292 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aran. la, igoi. 
this point of junctioii in Rockingham county, with the 
dilapidated little village of Port Republic nestled in the 
forks, with a river on either side, the three crystal-pure 
mountain streams lose their individuality and become the 
bright, sparkling Shenandoah (South Fork), the "Beauti- 
ful Daughter of the Stars" of the Indians, which winds its 
sinuoits. silvery way along dowiT the base of the Blue 
Ridge for lOO miles, vainly seeking an outlet to the sea, 
until, mingling it? waters with those of the Potomac, the 
two united streams burst their way through the mighty 
barrier at the point of junction in the world-famous gorge 
at Harper's Ferry. 
These streams are all navigable for canoes, even at the 
lowest stages, excepting, perhaps, the Augusta South 
River. The waters are usually clear and of a slaty blue 
tint, but are apt to get very muddy after heavy rains, the 
color then being of an ugly brick red from the Virginia 
red clay soil. 
As is natural in a mountain stream of this character, the 
entire bed of the river from the sources of its triple head 
streams to its final swift, glad union with the Potomac is 
literally ribbed and seamed with great limestone reefs or 
"saw-tooth" ledgeSi Owing to its very considerable de- 
scent, the river abounds in rapids and falls, some of which 
are several miles in extent, and in all of which, the ledges 
and reefs play a particularly prominent part. They seem 
to generally run in a course parallel with the moun- 
tains, or directlj^ up and down the valley; consequently 
wlien the rapids occur in reaches of the river that lie hi 
the general line of the valley, they are bold, open, swift 
rushes of water, always liberally bestrewn with rocks and 
reefs, of course, but as these occur in more or less regu- 
lar lines, which run with the stream, they form but little 
obstruction and are not difficult to avoid. Where, how- 
ever, the rapids occur — as is frequently the case, particu- 
larly in that part of the river between Massanutton and 
Riverton — in the reaches that lie directly across the val- 
ley, they then present peculiar difficulties, as the reefs and 
ledges appear in innumerable parallel lines directly across 
the river, more or less regular in their formation, and the 
falls or rapids, instead of being bold and open, become 
simply so many little pools and falls, the river being liter- 
ally terraced. It would be impossible to safely navigate 
many of these places were it not for the boat channel — 
an artificial relic of the days before the Shenandoah Val- 
ley Railroad was built along the river and down the 
valley, when all the products of the numerous mills and 
mines of this fertile region found their only outlet to a. 
market by means of the river, being carried down in 
gondolas (or "Gunaloes," as the common fiatboats are 
termed in local parlance) to Front Royal or Harper's 
Ferry, where railroads were reached, and at which point 
the boats were sold for lumber, while the crews returned 
home overland. 
The Blue Ridge section of the Appalachian system 
presents a curious feature in that being a part of this gen- 
eral system of mountains, and presenting the same parallel 
chain^ yet it stands so far off from the other mountain 
ranges as to present a separate range by itself. It pre- 
serves a general average distance of about twenty to thirty 
miles from the nearest parallel range on the west, and the 
broad, beautiful, fertile valley lying between is designated 
in different sections by various names, as north of the 
Potomac and across Pennsylvania it is called the Cum- 
berland Valley, while south of thp James and across the 
Carolinas it is known as the Valley. 
Nowhere in its whole extent, however, is it so beauti- 
ful, so fertile and so salubrious as in that portion which 
lies across the Virginias from the Augusta county high- 
lands to the Potomac, which is designated as the Shenan- 
doah Valley, or in local State parlance "the Valley." 
With an elevation averaging throughout its extent con- 
siderably over I Gooft., its climate is pleasant and salu- 
brious. Malaria is unknown, its atmosphere is always 
bracing, even in the hottest weather, while, protected by 
its massive mountain walls, its winters are mild, and 
severe and destructive storms are warded off. With its 
rolling floor and general downward trend toward the 
Potomac, its drainage is perfect, the considerable fall of 
the risers and streams quickly carrying off all surplus 
waters. 
The valley is drained by the two Shenandoahs and 
their tributaries, which, owing to the close proximity of 
the mountains on either side, while numerous, are all 
small, there being no room to develop length or size. 
A peculiar geological feature is presented in the Mas- 
sanutton Mountains — a complete, isolated range, standing 
out in the valley and dividing it into two unequal parts. 
