Rothrock 1884 "Vacation Cruising... "
Rothrock 1884 "Vacation Cruising... "
Rothrock 1884 "Vacation Cruising... "
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VACATION CRUISING
IN
BAYS.
^y BY
J.-^t>''ROTHROCK, M.D,
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
" In brief, I may say that we have had somewhat too much of '
the
gospel of work.' It is time to preach the gospel of relaxation."
ILL US TR A TE
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1884.
l^
MY MOTHER
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED,
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HER DEVOTION
TO THE WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS
OF HER CHILDREN.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
/
CHAPTER I.
14 VACATION CRUISING IN
" Over the rail
My hand I trail,
A joy intense,
CHAPTER II.
1
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1 VACATION CRUISING IN
full sight.
26 VACATION CRUISING IN
eye," which name was at first given from the auger-holes on either
side of the bow, and through which the cable ran.
34
VACATION CRUISING IN
tain she will not stay down. Unless she fills, she
must right again. I believe that, so far as our
CHESAPEAKE BUG-EYES.
Editor Forest and Stream :
other waters, where speed and safety are desired. The boat is
est in the whole fleet, with a sketch showing rig: length, fifty
feet; beam, twelve and one-half feet; dead rise, one and one-
half inches to the foot; draught, light, three feet; centreboard,
twelve feet.
Talbot.
one made the bottom and the other two the sides.
waiting.
When we left, on the morning of the 14th, we
were comforted by the assurance, received the
day before, that we might expect head-winds going
down the bay about nine days out of ten at that
season. However, thanks to the squall of the
previous evening, the wind had hauled around to
the north, and we had a fresh breeze following us
—
40 VACATION CRUISING IN
writers.
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 41
was not until long after the " Bob White" whistle
opens another.
We asked a negro who came along-side to sell
^8 VACATION CRUISING IN
CHAPTER III.
restore a forest.
**
that it is easier to believe the proposition than
70 VACATION CRUISING IN
i -«^^^^j^^f.M^.
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 71
^6 VACATION CRUISING IN
* It is more than probable that the James River now flows over
what was once within the limits of the town.
8o VACATION CRUISING IN
the situation :
" The Indians slew the settlers*
old tower and carry off the young ivy shoots ; they
break the tombstones, and nothing is so sacred as
to prevent its destruction." From what I saw,
there could be no doubt about the truth of his
statement.
Through the gateway of the tower we passed
into the old graveyard, over what was probably
the site of the body of the church. Here and
there an opening in the rank underbrush and
weeds revealed a tombstone or sepulchral slab,
and on some of these an inscription may be made
out. Time has dealt harshly with the lettering,
and in some cases almost destroyed the characters.
There is a remarkable instance of the effect of
tree - growth, furnished by a buttonwood tree
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 83
The Body of
34 VACATION CRUISING IN
Another reads
" Here Lyeth William Sherwoo— d, (?)
Resurrection."
says of it :
" Meanwhile, the college was advanc-
ing, and before Nicholson's term of office had
come to an end two sides of the quadrangle
which the building was designed to form were
completed. A few years later, however, a fire
to-day.
The name Newport News is still full of stir-
96 VACATION CRUISING IN
thropy or in religion.
have brought out the fact that with you the hair
commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier
4- " (( « Louisiana.
2 " (( ((
Florida.
(( ((
1 has Tennessee.
(( ((
I '' Missouri.
I " « tt
Kansas.
I '' « <*
Delaware.
(( ((
I *' Ohio.
I *'
« « Vermont.
I ''
« ((
Nebraska."
moral obligation.
We owe support to a school that does so
much toward removing the national danger from
ignorance, and substitutes for it, hope and high
possibilities.
safety.
years on the end of the bar which " makes out" from
the southern point of Kent. Outside of that bar
* I will also state, that owing to news from home, Lew was
obliged to leave me at Cambridge, In his stead I hired a
colored man (Moses Robinson) for the rest of the summer. A
more faithful servant no man was ever fortunate enough to have.
134 VACATION CRUISING IN
192).
the time I had been using it, and that it has often
put me in a safe position by its timely warning.
Once, indeed, taking advantage of its indications,
him.
