^76 
eiub if it would waive its rights to a six months' notice 
and enter a yacht against Clorita for the Fisher cup, the 
rac. to be sailed the last week in September off Charlotte. 
The Rochester Club said it would consider such a proposi- 
tion and. requested W. A. Stace to put Helene in against 
Mr. Gooderham's boat. He said that he would if he could 
get Skipper Hanson, of New York, to sail her for him. 
After long search Mr. Stace learned that Hanson was off 
'On a long cruise and would not be back for several weeks. 
Mr. Stace then decided not to enter his yacht. Mr. 
Gooderham is the owner of Invader, which won the 
Canada's cup last year. — New York Tribune. 
The English-built steam yaclit Fauvette arrived at New 
York on Sept. 26 from Southampton, via Bermuda, where 
she stopped for coal. The yacht is now in Erie Basin 
being overhauled. She is owned by Prof. J. Harvard 
Biles, of Glasgow University. Fauvette is of steel, 171.5ft. 
between perpendiculars ; i6oft. on the waterline, 22.7ft. 
beam and 15ft. deep. She has four watertight bulkheads 
and is fitted with electric light. Her engines are of the 
triple expansion type, with iSin., 30111. and 48in. in diam- 
eter by 32in. stroke. 
4^ 1^ 
Manning's Yacht Agency has been capitalized for $150,- 
000. The directors are Alfred J. Manning, Annie B. Man- 
ning and Christine Ross. 
Major Charles F. Ulrich, owner of the schooner Car- 
lotta, died of heart failure in his apartments in New York 
The last of the regattas on Long Island Sound this 
season was to have been given by the Riverside Y. C. on 
Saturday, Sept. 27. Owing to lack of wind the boats 
were unable. to complete the course, and the race was 
called oft'. 
Henry S. Parmlee died suddenly on board his schooner 
Alert on Sept. 27. The yacht Was lying oft" Bay Ridge 
and was about to start for a cruise in the West Indies. 
4^ 
Lamont G. Burnham, owner of the steam yacht Pil- 
griin and the schooner Ellsmere, died suddenly at his 
country place at Essex, Mass., on Sept. 25. 
— ^ — 
A Delaware River Cruise. 
{Concluded from last week.) 
The deepest water, as a rule, is in the center of the 
rifts in this part of the river. This is true of Mast Hope 
Falls, but in Westcolang the Pennsylvania shore should 
be hugged closely. Often there is "wild water ahead," 
to quote the natives, but at that time the river was too 
high for the bad places at other stages to be marked and 
mentioned accurately. Lackawaxen dam is at the town of 
tliat name, and below Lackawaxen Creek. One can see 
the dam from afar, as he approaches it in still, wide water. 
One need carry duffle but a short distance, letting the 
canoe run through a break in the dam. Paddling through 
IS not advised. All the river men call this town "Lacka- 
wack." It is a good point at which to obtain fresh sup- 
pies. 
Another night found us in camp on the Pike county 
shore of Pond Eddy, near the village of that name. This 
is one of the deepest and longest eddies on the Delaware. 
There are but two camp sites. We chose one twO' hun- 
dred yards above the road bridge, but even this spot was 
r;ot wholly desirable, as a road is near by. To reach the 
ether place mentioned, one must climb a high bank to the 
towpath, cross the old canal and locate under some pines 
on a sweet grassy spot. There are but few desirable 
camping spots along the New York shore between Lacka- 
waxen and Mill Rift, becaixse of this one-time canal, 
inore's the pity, as that shore is in many places a beauti- 
ful one. Behind the canal a few sites may be found, but 
this plan has as drawbacks the stagnant pools of water, 
snakes, mosquitoes, and sonorous bullfrogs. The towpath 
at Pond Eddy is now used as a road, and nailed to the 
aqueduct across Carpenter's Brook we read this legend in 
one of our rambles in search of blackberries : "This tow- 
path is not a thoroughfare. Parties trespassing on it do 
EC at their own risk." 
In bumping down the river ; in flopping across country ; 
in chasing elusive eggs and murphies, we had seen no 
legend so curious. We had purchased butter in dry goods 
stores, and honey in hardware shops, and had queried for 
mail in railway stations. In one place there was a spring 
in the middle of a field of wheat, and as the water trickled 
into the water jug, we looked up and saw, on the summit 
of a great cliff, nailed to a tree and facing outward, where 
no one could read it save at a great distance and with the 
aid of a powerful glass, a no-shooting-allowed notice. 
