The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-15
'ery touch of his hand as no other craft

every touch Of his hand as no other craft
can do
MacGregor, the father of modern canoe
ing, padded down the ALBANIA and Pharpa
rivers of Damascus ia Rob Roy, scarcely
two feet wide. Since his day the canoe has
been specialized, until now the term COW
ers anything between ten-pound Ness
muk, which stout boy can carry on mis-
back, to big racing machine with 200
pounds of lead in her keel and a sail like a
small yacht. OF late the practice of in
creasing the size of canoes has been
which has so arranged its 'sclass" measure
ments as to encourage the ''all round
canoe, which is reasonably good for cruis-
ing as well as racing purposes. The
usual dimensions are now Is or Is feet in
length and 80 inches in width, and for gen.
eral purposes this is about right. For pad
ding in shallow streams where portages
are frequent man of medium weight will
find boat IA feet long and % inches wide
big enough to carry him and his camping
kit. For family canoe the larger size is,
OF course, preferable.
Even within the same dimensions great
improvements have been made in the
Whitfield away their hulls into shOckingly
hollow lines at bow and stern. Now the
lines are much more full and gradual, Civ
ing finer speed under full sail and greater
buoyancy. Similar evolution has trans
formed the sail. The old lateen or leg of
MISUNDERSTANDING were the first
favorites. Now the big-topped lug sails,
battened to keep them Hat when the wind
tugs at them, have taken their place, with
the result that a thlrty-inch canoe fire.
quently carries twice as ambitious spread
upon short masts as she might have done
ten years ago upon longer ones. The
spread of muslin is sometimes amazing,
considering the size of the boat which car
ries it.
The canoeists themselves are responsible
for most of these improvements. Such
men as r. w. Gibson, who owned the best
canoe Of her day in the Snake and again
in the Vesper, and / don't know how many
since. C. B. Vaux, who gets new canoe
about as often as suit of clothes, and who
is said to be the only man who can crawl
around his mast and back into the we'll
Newburg; Barney, of Springfield, and
Brokaw, Jones and Quick have changed
the whole science of canoeing since the
association was founded in 1880. Gibson,
who is famed architect, designs his own
boats, and others Of the flyers have evolved
nearly every form of centerboard, rudder
and rigging which has proved valuable in
quick and accurate steering possible. The
sliding seat puts the canoeist on deck with
out injuring his craft. While there he
steers by the tiller. When he drops back
to his seat in the well for run before the
wind the tiller is behind him, but he steers
with his feet by pressing upon either end
of stout bit of oak pivoted at the center
and connected by stout strings with the
tiller.
The English canoeists never assume the
deck position, or never did until it was
taught them by sad experience, but lie at
full length in the bottom of their craft,
just craning their heads above the gun
vale. The superiority of American to
English canoes was fully proved by the
visit of several crack British sailors a
couple of years or SO ago and their COM
plete discontinue on the st. Lawrence and
again in New York bay.
March is the season of mysteries in the
canoeing fraternity. Everylprominent ex-