Dec. 2, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
4B7 
by water transportation. That is not available in many 
parts of Cuba, and as there are practically no roads m 
the island at present, the growth will probably remain 
undisturbed in the forest until prosperity has led capital 
to invest in railroads to bring the lumber to the coast. 
While Cuba has still a good store of mahogany, though 
hard to reach, San Domingo, once a' most favored source 
of supply, has been exhausted. The timber cut there now 
is small and crooked, and not at all what is wanted in the 
trade, as it does not cut to advantage. The superiority 
of Cuban and San Domingo mahogany lies in the hard- 
ness of the wood, the beatity of its grain and its sus- 
ceptibility to iinish. Next to it in these qualities is the 
Nicaraguan wood, which comes in such great quantities 
to Boston. This wood is in such large logs that it cuts 
to advantage, and as it is a hard and close-grained wood 
it is quite as satisfactory for the demand of to-day as the 
Cuban wood was in the days of grandmother's bureau. 
That there is danger of an exhaustion of the world's 
supply of mahogany does not seem probable. There are 
still millions of feet growing along the Mosquito coast 
that is ready for cutting. To preserve the supply in 
Nicaragua the firm of George D. Emery, sole conces- 
sionarie on the Atlantic coast of that country for as many 
miles into the interior as it cares to go, is obliged by the 
terms of its contract with the Nicaraguan Government to 
plant two trees for every one cut down. It is estimated 
that these trees will grow in fifty years to a marketable 
size. 
Africa is a source of supply that to date has been little 
drawn upon to meet the growing demand for mahogany. 
It has millions of acres of mahogany forest that only until 
recentl}^ was practically untouched. Now the supply is 
being drawn tipon, and in a short time African wood will 
be a strong factor in the market. It is not, so far as has 
been shown by the marketed product to date, as satis- 
factory a wood as the Nicaraguan. The best selections, 
however, have undoubtedly not been reached as yet, for 
the supply of the dark continent has only been tapped, not 
tested. 
The world's supply of mahogany is carefully watched in 
the mai'kets of England, where brokerage firms issue state- 
ments at intervals of a month or oftener, giving cargoes 
received at various ports, and the market price of the 
wood in London and Liverpool. 
Kecent quotations showed that while there was prac- 
tically no Cuban wood to be had, and San Domingo wood 
was very scarce, Nicaraguan wood was third in the cost 
list. Cuban wood is quoted as high as from yd. to lod. a 
square foot of lin. thick in the log. That is from 14 to 20 
cents a foot. San Domingo was quoted from 8 to 13 cents, 
and Nicaraguan from 9 to 11 cents. By the time the latter 
wood is milled its cost to, the buyer is from 16 to 20 cents 
a foot. 
The brokers' lists of cargoes show that nearly every 
steamer sailing from Boston to England carries in her 
cargo consignments of mahoganj^ logs sent from Boston 
to help supply the world's demand for the beautiful wood 
which the white man worships. 
Bilge Keels 00 Power Lattnches* 
A CORRESPONDENT asks for information as to the ad- 
vantages of bilge keels on small power launches^ upward 
of 45ft. long; whether they appreciably diminish the 
rolling, and whether they are detrimental to the speed. 
YACHTING NEWS NOTES. 
During the last few weeks work on the new club 
house of the New York Y, C. has progressed. After the 
foundation was laid there was a long delay owing to the 
contractors not being able to get the iron work, but as 
that was received it was soon set up and then the walls 
were erected. The workmen hurried because they wanted 
to get the building roofed before the fine weather breaks 
up. The building is now roofed in and men are at work 
on the interior. Some slight modifications have_ been 
made in the original plans, but only in the way of simpli- 
fying the arrangements and the decorations. It is ex- 
pected that the new house will be finished early in the 
spring and will be formally opened before the next yacht- 
ing season begins. It will be one of the handsomest in the 
club house district. It occupies three lots on West Forty- 
fourth street, and will be a fitting home for the largest 
yachting organization in the country. The models of 
Columbia and Shamrock have been placed in the model 
room of the present club house of the New York Y. C. 