But until we gazed on this board on the aqueduct we had 
Dever fancied that a trespasser trespassed at the owner's 
risk. Now, it is a curious thing, but there is a gin mill 
near this aqueduct, and some of the natives go about 
loaded in more ways than one, as we had occasion to see, 
when one of them took offense at a remark of some one 
on the Pike county side, whereupon he w^hipped out a 
revolver and fired at the Piker. Again, the unsteady gait 
of other trespassers suggested the thought that some of 
them may have fallen off the towpath and been injured 
or drowned — but no, the only persons who. drown are 
poor fools of canoeists who insist on descending the river 
in canoes, despite the threadbare and worn query, "Now 
don't you think you would be better off in a flat-bottomed 
beat than in that thing?" And as the canal is inoperative, 
perhaps the owners do not care to pay damages to persons 
who are hurt while trespassing on their old towpath. 
By this time we had become known to every, train crew 
on the railway. It seemed tbey looked for us, and when 
they found us in a new place, they waved their hands and 
swung their caps. It was a pleasant feature of the trip. 
FOHEiST ANt) StflEAM. 
The freight trains were most interesting. Some of them 
were composed of eighty and ninety cars, and we saw 
one of one hundred and three, nearty all drawn up the 
grades by single engines. A feature was the dozens of 
new engines being taken west for the pioneer road of the 
plains, the Kansas Pacific. These w^ere coupled in here 
and there, but were not under steam. 
The fishing for several days was poor, because of the 
floods, yet we were compelled to keep in close communica- 
tion with the outside world, and as there was no other 
place to go, we remained, though the curiosity of some of 
those passing by was annoying. But no one gave us 
any trouble, although the gin mill was just across the. 
bridge, and all roads led to the gin mill. There was a 
steady current setting over toward the Sullivan county 
shore on Saturday and Sunday. Some went in boats 
and returned in zigzag fashion, like unto an angler 
trolling; others went on horseback and in wagons; but 
the villagers walked straight and returned in circles. One 
of these had a "foine Oirish brogue," according to Uncle 
Joe Decker, who knows everybody. He sidled off the 
fairway, waved a huge and grimy paw in greeting, and 
spake thus : 
"Now. it's this way wit' me. Human bein's is coom- 
posed of one-foorth solid mather and three-foorths wathcr 
— I mane t' say two-thirds solid mather and one-third 
wather; but ye know what I mane. Now, I haven't taken 
a drap of annything but wather since the 15th day of 
July — six long weeks. [It was then Aug. 2.] An' in 
thim six weeks I have swalleyed enough wather fer t' float 
a box car. Wather is a good thing for some pur-posesj 
but it's not alt'gether satisfyin'. But it's all right, friend. 
If it's wather ye loike, take yer pail, an' up the road, 
forninst the first house, ye'll foind as foine a spring av the 
stuuf as ye iver tasted. Ye did find it? All roight. I'll 
be goin' now. It's no offinse Oi mane t' ye, but Oi'd like 
t' know where ye came from — I mane t' say Oi don't.care 
where ye came from, but did ye come up" the river or did 
ye come down the river?" 
There were no headaches in the sweet spring a hundred 
yards from camp. It was one of the few redeeming 
features. Another was the great maple tree that overhung 
the eddy and shaded the grassy glade; for the sun shone 
hot the greater poilion of the five days we passed at 
that place, and although we Avere thankful for this, its 
rays -were hot, and the shade grateful. One day the Mate 
opied a cow, and as there was a tangle of wire in a drift 
heap hard by, there was nothing for it but to build a 
barbed-wire fence round the land side of camp, with the 
high banks of the eddy to protect the flanks. One strand 
was enough, for by the time it was up, my cuticle was 
scraped and gouged in divers places, the result of too 
much vigor and too little skill. But was it not effective, 
and did not a gentle old muly cow come along, and seeing 
ihe thing, rub her nose along it until she found the barbs, 
and thereupon turn tail and return to the mud flats whence 
she came, to be seen no more? And did not other ani- 
mals, seeing our attempt at privacy, keep to the main road, 
even wnth some difficulty, it being a narrow thoroughfare, 
not intended for feet that insisted on traveling each its 
own way? And was it not the Mate who ran into it and 
received as a souvenir a huge rent in the garment she 
must wear home? 