This range rises abruptly from the valley in the south- 
ern part of Rockingham, and extends in bold, rugged 
peaks and parallel ranges some fifty or sixty miles down 
toward the Potomac, where it sinks into tlie plain again 
as abruptly as it rises, the peaks at either end looking 
remarkably alike. 
The great strategist, Stonewall Jackson, was thoroughly 
familiar with this topographical feature, and made effect- 
ive use of it in his memorable and remarkable valley cam- 
pa'gns. and played hide and seek around and among 
thfir fastnesses in a thanner both bewildering and detri- 
mental to the Northern invaders. The Confederate signal 
"stations on the peaks at the ends of the range were 
familiar institutions at intervals throughout the war. 
Although, as a rule, not so lofty as the neighboring 
peaks and domes of the Blue Ridge, from which they 
are seoarated by the narrow Page, or Luray. Valley, not 
over from three to six miles in width, the Massanutton 
Moitntains are much more rugged, precipitous and wdld, 
and add much to the picturesque beauty of the land- 
scapes. The beautiful and diversified panorama of rich, 
green forests, rolling fields, sparkling, rippling rivers and 
bold, rugged mountain peaks, with the gentle, soft blue 
background of the more distant ranges anxi ridges, the 
prospect changing with every elevation or from every 
point of view, make un a re.gion unsurpassed for exquisite 
beauty of scenery, perhans, in America. 
As before stated, the North Fork ri-es among the moun- 
tains west of Rockingham, and winds down through the 
broader Shenandoah Valley west of and along the base of 
the Massanutton Mountains and passed close around the 
base of its northern peaks to unite at Riverton with the 
South Fork, Or main stream, which, after drawing its 
primary supplies in Augusta county from the entire 
breadth of the valley, from the pastoral slopes of tlje 
• -glue Ri4ge 9f}- f|^e p>|»s| |Q 1^ '^'.14 f^stn^sse^ pI Osf; 
Alleghanies on the west, and draining pretty much the 
entire broad surface of the county through its triple head 
streams, takes its sinuous course down the narrow defile 
between the Blue Ridge and the Massanutton Mouiitains, 
descending more than 500ft. in its fifty miles' extent. 
The entire fall of the river proper, from Port Republic 
to Harper's Ferry, a distance of ninety miles in an air 
line, but in which distance the river develops a length of 
156 miles, is 797ft. The river may be divided into three 
nearly equal lengths or sections, for convenience in de- 
scribing. From Port Republic to Massanutton, opposite 
Luray, which lies three miles inland, a distance of forty- 
nine miles, the fall is 304ft., and except for the backsets 
from the numerous mill dams and an occasional eddy, the 
river is practically one continuous rapid. In this section 
of the river jt is, while very winding, not so tortuous in 
its course as it becomes lower down, and as the trend of 
the river is more lengthwise of the valley, without so 
much zigzagging back and forth across it, it happens that 
the reefs are more generally to be found running length- 
wise with the river instead of across it, consequently these 
upper rapids are more bold, free and open than those 
further down. 
The next section of the river, from Massanutton to 
Riverton, is fifty-two miles in length with a slightly 
diminished fall of 282ft. 
In this section the character of the river materially 
changes. It is remarkably crooked, the entire length be- 
ing a never-ending succession of great letter S loops back 
and forth across the narrow valley. The rapids or, more 
properly speaking, falls occur entirely in the long cross 
reaches of the river, with deep, still pools or eddies in the 
angles or bends, and, as a consequence, these rapids, in- 
stead of the bold, swift, down-hill rush of the upper 
rapids, present a bewildering' succession of long lines of 
saw-tooth ledges, which stretch across the river from 
shore to shore in more or less regular parallel lines, form- 
ing little cascades or falls of from i to 3 or 4ft. in height. 
In some few instances a single line will form a fall of 
several feet, but more generally they occur in innumer- 
able parallel lines several miles in extent. Frequent large 
masses of stone, some of them of considerable size and 
more or less overgrown with scrubby bushes and grasses, 
rise from the bed of the river and add a savage wildness 
and picturesqueness to the prospect. The boat channel, 
which is an artificial channel, blasted out through these 
reefs and ledges, is generally found close up against one 
bank or the other— so close that the passing fiatboats 
would freqiiently brush along under the overhanging trees 
—and provides a tolerably safe and very interesting run . 
down through these troublesome and often formidable 
falls, which could otherwise be navigated only at some 
ri.sk to canoe and canoeist, if at all. 