■ and have attracted considerable attention. Columbia's 
model is hung over that of Shamrock and one can easily 
see the difference in the form of the two yachts. — New 
York Sun, 
Capt. George Washington Comstock, one of the best 
known yachtsmen along the Atlantic coast, died suddenly 
at New London oji Nov. 21 while hauling his 
favorite sloop out for the winter season. Capt. Comstock 
was sixty-nine years old, and spent the greater part of 
his life as a fisherman and yachtsman. He was the 
youngest of seven brothers who were born in the old Com- 
stock homestead, New London. All of the boys took to 
the water in their early life, and "Wash," as he was 
familiarly called, like the rest, followed fishing when a 
young man. He became captain of a smack and later, as 
did his brothers, turned his attention to yachting. He 
was master of the schooner j^acht Sylva for many years 
and later commanded a steam yacht. While in charge 
of the Sylva he contested with three of his brothers to 
see. which j'acht should be chosen to meet the Cambria, 
which came aci-oss the ocean in 1870 to battle for the 
America Cup. In that preparatory race, besides Capt. 
Comstock there were Capt. Peter, in the Phantom ; Capt. 
Nelson, in the Columbia, and Capt. Andrew J. Com- 
stock, in the Magic, The latter was selected as the de- 
fender. Quite a number of years ago Capt. Comstock 
gave up the water and branched out in the meat business. 
In October, 1894, he was chosen a member of the police, 
and has acted as patrolman and station house keeper, 
holding the latter position at the time of his death. Of 
the six brothers with whom he was brought up, only 
tsvo, Andrew J. and Horace T.. survive him. Of three 
sisters, only one, Mrs. Eliza Etsell, of Brooklyn, is living. 
Capt Com"stock is survived by his wife and two sons. 
George W. and Clarence. The caotain was a member of 
Union Lodge No. 31. F- and A. M. Coincident with the 
sudden death of Capt. Comstock was the funeral 
of Capt. J&mes Crandall, aged seventy-two, who was 
drowned in the harbor three weeks ago. His sloop was in 
colHsion with the British schooner Wanderian. Capt. 
Crandall' s body was found near East Hampton last 
week and brought here for burial by steamer on Monday 
afternoon. He also was a skillful sailing master and had 
commanded yachts. — New York Sun. 
Endymion, schr., built at Lonbey & Sons' yard for 
George Lord Day from designs by Tarns & Lemoine, was 
launched on Nov. 18. 
The schooner yacht Duen, Countess Schimmelmann, 
of Copenhagen, is at the Erie Basin, New York, where 
she will remain for some time, her owner doing mission 
work among the seamen of the port. Last winter was 
spent in Chicago in similar work. 
A deed was filed on Nov. 17 by which J- Pierpont 
Morgan and Lewis Cass Ledyard transfer to the New 
York Y. C. the property on the north side of Forty-fourth 
street, 370ft. east of Sixth avenue, with plot 75 by 100.5 
for a nominal consideration. The stamps attached to the 
deed show the value of the property to be $148,000. This 
is the property which Mr. Morgan presented to the yacht 
club several months ago as the site for a new club hovrse, 
which is now in the course of construction. 
American Canoe Association, 1 899- 1 900. 
Commodore, W. G. MacKendrick, 200 Eastern avenue, Toronto, 
Can. 
Secretary-Treasurer, Herbert Begg, 24 King street, Toronto, Can. 
Librarian, W. P. Stephens, Thirty-second street and avenue A, 
Bayonne, N. J. 
Division Officers. 
ATLANTIC DIVISION. 
Vice-Corn., H. C. Allen, Trenton, N. J. 
Rear-Com., Lewis H. May, New York. 
Purser, Arthur H. Wood, Trenton, N. J. 
CENTRAL DIVISION. 
Vice-Corn.. John S. Wright, Rochester, N. Y. 
Rear-Com., Jesse J. Armstrong, Rome, N. Y. 
Purser, C. Fred Wolters, 14 East Main street, Roche,?ter, N. Y. 
EASTERN DIVISION. 
Vice-Corn., Frank A. Smith Worcester, Mass. 
Rear-Cora., Louis A. Hall, Boston, Mass. 
Purser, Frederick Coulson, 405 Main street, Worcester, Mass. 
NORTHERN DIVISION. 
Vice-Com., J. McD. Mowatt, Kingston, Ont., Can. 
Rear-Com., E. C. Woolsey, Ottawa, Ont., Can. 
Purser, J. E. Cunningham, Kingston, Ont., Can. 
WESTERN DIVISION. 
Vice-Com., Wm. C. Jupp, Detroit, Mich. 
Rear-Com.. F. B. Huntington, Milwaukee, Wis, 
Purser, Frederick W. Dickens, 1306 Grand avenue, Milwaukee, 
Wis. 
Regatta Committee: R. Easton Burns, Kingston, Ont., Can., 
chairman; Herbert Begg, Toronto; D. B. Goodsell, Yonkers, N. Y. 
