March i6, 1901.]' 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
213 
Notice. 
All communications intended for Forest akd STm»AM should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and 
not to any individual connected with the paper. 
'Mid Reef and Rapid. 
r 
BY F. R. WEBB. 
III. 
We found nothing exciting "or adventurous in our first 
day's cruise, however, for the water was so unusually low 
that we were able to get our canoes down the river after 
a fashion, and that was all: All day we worked slowly 
along, most of the time not exceeding a mile an hour; 
generally out in the water, lifting our canoes over the 
ledges or off the rocks, and even when we had water 
enough to float us in them it was still and currentless 
and full of ledges which reached nearly to the surface, or 
projected above, in long, irregular, parallel lines, and we 
had to paddle slowly and cautiously along, weaving in 
and out among the intricacies of the reefs, which fortu- 
nately could be plainly seen everywhere through the clear 
water. At all of the fish dams and at the numerous 
rapids, where the ledgbs constituted natural falls of several 
feet in height, we were obliged to portage the canoes by 
lifting them carefully over and down the obstructions." 
much as we would ordinarily portage a mill dam, and 
there were no exciting shoots and jumps such as delight 
the heart of the cruiser. 
North River is a bold, swift stream, abounding in falls 
and rapids, with high bluff-like banks, and with, here and 
there, great masses of cliffs overhanging the water, and 
with frequent curious, shell-like limestone reefs of gigantic 
size, projecting their thin, knife-like edges from the sides 
of the bluffs, far out beyond the-line of trees, or towering 
aloft in fantastic, chimney-like spires, high up among the 
tree-tops. The general trend of the river is directly 
across the valley, toward the Blue Ridge; and although 
some twelve or fifteen miles distant, these mountains 
loomed up before us majestically, pretty much all day., 
their tree-cloth€*-buttresses and spurs gleaming brightly 
in the sun, and thrown into relief in contrast with the 
dark, shadowj* gorges between. The scenery along the 
rivei?,:-with its wider pastoral and mountain views, is very 
beautiful; which, taken with its rapids and falls, makes of 
it an ideal cruising stream; for the falls and rapids, while 
swift, rough and exciting, are entirely within the ability 
of the average canoeist, and 'at an ordinary stage of water 
this first day's cruise would have afforded us rare sport; 
but at the present stage the water trickled through the 
stones of the fish dams, leaving their entire crests bare, 
and rippled in a thin, bright, transparent sheet down over 
the faces of the reefs, or danced in miniature wavelets 
down the slopes usually covered by the rapids, with an 
occasional channel where a canoe, by good management, 
and not a little rubbing and scraping and bumping, was 
worked down without its crew being compelled to dis- 
embark. ' '-^'t-jilSf 
It by no means followed, however, that becatise we 
were deprived of all our hoped-ior sport in shooting 
these rapids and falls we found the cruising dull, or that 
we didn't have any fun. On the contrary, the day's run, 
was full of fun and enjoyment; and no party of school- 
boys out for an afternoon's holiday could, have had a 
better time or more sport than we got out of the day's 
cruise: for the ludicrous mishaps and misadventures in- 
cidental to the stage of water — none of them:in_the least 
serious, or of a character to cause particular discomfort 
or inconvenience — that were continually occurring, caused 
constant merriment and furnished an endless amount of 
amusement; and the cheerful jibe, the lightsbme chaff and 
the encouraging badinage dropped harmlessly aroirifd and 
enlivened the cruise; while the luckless George was a 
score of times roundly berated for forgetting the Jcodak, 
which would have been of inestimable value on this^day's 
cruise. 
Of course we were all the time wet, as to our feet and 
lower limbs; but as the water was warm and the day was 
hot. this, so far from being a source of discomfort, was a 
positive luxury, and but added to our pleasure; and^as 
our costumes— consisting as they, did of flannel shirts, 
short woolen knee trousers or -knickerbockers, long 
woolen stockings and canvas shoes,,, heavily hobnailed^ to 
insure a firm footing among the rocks and on the slip- 
pery edges of mill dams, the whole crowned with a light 
straw helmet — were specially adapted for this work, no- 
inconvenience or discomfort arose from it, beyond the 
comparatively unimportant one of getting the floor- 
boards of our canoes wet and more or less muddy from 
the constant stepping in and out. 
