(52 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 14, 1911. 
“Well, Sir! Once—.” 
II. 
“Well, sir, there was a time when I wanted 
to go fishing every time I saw a bucket of 
water,” said a man one day, stopping to admire 
my fish, “but now I like to spend my vacations 
loafing around the water watching other people. 
Did you ever realize what an unusually fine field 
for the study of human nature is to be found 
in a congregation of fishermen? The absorbing 
nature of the sport leaves few opportunities to 
play combinations, and the real colors show out 
strong. Let me spend an hour or two with men 
when the fish are biting—or not a thing doing; 
when bait is scarce and hooks are lost; when 
lines tangle and particular locations are evidently 
much desired, and at the end of the session I 
will pick the men from the crowd. I'll divide 
them as quickly and surely as the new separator 
will divide the cream from the blue john in a 
gallon of milk. Been down here only an hour 
this morning and have already found a half 
dozen genuine and half as many paste jewels. 
Worst I ever saw up the dock there just now. 
Man, at least a biped, fishing with his wife. 
She asked him to bait her hook. He growled, 
‘Wait,’ and sat there twenty minutes catching 
fish, while she sat waiting and wistfully looking 
on. That kind of a fellow makes me hate civili¬ 
zation, and wish times were back in the primi¬ 
tive when might made right. I should greatly 
enjoy seeing how far I could throw him out into 
the water, and how often I could beat him back 
When he tried to climb out without really ending 
his selfish career.” 
“Awful thing happened over on the west coast 
where I have been fishing,” said a man who had 
come up. “A peddler traveling through the 
country with his pack came to a deep creek and 
found the only boat there on the other side. He 
looked up an old man living near and asked 
him to put him across, but the old man told him 
he would have to wait until someone came along 
from the other side and brought the boat over. 
The peddler was in a hurry and finally offered 
the old man a dollar to swim over and get the 
boat. The man refused, saying there was a big 
alligator in the creek, and it was almost sure 
to attack anyone trying to swim the stream 
there. After waiting some time the peddler be¬ 
came impatient, pulled off his clothes and started 
to swim after the boat himself. Half across he 
was attacked by the alligator, which pulled him 
under and devoured him. The old man said he 
would get the alligator if he had to watch a 
month. He made a blind on the bank, and on 
the second day saw the big fellow come to the 
top. Being a good shot, he put a bullet in its 
eye, and getting help, pulled it out with grab 
hooks. Once on the bank they cut it open to 
make sure it was the man killer, and in its 
stomach found the buttons from the peddler's 
clothes.” 
The man passed on. “Didn’t you understand 
that fellow to say the peddler pulled off his 
clothes before he started to swim the stream?” 
said the man who had first approached, and who 
had remained listening to the story. 
“Yes, that is certainly what he said.” 
“Well,” said he, after reflecting a moment, 
“had the peddler been reduced to a diet of 
buttons, or did the wily saurian go out on the 
bank and eat up his clothes to destroy the traces 
of his crime? I hold to the latter theory against 
all odds.” Lewis Hopkins. 
An Angler with Nimble Feet. 
The piscatorial event of the week has been 
the capture by Mr. Kennard of a 4954-pound 
“salmon” in the bay. As everyone knows, this 
angler has lost both his arms, and the feat of 
successfully playing a bender of this caliber and 
bringing it to gaff despite such a physical handi¬ 
cap is a notable one. Mr. Kennard uses a light 
rod, which he manages entirely without help, and 
I have often seen him playing a fish in a man¬ 
ner which no expert could find fault with. My 
hearty congratulations to the veteran, and may 
his fish prove a pennant winner!—“John Dory” 
in the Durban Pictorial. 
Some News and a Little Gossip. 
Eastward is to be the name of the new 
schooner building at Herreshoff’s for Morton 
F. Plant. Mr. Cochran’s yacht is Westward, 
and it is expected that she will return to this 
side to race against Eastward. The meeting of 
two crack vessels so named may rather com¬ 
plicate the reports of the race. It will seem 
odd to read, “The Westward stood on the port 
tack to the eastward, while the Eastward held 
the starboard tack to the westward.” The 
Herreshoffs intend to launch the new yacht on 
April 24, which will be the 70th birthday of John 
B. Herreshoff, the head of the firm. This will 
be a most fitting way to celebrate such a day at 
Bristol. 