Meet of 1900, Muskoka Lake Aug. 3-17. 
Official organ, Forest and Stkeam. 
A Few Stray Leaves from the 
Log of the Frankie. 
BY THE COMMODORE. 
We found the dam at the Hazard mill repaired and 
in good condition, as indeed all of the fish dams and 
mill dams along the river appear to be this year, the 
prolonged low water affording the needed opportunity. 
We usually shoot this dam without trouble, but to-day 
we found no available shoot, and were obliged to make 
a portage, which was easily done by shooting the canoes 
by hand over the old broken-down fish trap in the dam 
after they were lightened of our weight'. We had ex- 
pected to camp here at the Hazard mills, but on landing 
below the dam to prospect for an available camp site 
absolutely none was found — the sandy bank was densely 
overgrown with willows and weeds, and there was no 
water nearer than the mill, which is not on the river, 
but on the smaller arm to the left of the broad island 
which lies here; and as the mill was nearly half a mile 
away it was unanimously voted unavailable; so we re- 
luctantly re-embarked and pushed on down, scanning the 
bariks closely as v^e proceeded, hoping to discover a 
spring and room, to camp near it. We had a troublesome 
time negotiating the rough, intricate falls, which ex- 
tend for half a mile or more below the dam, and all 
had to disembark more than once before we succeeded 
in working through them. 
Around the bend to the right, a couple of miles below, 
we sighted an old house not far from the river, and as it 
was rapidly growing dark, and we could at least get water 
here, we decided to land and make the best of it. In- 
vestigation developed a peculiarly unfavorable location, 
but a camp was finally made. Lacy's and the Doctor's 
canoes were carried up on top of the high bank, where 
they lay completely hidden from sight in the weeds and 
high stubble of an old wheat field; George's canoe was 
laid out on a little gravel spit projecting from a little 
gully in the bank, her stern Ij^ing up in the gully, while 
her bow dipped down into the water, the boat bang at 
such a steep angle that George had to dig his elbows 
and toes into her ribs all night to keep from fetching 
away bodily down into her extreme bow, while I made 
up my camp with my canoe afloat for the night, securely 
moored to the bank by her bow and stern painters. 
The camp stove was buried in the weeds and stubble, 
and getting supper proved to be a matter of some little 
difficulty. To crown my discomfort, the wind chopped 
aroitnd after I had the fire made and the supper well 
under way, and I had the smoke and draft from the stove- 
pipe squarely in my face, To cap the climax, just as I 
had finished the coffee and was reaching for it to set it 
off the stove, T managed to upset the lid off the coffee- 
pot into the frying pan full of eggs, and to drop the 
dirty, greasy, smutty old rag I had been usiiig all through 
the cruise to handle the hot cooking utensils with, into 
the pot of boiling coffee. With a volley of forceful and 
expressive l^g^iage (quite unfit for publication, George 
says, but perhaps excusable under the circumstances), I 
kicked the coffee pot off the stove on one side, and the fry- 
ing pan on the other. Lacy, who wa.s beautifyuig himself 
for supper, retired behind his tent to laugh ; the Doctor 
took a walk down the bank for the same purpose, while 
George stood his ground and hee-hawed like an in- 
fernal donkey until he could have been heard across the 
river. A fresh start was made, and supper finally ac- 
complished by lantern light. The place was unanimously 
and not inappropriately named Camp Damnation. 
I enjoyed the sensation of sleeping afloat last night, 
and a very peculiar one it was. After getting in there, 
was a good deal of moving around to do, in getting 
things arranged for the night, and at every turn or motion 
the canoe rocked violently, and the same care was of 
course necessary to prevent a capsize that is required in 
running the boat. The close quarters and the rocking 
and swaying of my little canopy gave me a decidedly sea- 
sick sensation, and I felt quite qualmish until I was 
snugly and comfortably ensconced in my blankets, when 
the boat lay still enough; but all night, at every move or 
turn, the canoe would sway and rock from side to side. 
Take it all in all, the experiment was a success, and I 
quite enjoyed it. 
After breakfast this morning a formidable looking, 
heavily bearded mountaineer, heavily armed and hor- 
ribly reel- footed, accompanied by two or three big, 
strapping, well-armed boys and as many dogs, was ob- 
served bearing down on the camp. Consternation pre- « 
vailed for a few moments, as we were not hunting for 
trouble; but we stood our ground, never having ex- 
perienced anything but kindness and good-will from the 
natives on our several cruises before. The party on 
joining us proved to be both harmless and good- natured, 
for on ray remarking that we had taken the liberty of 
squatting on his land over night and hoped he had no 
objections, he replied that he had none whatever, and 
that we were perfectly welcome. They were on squirrel 
hunting intent, and watched our packing and departure 
with great interest. 