It., speaks well for the strength and durability of our 
canvas canoes that none of them were in the least injured 
hy the constant bumping and scraping they received; not- 
' witfiStahding the fact that many of the reefs and detached 
masses of rock with which the river bed was profusely 
studded were so honeycombed that they looked like huge 
petrified sponges, and their sharp edges and innumerable 
points and corners were rough, raspy and cutting to the 
last degree, and wounded and scarified the hands and 
fingers if grasped even lightly. 
We reached the Rockland Dam at i o'clock, and a 
portage was quickly and easily made by sliding the canoes 
ov-^er the crest o*^ the dam. which stood up, baked hard 
and dry in the hot sun, a foot or more out of the water, 
clear across the river. Lacy and I stood on the crest of 
the dam and slid the boats OA'er, while George and the 
Colonel stood on the apron below and let them down 
and slid them into the currentless pool below. Most of 
the water — all that did not find its way through the in- 
terstices of the dam — went down the mill race; and the 
short and usually swift and deep rapid below was all but 
dry. 
We beached our canoes on the gravel bar at the head 
of this riffle and Avaded ashore, pulling the boats up after 
us, after which the hatches were opened up and, taking 
out our mattresses-, camp stools, pipes and tobacco, or 
cigars — according to the taste and fancy of the smoker — 
^?]ff 6??!f* f° J^^% ^^^^ WM whicli pq^t^in?4 
an ample lunch of cold boiled ham, tongue, hard-boiled 
eggs, cheese, biscuits, butter, jelly, pickles, etc., we re- 
paired to a shady bank not far from the mill; and after 
Lacy had procured a bucket of water from a farmhouse 
near by we proceeded to satisfy the somewhat clamorous 
and insistent inner men of the party. After lunch an 
hour or more was most comfortably and profitably spent, 
^at on our backs, on our mattresses, our heads .ind 
■ghoulders supported by our air pillows and camp stools, 
with books and smoking materials, the which more than 
one of us forgot in a delicious little siesta. 
1 use the word profitably advisedly, for nothing is more 
refreshing and bea&fi^^l to the cruiser, after a hard 
morning's work— particti,larly in a hot sun (and our sun 
to-day was more than hot— it; Was broiling) — than a pro- 
longed rest an<l:^iesta about the middle of the day, or 
a little after; after which, particularly in very hot weather, 
the evening run should be short and an early camp made. 
After the ;canoes were packed, George rigged up his 
5x8 Anthony camera and took a view of them and of 
the river — or, rather, of what river there was to view; 
after which^ each man picked up the stern of his canoe 
and shoved her, bowfir.st, down over the rocky bar, into the 
■deeper water below, wading alongside until she was clear 
of the. bar. and- welT- afloat, when he carefully disposed 
himself after the usual manner in his seat with wet, drip- 
ping feet htang one over each side of the canoe, to let the 
water drip back into the river where it was needed, in- 
stead of into the' canoe, where it was certainly not needed. 
•. We Jiad good water on down to the Brubeck Dam, a 
'jtiile and a half below, the one or two little rifts being 
.'easily run, and had' a rather tedious portage over this 
' i\s}y, raggedr^drift-cove'red dam; and the mile and a half 
between here and theWnouth of Middle River was worked 
-■over with not a little difficulty, as the river spreads out 
■to -Considerabk- width, and is correspondingly shallow; 
snd it is safeTo say that we walked over half the distance, 
until we reached the broad, deep pool forming the beau- 
" tiful .sheet of water at the confluence of the two rivers. 
.A. quarter-of a mile below the union of the two streams 
is a big, rough stone dam, built in accordance with the 
curjcms custom of the natives to form a ford; although 
just wliat the dam has to do with the ford we have never 
yet be'en able to determine, beyond the fact that since 
the road crosses above the dam it deepens the water, to 
what purpose we are unable to discover. At any rate, 
- .the_ dam .i,s. Tery-i^rtuch in evidence, with a rough fall of 
several feet, and some two or three canoe lengths in 
extent 
- -3W&-.had considerable fun with Lacy at this dam. Lacy, 
with commendable but mistaken originality, had not fol- 
lowed the rest of us down the regular shoot over the 
dam, but had tacjded it in a new place; and he was dis- 
covered with HTs canoe hanging broadside on the verge 
of the dam. while he was knee deep in the water on the 
upper side, vainly tugging, pulling, lifting and swearing 
agamst the flow of the water that held her there, his 
equanimity in nowise enhanced by the advice, good, bad 
and indifferent, which was liberally bestowed on him by 
his comrades, rounded to below to see him through. 
