The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-11-09
Canoeing In the United States.

When John Macgregor, Of the Inner
Temple, published his entertaining &C.
count of the Rob Roy's thousand-mile
voyage on the lakes and rivers of Europe,
he established canoeing as q summer
pastime. -..
The introduction of canoeing in the
United States may be said to have taken
place in 1870, when the New York Canoe
Club was founded by William L. Alden,
The Indian birch and dug-out, it is true,
belong to the canoe group, but they are,
ct best, rude craft. unfit for general
cruising, and had long before gone into
disuse, and come to be valued only as
relics of an uncivilized condition. Amen-
cans have enthusiastically adopted the
pastime, and it is only question of time
on our bays, lax 80, and rivers as sail and
row boats. Beside 5 our long coast-line,
We have an immense system of inland
water, great part of which is rs yet
unexplored, and cannot for years be ex-
plored by any other craft than the light
and easily portrayed canoe. There is no
one Of the States in which long cruises
may not be made
It has been stated, upon authority,
that summer cruises may be made upon
the waters Of Wisconsin alone for thirty
years without retracting or exhausting
the territory. In the northern portion
Of the State there are almost numberless
UNEMPLOYED lakes, some of large size,
that are connected by rivers and smaller
streauIs. : ..4.-y ~. .--~t------ -
launched upon Pewankee Lake, Q beau
6ful sheet of water about twenty miles
west of Milwaukee, and then follow q
winding course through a delightful coun-
try, through lake to rivulet, and from
rivulet to lake, the lakes varying In length
from three to eight miles, and in width
from one to four miles. Leaving the
lakes, the canoe may follow Rock River,
and passing many beautiful towns and
Villages, striking the Mississippi at Rock
Island, Illinois. Many of the Western
(notably Minnesota and Michigan1,
Eastern, and Middle States offer equally
attractive field for summer cruising.
Canada Is as yet almost unmapped.
Twenty-Five miles to the northward Of
Quebec the exploring canoeist is beyond
The bounds Of civilization, and at the en-
trance to O region of picturesque lakes,
that, with their connecting streams, form
chain almost unbroken, save by rapids
and falls, to either the Hudson Bay
country or the Saguenay, and the little
known territory still to the northward.
Long cruises have been made by
Americans. The Kleine Fritz a. d.
Siegfried) has followed the course Of the
Mississippi from the extreme head-waters
to Rock Island, Illinois; the Maria
Theresa On. H. Bishop has cruised by
inland waters from Lansingburg, New
York, to the mouth of the Suwannee
River the Bubble Charles e. Chase) in
1878 cruised from New York to Quebec
by connecting waterways, thence by por-
tage, through the valley of the Chaudi-
ere, to the head-waters Of and down the
Connecticut River, to and through Long
Island Sound, 10 New York. Mr.. G. Il.
Farnham has recently completed q
Canadian voyage embracing the Sagu-
enay, its tributaries, and other water
courses. In 1879 Mr. Frank Zihler made
cruise of about 1900 miles, from Racine.
Wisconsin, TO New Orleans. Many less
extended cruises have been made. and
clubs have been orginized in the largr-
cities.-G E. Chase IN Harper's Au0ea
zine