The morning of July 14 was clear, and gave
no indication, by barometer or otherwise, of an
impending storm. By five a.m. we were well
through.
On our way up from Magothy we met the
"John McClintock Yacht Club," bound down the
bay. As they were from Philadelphia, we could
not refrain from saluting them, though our ves-
sel was very diminutive alongside of theirs. The
salute was returned in the most cordial and gen-
tlemanly manner. Wishing each other a successful
voyage, we held our courses and were soon out
of sight. These yachting-parties, where congenial
friends hire a good vessel and at a minimum of
expense get a maximum of rational recreation,
13*
ISO VACATION CRUISING IN
direct."
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, 153
buggy-ride."
Darkness came on at Still Pond before the net
was placed as we desired. Though the next
morning, one twenty-inch pickerel showed that
during the month between our first and second
156 VACATION CRUISING IN
the mizzen and jib still set, leave you under storm
end, they now become ends in themselves to which all other con-
was a part of the daily occupation of the Greek youth, which was
meant to contribute its share to the great end of making him a
sound and normal being, harmoniously developed both in mind
and body, and thus a serviceable citizen to his state, it now, step
by step, becomes itself the great aim to which time, life, and aspi-
rations of the youth are devoted, and to which they are made
subservient. It is the step recurring in the history of athletic
games in all times, —the step from the gentleman athlete to the
a horse with its rider, is typical in one respect of all similar repre-
the fourth century, the rider is here large in comparison with the
it was for the rider's sake that horse -racing existed ; it was to show
and encourage his skill in horsemanship, and he got the glory
ancient and in modem times. Thus, not only with the human
form, but even with animals, the course taken by the athletic
games in the later periods tended to destroy the ideal of form
and illustrates the three chief phases in the history of the palsestra,
from its height to its decline. The earliest form were the /iet?ix<^i,
which were to soften the blow to the striker and the one struck,
and were thus subservient to the exercise. The second f«rm was
the Ifiug b^q, a leather thong wound round the hand, protecting
the hand of the striker, but increasing the severity of the blow.
CHAPTER IV.
1 68 VACATION CRUISING IN
that the air seemed filled with spray, and it was almost impossible
to distinguish objects twenty feet ahead. Tin roofs were carried
away like so much paper, and shingles and trees were blown in
from the water of Sunset Lake and blown some distance upon
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. i6q
the land. Seven teams were upset near the lake. Lamp-posts
were wrecked everywhere, and chimneys were blown down on
many private cottages. It was bathing-hour, and hundreds of
people were in the surf. There were several narrow escapes
from drowning, but only one life was lost, — that of a colored
waiter at one of the hotels, who was blown out to sea. A boat
containing two boys was capsized, but they were rescued. The
telegraph wires were blown down between this place and Ocean
Grove. Windows were broken everywhere, and the streets are
littered with broken limbs of trees. The storm lasted about half
an hour.
it blew at all.
te
19th " ((
30.133
it
20th " « 30.178
<c
t<
2ISt " 30.198
((
22d " ((
30.062
t(
23d " ((
29.929
the wind often blows hardest when the barometer is just begin-
couplet
foot-note.
176 VACATION CRUISING IN
credit.
cruise.
shore.
1 36 VACATION CRUISING IN
feet.
hook a fish, the like of which our " skipper" and his
associates declared had never been seen in those
I
their bottoms. Group, we say, because there are
several species of them, some edible, and others
useful in another way, —that is, by attaching them-
selves to turtles, and holding on until Remora and
turtle both, are pulled to the surface by a ring and
line fastened to the tail of the fish and leading to
the hand of a fisherman above.
The sucking-disk on our specimen was about
three inches long. The margin was slightly
raised, thick, soft, and flexible. In the interior of
the inclosure was a series of transverse ridges,
which anatomists assure us are simply modified
parts of the first fin on the back. These have
muscles attached to them, and may be elevated so
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, igi
ing from the land and the fish from the sea. By
great good fortune, prophets came to warn and
masters to teach. Baird, Hough, Price, Sargent,
banners.