One thing we could not reconcile ourselves to was that 
the sim seemed to rise in the south and set in the north, 
for which the cloudy skies and the many curves in the 
river accoimted; but when the stiff west wind drove away 
the clouds we marveled that a north wind could be so 
warm, and again, an east w^nd so dry. When the sun 
dried the grass east of the tent and the afternoon shadows 
fell athwart it. it was sweet and warm, and there the 
little girl played about on a blanket and fell asleep as 
calmly as in her own crib at home. She grew brown, 
n gged, and totally unlike the many sickly children of 
the city, so that in being thankful for this we forgot the 
fierce storms of the recent weeks. 
Again we had squirrels for neighbors. Now and then 
a kingfisher stopped on a twig to survey the Nomads, 
and little brown cranes stalked about the low ground hard 
by. The swallows in the bank beneath the tent feared us 
not, and an old frog insisted upon perching half-way up 
the side of the tent at night, and was continually going to 
s.'eep and falling down, only to try again and again. 
Among the hills we found red raspberries, and along 
the towpath there were luscious blackberries. And some- 
how the visitors had a way of bringing along with them 
a pocketful of fine apples, "for the little one," though 
they knew she was too young for such things. Then 
large mealy potatoes found their way to camp and no 
pay would be taken for them. But the stores were sorry 
specimens. Only four eggs could we obtain in five days' 
time. The postmaster at the village in Sullivan county 
sold butter he purchased in New York city, he said, 
while in another place we saw pressed beef bearing the 
name of a concern that had canned nothing of the sort in 
the past four years. And in this wood alcohol region I 
could obtain none for the vapor stove, but was offered 
"some pure alcohol at $r a quart." It was such vile waod 
alcohol that even the old stove bucked at it. This same 
stove was a mystery to the Pikers. Sometimes one of 
them sat near it and knew it not until a wave of heat 
came his way, whereupon he tried hard to seem uncon- 
cerned, while he searched for the cause. An old Irishman 
who wore side whiskers and carried a pail — Pikers have 
this habit, jirst as Bostonians carry green bags — appeared 
suddenly from goodness knows where. Said he: "Now, 
Oi don't w'ant t' be askin' questions as don't consarn me, 
but Oi want t' look at the little boat, an' would ye moind 
tellin' me phere ye put all that stuuf in such a little 
thing?" The seemingly bulky and hea^fy blowbeds 
stumped him, and even when one of the valves was opened 
ynd he felt the rush of air coming out, he could not 
believe his eyes. It was all very laughable. 
This old man was a kindly soul, but it seemed he had 
an ax to grind with the boss road worker, who, with his 
n.ien, was raising the level of the road hard by, so that 
winter floods would not stop traffic. The men drove a 
three-foot hole into a ledge near camp, then found their 
five-foot drill would not fit it until altered. When they 
did put in the shot, the boss told me, we would be safe — 
if we would move camp "up the road a ways." They 
fired two shots further down the road, and each time the 
boss and his men ran down the road yelling like mad, 
[Oct. 4, 101. 
- — — ■ ^ ■ ■ -fi- — ~ — 
leaving the other approach totally unprotected. There 
v/as. a small report and a puft" of dust; that was all. 
Well, our friend of the Galwaj's floated along one even- 
ing—he did not seem to walk, so gentle was his tread, 
while he watched the ground sitspiciously, as though it 
were about to fly up and hit him — and whispered that 
"thot mon is not to be thritsted," as blasting was not his 
forte, he did not use the right sort of "stuuf," and was 
fc-nd of showing off. Then he went up on the ledge, gazed 
sadly into the drill hole and turned homeward. But as 
we watched him he seemed suddenly to be imbued with 
hfe, for he executed a series of movements one would 
not think him capable of. Then, putting his hand beside 
his mouth, he said softly, as if the hills would hear him, 
"Garter snake," and disappeared. 
LTncle Joe Decker was a welcome visitor at camp. He 
is a gentleman of the old school and a justice of the peace 
in Sullivan cour^ty. (He entertained us with many 
reminiscences of a long life among these hills, and made 
friends with the baby, who, strangely enough, would have 
nothing to do with his big watch, and dropped it as 
though it were hot, whereat we marveled, for she is hap- 
piest when banging my own watch about, regardless of its 
one-time delicate mechanism. But Uncle Joe's watch was 
silver; she had never before seen a silver watch, and this 
may account for her actions. Uncle Joe looked carefully 
at IsTomad. and pronounced her a safe craft for the Dela- 
ware. He was the first person who had admitted as much. 
