task of detailing it. 
In making the following complaints, it is not the 
writer's intention to give the impression that he js alto- 
gether free from having errors charged against him, and 
while making this admission he asks all to seriously con- 
sider the many small errors committed by them, before 
reading the following chapter of rowdyism and malicious 
mischief which at last developed into crime: 
Unfortunately, those who behave themselves at our 
meets, though in the majority, are never heard of. The 
low-minded bumming element always is, and therefore 
the yachtsmen who attend our meets afe all in the shadow 
cast by a lot of hoodlums. 
The troubles have been laid to hired crews: to yachts- 
men new in the sport, who imagine that drunkenness and 
all manner of lawlessness is part of the sport, and to 
those who are naturally loafers and "no good." In the 
writer's opinion the whole trouble starts in the individual 
clubs. We are all anxious to swell our membership, and 
the consequence is that care in the selection of material 
is partly lost sight of, and before it is realized a loud- 
mouthed, disorderly element has crept in that is difficult 
to be rid of. Though this element is small, still it is 
just enough to poison the sport and cause our most repu- 
table people to look on all yachtsmen with a little sus- 
picion. 
This rowdy element usually has no steady employment, 
consequently when we have our meets they arc ready to 
go nnd always disgrace the Association. If our individual 
clubs would only have the grit to drop those few 3-acht 
owners and crews whose boats are used for various ques- 
tionable purposes, our meets would be improved. It 
should he the pride of each club to settd their best fe[.'i t 