Let it be known, then, that the names recorded
above, are of those, who do not scorn to make
their knowledge useful, however much they value
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 20I
1883:
inclosures ; (4) the density of the water in the ponds is not ma-
terially afi'ected by rains or leaching from the banks ; (5) ponds
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 203
ture where there are salt marshes adjoining arms of the sea, the
of mind or body.
In " Mose" this explosion was usually retro-
spective in character. He was not exactly " rocked
the gun and of all the legitimate uses that these im-
plements imply. It should be a cardinal doctrine
among genuine sportsmen never to kill game
simply for the sake of killing it, and never to
shoot at a game-bird or quadruped without the
chance of killing it outright, or of finding it when
wounded.
I never saw so few brilliant, nocturnal phos-
phorescent displays in the water as this year (1883).
There is a pleasure in listening to the sound of
distant steamer-paddles. It is almost past belief
how far they can be heard. More than once we rec-
" They's somepin kind o' hearty like about the atmosphere
When the heat o' summer's over and the coolin' fall is here.
But the air's so appetizin', and the landscape through the haze
-Of a crisp and sunny morning of the early autumn days
Is a picture that no painter has the colorin' to mock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock."
imis. They have other names for it, but this one
is hard enough, so I will not allude to the others.
I cannot give it an English name, for I do not
know that it has one. This only shows how very
little it has been noticed by common folk yet it is ;
sentiment ;
yet, I will still confess that I never see
these rough, slow-growing things without wishing
to sit down and question them on their own his-
that is, the hay was about twice as high as the pic-
ture shows. It was a threatening evening when
she went out into the bay. Fortunately she found
a quiet bit of water behind the Egg Island light,
play an American ensign for us, in order to assure the world that
all the materials that enter into a. ship. It may surprise you to
is ^20 a ton ; the duties on chemicals and stuffs that go into paints
are from 20 to 25 per cent. ; iron is taxed from 60 to 75 per cent.
232 VACATION CRUISING IN
steel, 45 per cent, now; machinery and tools pay a duty of 45 per
cent. ; copper pays nearly ^90 a ton duty. In short, if you run
over a ship from truck to keelson, you can hardly touch an article
that is not made dearer by our protective tariflf." *
for 1883 are those relating to the ship-building of the country last
year. They show that there were constructed in all 126S vessels
both sail and steam, built n the United States in the years stated
1883 was 35, of which only one was a sailing-vessel. These were
nearly all built at the yards along the Delaware, —twenty-three at
CHAPTER V.
but from the fact that no one here has yet tried
CHAPTER VI.
with the tide until what was ebb, and in our favor,
changed to flood, and opposed us. With this
Delaware City.
wind.
Here, then, is the lesson so well known to me-
teorologists, but which I wish more and more to
impress on my amateur friends, that whether above
or below the mean, at the sea-shore, when it starts
T 22*
—
FIERCE WINDS.
THE EXPERIENCES OF A STEAMER IN A CYCLONE.
day, with her sails and sail-covering carried away and her boats
badly damaged, in conseqvience of a cyclone which struck the
vessel on August 25th, in latitude 38 deg. 15 min., longitude 63
deg. 10 min. Captain Jauffi-et said of his experience,
" ' I never before encountered such a storm. At 8 P.M. on
August 24th. the atmosphere was calm, though heavy, and the ba-
rometer stood at 30.2. The wind was southwest, but towards
vast volume of steam suddenly let loose, carr}ang the sails away
and badly damaging the boats. The sky became black, and the
heavens and the water seemed to mingle together. We could not
moment of time. The men lashed themselves to the ship, and the
and the steamer was carried around with them. There was a
terrific rumbling at the same time, which did not resemble any-
thing I had heard before. In the mean time the rain fell in lor-
CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 259
rents. Indeed, it seemed as if all the powers of earth and air
ning flashed vividly and appeared to leap from the waters to the
suddenly as it had come, the sky began to brighten, and the heavy
sea fell away. In the height of the storm one of the marble slabs
of the sideboard in the saloon was detached, and this struck
bottom and double sides. For this reason Seager Brothers account
for her standing the storm so well. She had 6000 boxes of fruit
tidal-wave.
!"
I cannot think the thing * Farewell
THE END.