_ He finally got his bow pointed down stream over the dam 
and succeeded in shoving and bitmping his unlucky canoe 
down into deeper water below, where he soon joined us; 
and after a little further advice, to the eft'ect that it is 
a,lways easier to run a canoe over a dam where the water 
was deepest, and that it was not as a rule successfully 
.accomplished over the almost bare rocks, we let him off. 
"This is the place where I used my sail, on our '86 
cruise," said I, half a mile below, as we got ottt of our 
canoes and took a walk, dragging the canoes after us, 
over and among the flat reefs which here extend clear 
across the river, with so little water over them that a 
barefooted bov might easily have picked his way across 
from bank to bank without wetting his ankles. 
"It doesn't look much like sailing water along here," 
said the Colonel, stepping out of his canoe again, as she 
slid gently up onto another reef and came to a stop, 
whde the Colonel, with one foot on either side of the 
canoe, and grasping his gunwales with both hands, man- 
aged to. work;;:heF-over into deeper water below, with a 
series of ludicrous, ungraceful jerks, bumps and shoves. 
Lacy called it doing the bullfrog act, and more than once 
took occasioii to assure the Colonel that it was lots more 
work and trouble than to step clear out of the boat along- 
•side^ once for all, and, picking it up by the stern, shove 
-1^ . bow firsts gently and steadily over the obstruction; 
while George had frequentiv, during the day, suffered 
contumely and. abuse from botli Lacy, and myself for not 
having that kodak just when the Colonel was particularlv 
agile and graceful in his efforts. 
"Well, no," I admitted; "I don't think a sail would be 
- particularly usefutJiere. In fact, my experience leads 
me to believe that both sails and rudders are superfluities 
anywhere on the Shenandoah, and that they are simply 
m the way. You can easily imagine how long a rudder 
would hang on a boat in such water as this; and even on 
good water it would be sure to be knocked off in jump- 
ing the reefs and fish dams. On the occasion I speak of, 
however, there was not only good water, but you will 
remember that the slack water from the Rippetoe Dam— 
which is now broken nut— at that time covered all these 
reefs, and backed up in a noble, lake-like sheet of water 
clear over^ that dam back there, below Middle River.' 
where Lacy hung up. It was the first and last time I 
ever used a sail on the Shenandoah, and Hi' 
What's that. Sonny? Cantaloups? Why, certainlyl" 
said I, driving my canoe ashore, in answer to the hail of 
a httle group of small boys, the guardian angels of an 
adjacent melon patch, who were standing on the bank, 
watching us pass, in open-mouthed astonishment and 
admiration. A dime readily procured half a dozen nice 
cantaloups, which were distributed around wherever was • 
most convenient, in my canoe, until we should reach our 
evening camping place, at the big spring at Rippetoes, 
which was but a couple of miles below, 
. [to be continued.] 
A flintlock gun containing a load of irregularly cut 
lead slugs was fished out of a lime water spring in Vir- 
ginia last month in almost perfect preservation. It is 
supposed to have been in the bottom of the spring for 
at least fifty years, and to have been preserved by thfs 
gheri^ic^l fctm of the |irn? y/^^y^ ^ _ 
Our Boston Letter. 
Boston^ March 9. — Thomas W. Lawson gave out a 
statement to the press to-night in which he perfectly 
defines his position with regard to the New York Y. G. 
and his intentions in regard to the future sailing pos- 
sibilities of Independence. His statement is very clear 
and is of the straightforward kind that sportsmen like to 
read. He makes no excuses whatever for building his 
yacht, and allows that it is the right of any American 
gentleman to build whatever kind of boat he likes and sail 
her where he chooses. 
He starts from the very beginning and tells the reasons 
why he determined to build the Cup defender. Boston 
yachtsmen wanted a Boston designed and built boat, 
owned by Boston parties, and, as he had reason to believe 
that the boat which Mr. Cfowninshield drew the lines 
for would be one that every Bostonian would be proud 
of, he felt no hesitancy in furnishing the necessary cash to 
make her a reality. He said that he gave it to be under- 
stood that all responsibility connected with the boat 
was his alone, with the exception of the construction. 
In regard to a certain feeling among some people that he 
would be at a large expense for nothing, Mr. Lawson 
pertinently quotes the old English proverb, "Never lose 
sleep about the pepper in your neighbor's snuff box, it is 
he who does the sneezing." 