The muddy water barely reached us last night, and we 
passed out of it this morning in a couple of hours and 
into water of marvelous purity, such aS we have rarely 
seen, even in this beautiful mountain river. The day's 
cruise was short— only ten miles to our camp at the 
mouth of Flint Creek, where we arrived at about 1:30. 
We waded up the soft, muddy creek to the spring in its 
right bank, about .50 yards above the river, where we 
took lunch, after which we went leisurely into camp 
and went a-fishing for the rest of the afternoon.^ The 
event of the day's cruise was the successful running of 
ihe vast expanse of reefs known as McCoy's Falls. _ 
The river is extremely broad — nearly half a mile in 
places — and correspondingly shallow, and at such a low 
stage the water is so thin that the following of the boat 
channel is a matter of necessity, and even then the falls 
are hard enough to navigate. The channel goes in at the 
head of the falls, close up under the left bank, and is 
very plain for half a mile, when it veers out into the 
middle of the river and goes through a long, intricate 
series 01 reefs and small grassy islands in a long, nar- 
row, rippling mill race of a canal about looyds. long, 
after which it continues on down more or less closely to 
the right bank. We have heretofore always failed to hit 
just the place where it veers out, and have gone too far 
down and have gotten tangled hopelessly in the reefs, 
Avhere all that could be done was to wade and lift and 
drag the canoes around, over and among the reefs until 
the channel was regained, when we have had_ the pro- 
voking experience of looking up that rippling little canal 
from below; and the last time we had that experience 
I vowed that neict time I would run down that channel 
if I had to drag my canoe back up over the reefs and 
start over again; so this cruise, having previously taken 
my bearings and noted well the appearance of the reef — 
an interminable series of rocks and grassy islands, ^which 
seem to completely hlock the river— I paddled out care- 
fully above it, and after a little search soon found the 
head of the canal, and we had the pleasure of dancing 
down over its rippling surface. We finally worked 
through the rest of the falls successfully, although at the 
expense of innumerable hang-ups for each and all of us 
in the shallow boat channels. 
As we approached the old stone dam at the head_ of 
the short, steep rapid a mile below the, falls, caution 
was necessary, and considerable reconnoitering was 
(lone by standing up in the canoes. The water was so 
pure and transparent that every pebble and grain of sand 
on the rough, rocky, uneven bottom- — ^in 6 to loft. of 
water— was visible, and it made all of us curiou§ly dizzy 
as we glided along so far above the ground, apparently 
suspended in air. 
Investigation revealed the fact that care must be 
exercised here. The river pitched boisterously down a 
steep, rocky incline, about lOoyds. in length, with an 
old stone dam at the head of the falls. George went down 
first to kodak the rest 01 us. He hung heavily on the 
old dam, and had to disembark in order to get off, but 
made the rest of the descent without special difficulty, 
I slipped over the dam successfully and made the run in 
safety at the expense of a few bumps from the rocks. 
Lacy got one or two heavy thumps before he reached 
the still water below, while the Doctor got down with 
his canoe right side up, but full of water, having nearly 
ripped the bottom out of her in coming over the dam. 
His canoe was baled out and he managed to keep her 
afloat till we reached our camp at Flint Creek, where, 
after lunch, she was inverted, when four or five long 
cuts were revealed all in a row, showing that she had 
had a tremendous rake from a sharp rock. Repairs were 
quickly and easily made after the canoe had thoroughly 
dried out in the sun. 
As we approached a long series of reefs, half a mile 
above Bloomery, which seemed to extend clear across 
the river, we noticed a tall, Apollo-like darky, with as 
villainous a face as I ever saw, propelling a long, flat 
punt with the usual long pole, a little way ahead of us. 
He was a graceful cuss, and we couldn't help admiring 
his splendid physical proportions and the careless ease 
with which he sent his cumbersome craft over the water 
as he stood on the stern thwart wielding his long pole, 
albeit we voted that we would not care to meet him alone 
on a dark night if he thought we had the price of a drink 
about our persons. He gazed at us curiously and with 
interest as we approached. Not caring to go to the 
trouble of hunting out the boat chg^nnel, I inadvertently 
