358 
FOREST AND STREAM 
The Ordinary Houseboat Can Be Towed Anywhere. 
It is down on the Indian River, however, 
that one may find a houseboat colony 
flourishing under ideal conditions, and, in its 
social features, coming nearer to the houseboat 
life on the Thames than anything else in this 
country. 
Many houseboaters spend four or five months 
of the year in traversing the Florida coast from 
St. Augustine to the Keys, stopping a week here 
and a week there; now anchored in the shade of 
a cypress forest; now drifting past mile after 
mile of deep, verdant savannas; now lying on 
quiet shoals in the delicate perfume wafted from 
orange groves and magnolia gardens. The more 
venturesome of the houseboatmen, when they 
have grown weary of the quiet of the sluggish 
lagoon, trail out into the ocean and thence to 
Lake Worth and into Biscayne Bay, through the 
Cards Sound and along the tropic shores of Key 
Largo; drifting in and out of the intricate maze 
of the upper Florida keys; skirting the fringe 
of the untrodden mangrove swamp; rounding 
Northwest Cape and floating into the White 
River Bay, and from there right into the heart 
of the Everglades. 
But the Florida coast is only one of manv 
regions in the United States which offers itselt 
to the houseboat enthusiast. Within twenty-five 
miles of the New York City Hall there is ten 
times the extent of coast line available for house¬ 
boating that exists in the vicinity of any other 
great capital, not excepting London herself and 
her vaunted Thames. In fact nowhere in all this 
broad land nor the world over are the oppor¬ 
tunities for houseboating so great as in the im¬ 
mediate vicinity of New York. A season can be 
spent drifting from one vantage point to an¬ 
other without beginning to enjoy the many 
charming locations which nature has to offer to 
the water nomad. Englishmen are convinced 
that no such stream as the Thames exists for this 
delightful pastime, but unbiased Americans who 
have traveled extensively assert that from the 
viewpoint of natural advantages there is nothing 
in England to compare with those New York 
has to offer. 
Among the particular localities which afford 
safe anchorage for the houseboat are those along 
the Sound; Great South Bay, Gardiner’s Bay 
and Orient Point offer many attractions, while 
New Haven Harbor presents the advantages of 
the world-famous college town, about which 
there are excursions innumerable which will grat¬ 
ify the mind as well as please the sight. The 
quaint old town of New London comes next in 
point of attraction, and if the seeker for variety 
desires further acquaintance with coast resorts 
and has the temerity to venture out from the 
friendly shelter of the Sound, there are Martha’s 
Vineyard and Cottage City, quaint and charming 
resorts that are cool, refreshing and restful; 
Woods Hole and Buzzard’s Bay and on into the 
famous old whaling harbor of New Bedford. 
Within a comparatively few minutes of the 
Brooklyn Bridge are Jamaica Bay, Rockaway 
Inlet, and Sheepshead Bay. Parts of the Harlem 
and East- Rivers are adapted for anchorage, and 
the west bank of the Hudson under the Pal¬ 
isades presents an ideal location, safe and out 
of the way of general traffic. The several bays 
along the Jersey shore are abundantly supplied 
with alluring hiding places, and the Staten Island 
shore, just below St. George, presents any num¬ 
ber of attractive features, among them the ad¬ 
jacency to the city, the excitement of the arrival 
and departure of the big ocean liners, as well as 
the novelty of an ever-shifting water pageant 
in which the boats of all nations and of every 
sort and description take part. 
An ideal place for a houseboat is on Barnegat 
Bay, where there are miles of landlocked water, 
with many little creeks and inlets for anchorage. 
You may be at the head of the bay, or up Toms 
River, where communication is excellent, and 
fresh meats and fruits within easy reach; or you 
may go further from civilization, with the cor¬ 
responding gains and losses. With a catboat 
as auxiliary, a very comfortable summer may be 
spent in Barnegat waters, especially if good fish¬ 
ing is an object. 
Nowhere can the amateur make such a record, 
especially when the bluefish begin to run, while 
the earlier fishing is hardly less satisfactory. The 
streams flowing into the bay are delightful for 
rowboat explorations, and the wild sandy dunes 
between bay and ocean are by far the most pic¬ 
turesque part of the Jersey coast. There are 
already a good many houseboats in this region, 
and new ones are added every year; but thou¬ 
sands of them would not use up the fine anchor¬ 
ages or perceptibly crowd the more desirable 
havens. 
There are a large number of houseboats on 
the Shrewsbury River, and each year there will 
be additions to the fleet. The owners of these 
are near enough to town to make daily trips; 
but the river lacks the attractions of the wilder¬ 
ness, and the excellent fishing which Barnegat 
affords. In place of these are the Long Branch 
boats, the afternoon drives down shore and the 
fish suppers of Pleasure Bay, so the balance is 
more even than would at first seem. The 
Shrewsbury, though only a few miles in length, 
has many branches. The North Branch, or 
Navesink River, is a most delightful locality for 
houseboats. At Patterson’s Cove, Clay Pit 
Creek, and other places, may always be found 
a number of boats during the summer season. 
On the South Branch, in the vicinity of Little 
Silver, there have been houseboats for many 
jears. Passengers on the steamers from New 
York to Long Branch may locate a dozen or 
more of these craft at different points along the 
shore in among the islands after the point of 
the Hook has been passed on the down trip. 
Lake Hopatcong is another place where house¬ 
boats are yearly built and occupied. The lake 
is picturesque and delightful and the boats pretty 
and comfortable, but cottagers are very proper¬ 
ly exacting about pollution of the lake, so that 