Mr. Lawson allows that he is not a member of the New 
York Y. C, and also allows that there are a number of* 
Americans, of more or less influence, who are not mem- 
bers of any yacht club. He infers that the reason for his 
not being a member is because he has not filed any such 
application, a statement which is at variance with com- 
mon reports that have been circulated. He says that at 
the time when he ordered Independence built he did not 
contemplate joining the New York Y. C. 
In regard to the future possibilities of his boat, Mr. 
Lawson makes the following statement, the sense of 
which will appeal to all: "When my boat is finished I 
will cause to be announced, in as pleasing language as 
I am capable of using, that I am ready to race under any 
fair conditions against any boat in American waters ; that 
I prefer to race against Columbia and the new boat which 
Mr. Herreshoff is building. If one or both of these 
boats will meet Independence, I will be pleased. . I will 
not quibble as to time, place or conditions — in fact^ will 
agree to any conditions that the New York Y. C. or any 
club or association composed of Am.erican sportsmen de- 
cide to be fair. If Independence should lose, I will con- 
gratulate the owners of the boat beating her; if she wins, I 
will be happy, and I will ask that Independence be al- 
lowed to defend the America Cup, and if it is decided by 
those who have the right to decide that there is some 
reason which makes it impossible to defend the Cup, 1 
will cheerfully withdraw such request." 
All kinds of rumors have been in circulation in regard 
to certain possible ways in which Mr. Lawson might 
overthrow the possibility of Independence not competing 
in the trial races. It has been suggested that he could 
enter her in the name of some friend who is a member of 
the New York Y. C, and several statements have been 
made to the effect that he would do this thing. Mr, 
Lawson knocks all these calculations to the winds in 
his statement. Touching on this point he shows that he 
is made of the true kind of American stuff in the follow- 
ing words : 
"In regard to the statements printed that, under certain 
conditions, I would resort to the subterfuge of allowing 
some one else, who had no ownership in my boat, to be 
proclaimed her owner for the sake of being allowed to 
race, I can only say I regret there is any one connected 
•with yachting so unmanly as to think this possible. No 
one has ever suggested such a thing to me, and perhaps 
it is well no one has made that mistake. Of course T 
want to have Independence race. If she does not I suppose 
the tides_ will come in and go out, and all good Boston 
sailors will go down to the sea in ships the same as hereto- 
fore, but rather than resort to the method suggested to 
obtain a race I would, without regret, sink Independence 
on her launching day, turning her sternpost into a perma- 
nent beacon for the guidance of future New England 
sailor men." 
In justice to Mr. Lawson, it must be stated that the 
issuing of this statement was really forced upon him by 
the various reports which have been circulated in regard 
to the possible methods he would adopt. He has been 
placed in a very unenviable position by these suggestions 
and it would have been a very easy matter for many to 
judge his intentions wrongly. It must be very surprising 
to those who have put a false light on his motives to find 
such a manlj-, straightforward statement coming from 
him. 
The Executive Committee of the Hull-Massachusetts 
Y. C. has selected the committee which will conduct and 
control the races for the 90- footers, 70-footers and other 
large classes and fishermen for the cups and prizes offered 
by Thomas W. Lawson, to be competed for under the 
■rules of the Hull-Massachusetts Y. C. These names were 
suggested to the Executive Committee by Thomas W. 
Lawson, and were immediately adopted. It is under- 
stood that 'all of the men have signified their intentions to 
serve. The following men have been selected ; James R. 
Hooper, Louis M. Clark, Henry Bryant, E. V. R. Thaj^er! 
William Otis Gay, George H. Richards, W. E. C. Eustisj 
C. E. Hodge, Henry S. Grew, 2d, and Francis Gray. 
These men comprise some of the best known yachtsmen 
not only in Massachusetts, but in the country. They are 
all men of wide experience, who are capable of conducting 
races in the most approved manner. Some of them have 
been identified with former Cup defenders and all are 
thorough racing men. The Hull-Massachusetts is fortu- 
nate in securing such a committee to take charge of the 
races. 
Mr. Lawson particularly specified that the proposed 
races for the prizes which he has offered will not take 
place until after the close of the regular racing season. 
By doing this he has taken no chances in interfering with 
other club dates, and leaves every opportunity for the 
yachts to be present. The dates set will probably be soon 
aft?r th.§ raping seasori closes, |)robably about the secop^ 