Yachtsmen are speculating on the relative 
merits of the two yachts. Some think that the 
centerboard in the new craft will not be of much 
advantage to her, especially as the Westward 
draws about 17 feet, which is rather more than 
allowed a vessel of her size according to the 
American rule. She will be penalized a little 
for this excess of draft, but it is possible that 
it may be offset in some other way, just how 
will be known when the measurer puts his tape 
over the two yachts. 
A writer from Bristol, commenting on the 
two schooners, says: 
“Late advices from England confirm the re¬ 
port of a few weeks ago that the racing and 
cruising schooner yacht Westward, owned by 
Alexander S. Cochran, N. Y. Y. C., will posi¬ 
tively return to America in the spring in charge 
of Capt. Charles Barr. And it is also positive 
that she will be raced in home waters next sea¬ 
son under the flag of Mr. Cochran and with 
Capt. Barr in command. 
“It looks in Bristol just at present as if Capt. 
Barr will face a dangerous man and a danger¬ 
ous boat next season. It is believed in a gen¬ 
eral way by racing men that the newest Her¬ 
reshoff design in large schooners will be more 
than the equal in speed of the Westward, but 
how much more can be determined only when 
the pair come together at some of the racing 
lines along the Atlantic coast. That there will 
be most exciting sport in B class of schooners 
next summer, in which these two speedy craft 
will race, is accepted without any argument. 
Westward, sailed by Capt. Barr last summer 
over some of the most famous courses on the 
coast of the European continent, carried her 
owner’s flag to victory in twenty-three out of 
the twenty-four contests and at present is con¬ 
sidered the fastest two-sticker in the larger class 
afloat. 
“On the other hand, Capt. Dennis has been in 
the racing game for thirty years and has 
handled all sorts of sailing craft. He is a resi¬ 
dent of Long Island, and has the habit occasion¬ 
ally of departing from the racing fleet when on 
a run and emerging with his charge, carrying 
a reaching wind and bowling past his contest¬ 
ants as if many of them were at anchor. His 
feat of winning the Astor cup for schooners 
with the Elmina last August off Newport was a 
feat to be remembered. In a stiff wind he led 
the fleet around the Hen and Chickens Light¬ 
ship and return to Brenton’s Reef, logging at 
the rate of 12 miles an hour. 
“It is a known fact in Bristol that instead of 
Alexander S. Cochran bargaining to sell the 
Westward in England he has made all arrange¬ 
ments for having the racer brought from South¬ 
ampton to the United States next spring, and 
it is now likely from what has been disclosed 
that the Westward will be seen at Bristol next 
May, taking her turn in the fitting out opera¬ 
tion at Herreshoff’s. It is settled that Mr. 
Cochran means to race his craft next season 
here. 
“Another big schooner that will cast her mud- 
hook at Bristol next spring and will probably 
be there about the time of the launching of 
Eastward is Queen, built a few years ago for 
J. Rogers Maxwell at Herreshoff’s, and recently 
given in exchange to Commodore E. Walter 
Clark, of Philadelphia, for the schooner Irolita, 
also a Herreshoff designed and built schooner, 
though of smaller dimensions that Queen. 
The members of the Pavonia Y. C. have suc¬ 
ceeded in getting a rather dangerous obstruc¬ 
tion in New York Harbor marked by a buoy. 
Within a few hundred feet of Robbin’s Reef 
Lighthouse there is a pile of rock which just 
protrudes at low tide and forms an extremely 
dangerous obstruction to navigation. It was 
originally a cribwork filled with rock, but the 
spiling and cribbing have rotted away, leaving 
the rock. 
While this obstruction lies to the west of the 
light and is therefore out of the channel and 
away from the larger portion of the traffic, yet 
there is sufficient water for a long distance in¬ 
side of it, and many tugs with their tows, small 
freight steamers and other commercial as well 
as hundreds of pleasure boats pass within a few 
feet of this point in order to keep out of the 
strong tides which they would find outside of 
the light on their way up or down the bay. 
Only a short distance to the southward of this 
point is an anchorage where many large vessels 
wait for docking. 
Besides the large number of craft thus en- 