This portion of the valley does not seem to be so rich, 
prosperous and well settled as the upper portion; only 
occasional mills and houses are seen — the latter, with 
some few creditable exceptions, generally poor and small, 
and occupied chiefly by the mountaineers, and the gen- 
eral impression made by the river on the mind of the 
canoeist is one of solitude and loneliness — sometimes no 
sign of human habitation will be seen for hours at a time, 
and the constant procession of forest trees marching 
solemnly by up-stream — with the imposing, towering 
mountain walls shutting in the view at either end of the 
long reaches, and the wildness of the long falls and 
rapids, with their rugged masses of reefs and rocks 
studding- the waters, create an oppressive feeling of awe 
in the mind of the cruiser as he communes face to face 
with nature in her most beautiful but impressive aspect; 
while the only sounds that break the Sabbath-like still- 
ness are the occasional scream of a fish hawk, the far 
off cry of the loon, the rustling murmur of the breeze 
through the trcetops, and the ever present, hoarse com- 
plaint of the river, as it frets and stumbles in foam- 
crested waves over and among the illimitable ledges and 
reefs that perpetually obstruct its course. 
The third section, from Riverton to Harper's Ferry, 
between the mouth of the North Fork and the Potomac, 
comprises the Shanandoah River proper, both forks hav- 
ing now united, and embraces a length of 55 miles, with 
a fall of 211 feet, more than 100 feet of which is found in 
the lower six miles of the river, between BlOomery and 
Harper's Ferry. This short section is highly dangerous 
to any but the most expert boatmen and canoeists. The 
river is a perfect chaotic wilderness of reefs and rocks, 
and in many places becomes absolutely lost to sight 
among the huge masses of limestone — water-worn and 
gullied to an inconceivable degree — that completely fill 
its bed- around and among which the water rushes and 
roars through a labyrinth of crevices and channels, worn 
and gullied deep in the heart of the solid rock; as it cuts 
its way deep down to the ver>' foundation sills of the 
mountains — which tower aloft close at hand, on either 
side — in its irresistible course down to the bottom of the 
gorge, through which the Potomac has eaten its way 
out to the sea. . 
Above this chaotic section — from Bloomery back up to 
Riverton — the river flows broad, stately and majestic, 
broken by frequent long, beautiful rapids, most of which 
are quite rough, but owing to the boat channels, present 
no special difficulty to the practiced canoeist. 
The broadest and most beautiful, historic and interest- 
nig portion of the valley lies in this section also. The 
Massanutton Mountains have long ago ceased to divide 
the vall'iy, -ivhich here sweeps in beautiful undulations, in 
an unbroken expanse of fertile fields and beautiful wood- 
lands from the Blue Ridge to the Alleghanies; dotted 
with thrifty farmhouses and imposing old mansions, some 
of which date back to the Colonial period. Here too, at 
a later day. the contending armies of a divided nation 
swayed back and forth in a death grapple upon which 
the world looked with interest; and the battle-scarred 
towns of Strasburg, Harper's Ferry and Winchester are 
all close at hand. 
The entire stream, from Port Republic to Harper's 
Feri-}\ is exceedingly beautiful; with its bold, blufflike 
banks and rocky headlands, its grand and imposing 
mountain scenery, and its sparkling, limpid, slaty-blue 
waters, reflecting the bright rays of the sun from their 
foam-crested waves and surges. In places the river in 
its gigantic letter S loops, impinges squarely agginst the 
base of the Massanutton Mountains, whose rugged, 
rocky sides, their jiarsjiness tpned down |jy ^ dense 
growth of scrubby, hardy oak, pine, hemlock and other 
trees, tower aloft almost perpendicularly from the water 
to the summit of the range, from one to two thousand 
feet above, and in many places long lines of perpendicular 
or overhanging cliffs rear their beetling, tree-clad brows 
a couple of hundred feet or so above. the dark, still water 
at their bases; and in whose black, reflective depths they 
are faithfully pictured in an inverted position, suggesting 
mj^sterious. unfathomable depths to the beholder. 
Fierce, gamy bass abound in the entire river, clear up 
into the remote headwaters of the Augusta county forks, 
and as they usually rise readily to the fly, fine sport is 
afforded all along the river when the water is clear. 
The people living along the river are uniformly kind, 
hospitable and obliging, and supplies can readily be ob- 
tained at any farmhouse at reasonable prices, and a small 
party of canoeists might easily run the river without any 
camping outfit, by stopping at farmhouses. My first cruise 
on this stream was made alone, some years ago. It was 
a short cruise of five or six days, and during this cruise 
I only camped one night; the other nights were passed 
m farmhouses; the night's lodging, with supper and 
breakfast, being freely and cordially given me for the 
asking, with a tnie old Virginia hospitality, and on ray 
tendering payment it was in no instance accepted. 