Other natives refused to see any difference between it 
and an open canoe, and would not take into consideration 
the water-tight compartments, bulkheads and small cock- 
pit. Uncle Joe later on introduced to us his dog Topsy, 
and all hands made friends with her at once. She, too, 
was the "best sciuirrcl dog in Sullivan county," and was 
trained to hunt squirrels and rabbits only, and to turn 
up her nose at a deer's trail; Only a few days before 
she brought in a young rabbit and laid it at his daughter's 
feet, unharmed. 
One day the river, which had been clearing, suddenly 
rose three feet within a half-hour, and covered the low- 
lands, leavi!ig us near the water's edge. That afternoon 
a furious storm arose in the northeast and soon a lantern 
was necessary in the tent, where we took refuge from 
the downpour. The folloAving night there was an elec- 
trical storm, but little thunder or rain. Three days of 
perfect August weather followed, with only an occasional 
storm to remind us of the other days. And now that 
we had weathered the worst of it, we must break camp 
and return home. The baggage men treated Nomad 
kindly, so that she received no injury on the train, and at 
Jersey City the baggage master held her until the fol- 
lowing day, and helped me himself in putting her into the 
slip beside his department. When all was snug I loafed 
down the slip into the rolling waters of the old North 
River and turned homeward with the new flood tide. 
Nomad was in her element again. It was a perfect day, 
but a busy one with the tugs and ferry boats, and could I 
have had one wish, that one would have been to put all 
the Delaware River's pessimists into one of their beloved 
flat-bottomed scows and turn them loose in that bedlam of 
river traffic. To see their terror would be ample satis- 
faction for being compelled to listen to their harangues on 
the dangers — ^to canoeists — of the Delaware. 
In concluding this yarn, a summary of the experience 
gained is given, in the hope that it may aid other canoeists' 
who intend to descend the upper Delaware In the first 
place, in selecting duffle, it should be borne in mind that a 
canoe will draw much more in fresh than in salt water. 
Leave the double paddles at home and take only tough 
hard maple single blades five feet six inches or more in 
length. The man steering should be an expert at the cor- 
rect stroke when paddling alone. Many canoeists do not 
take the trouble to learn this stroke, but it is simple. 
Keep the paddle in the water constantly in the rifts. 
There are times when these shoal suddenly, and one has 
no time to lift the paddle for a stroke. With the under- 
water stroke one can feel for the depth of water. 
Do not try a home-made canvas canoe. Better take a 
coffin in the first place. The various open canoes — of 
cedar or cedar covered with canvas — will be serviceable, 
provided they are partly decked, or covered with aprons 
fitting tightly. Otherwise a decked canoe will be best, 
if it has perfectly tight compartments and deck hatches. 
A rudder is useless. A stern painter is absolutely neces- 
sary, should be thirty feet in length and very strong. All 
the dunnage should be stowed away in waterproof bags. 
Two or three changes of woolen clothing, as well as shoes 
and stockings, are necessary, and leave cotton garments 
behind. Take three heavy blankets. The nights are cold. 
If possible, take a generous supply of provisions from 
home ; better still, send these to two or three points along 
the river, to be called for. The country stores can be de- 
pended on for little, and this is poor enough at best. 
Deposit, Callicoon Station and Lackawaxen shops are 
better than the average. 
As the shoals, or rifts, as they are called, decline sharp- 
ly and in them the current is very swift, the greatest dan- 
ger to canoeists seems to be striking amidships on a reef 
cr "boulder and being whirled broadside to the tide while 
still aground, in which event a canoe will often list sufli- 
ciently to spill the crew, though it may not capsize. But 
if it takes in much water, it will swamp at the tail of 
the rift, where there is either rough or very shoal water. 
Should the canoe strike in water too deep or too rapid to 
render getting out — on the up-stream side — safe, she 
should be held on her course at all hazards until she can 
be forced aside of or over the obstruction. In the event 
of a capsize there should be but one thought — hold fast on 
the canoe, for there is an eddy below every rift, and gen- 
erally the tide sets toward one shore or the other, where 
the canoe may be towed in safety. There need be no 
di.nger if all hands will stay with the canoe. Skill in 
swimming counts at zero in a shoal or fall ^and the 
water is ice cold. Wading a rift in two feet of water is 
difficult, often impossible, and one who falls will seldom 
regain his footing. I have seen heavy cattle try to wade 
these rifts and lose their footing in three feet of water. 
More canoeists are taking this cruise than ever before, 
and seores of them have descended the river safely. It 
is no water on which to learn canoeing, however, and its 
shoals and breaks deserve the respect of the oldest hands 
at the maple blade. 
The East Branch of the Delaware, as we saw itj wag ^ 