The oldest inhabitant has no recollection of ever see- 
ing the river so low as it was on this cruise, and in all 
our experience we never found it so low; jet after enter- 
ing the Shenandoah, at Port Republic, we experienced 
but little difficulty on account of low water, although with 
from six to twelve inches more water than we had — 
which is about the usual low water stage — the cruising 
would have been much better and safer. I cannot say 
that, as a rule, we ran any very great personal risks; for 
where the water is swift and studded with rocks, it is 
correspondingly shallow, and in case of disaster we could 
doubtless have easily waded ashore, but it required great 
care and patience to preserve our frail canoes from dam- 
age, which would entail inconvenience and delay, and 
which might easity terminate the cruise. 
The river never gets so low but what it can be cruised 
without special difficult}', in a light draft canoe, handled 
by an experienced canoeist. It is, in fact, an ideal cruis- 
ing stream for the experienced canoeist, but the novice 
should, perhaps, acquire a little experience on a more 
placid stream before attempting the Shenandoah. Dame 
Nature presents a smiling face in this favored region, but 
she is stern and relentless, and is no respecter of jiersons, 
and therefore one not skilled in the management of 
canoes or not versed in the vagaries of rough, rocky 
streams had best be cautious about courting the good 
dame under such circumstances, or he will be pretty apt 
to come to grief. 
Above all let no one attempt this stream in an ordi- 
nary open skiff or rowboat. • Nearly every year parties 
from various points along or near the river, attempt to 
run it in such boats: and I have never yet heard of such 
an attempt that did not end in disaster, and in some of 
them lives have been lost. Open canoes can no doubt 
be used by those accustomed to their management, but 
when I recall how our canoes are completely buried in 
the big waves of the numerous falls and rapids — their 
decks and closed hatches alone preventing them from 
swamping — I am strongly of the opinion that the only 
suitable boat for this swift, rocky stream is a light, flat- 
bottomed, decked canoe, well rounded away at both ends, 
and without keel (other than a broad, flat, oak strip half 
an inch thick by three or four inches broad), centerboard, 
rudder or other projection on the bottom, and with die 
bottom and sides well protected with bilge keels. 
An experienced canoeist in such a canoe may safely 
and comfortably run this beautiful mountain stream on 
any water, high or low, with the exception of the few 
miles immediately above the Potomac. This should be 
avoided in high water, as it can then be run only at the 
risk of life. 
[to be continued.] 
A. G A» Membefship* 
Mr. F. H. Whiton, of Wollaston, Mass., has been pro- 
posed for membership to the Eastern Di-vdsion of the 
A. C. A. 
Mr. Frank Declinch, of New York, has been proposed 
for membership in the Atlantic Division of the A. C. A, 
ffuchting, 
— ® — 
Mr. VV. B. Duncan, Jr., has announced that the name 
of the Cup defender now being built at Herreshoff's for 
the syndicate composed of Vice-Commodore August Bel- 
mont, James Stillman, Frederick G. Bourne, Col. Oliver 
H. Payne and Henry Walters is to be Constitution, 
The Boston Globe of Sunday, April 7, in speaking of 
lUinois, says: 
The Chicago Cup defender Illinois was launched yester- 
day at Lawley's yard, and also had her first tryout under 
sail. No further trial is necessary to convince the Chicago 
men that they have the fastest boat of her inches in the 
countrjr^ but she will go out again to-day to get her rig- 
ging in easy running order. 
On board the Illinois were B. B. Crowninshield, the 
designer; George M. Pynchon, head of the syndicate that 
built the boat: Benjamin Carpenter, who made her sails; 
Morrill Dunn, one of the members of the syndicate, and 
Albert de W. Erskine and Stewart G. Shepard, Chicago 
amateurs, who will make, up the crew. 
Mr. Pynchon had the tiller, and headed his boat down 
the bay in a light southeaster, under which the water lay 
as smooth as glass. But the Illinois slid along as if she 
had auxiliary power, her speed surprising those on board 
and the large crowd of yachtsmen who were watching 
her from the shore. 
She was tried all around in the light air of the upper 
harbor, and every hitch brought out some new strong 
point. Close hanled; she stood up as squarely as when 
dinning free and ^lipped alon| f^^^, |g stays she 
