Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 '*
 
 41:
 
 CAMPING OUT 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 British <2Eano 
 
 WITH CHAPTERS ON 
 
 CAMPING, CANOEING, AND AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN DAVEY HAYWARD, M.D., 
 Mersey Canoe Clttb, Rear-Commodore, B.C. A. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32 FLEET STREET. 
 LIVERPOOL: 45 TO 51 SOUTH CASTLE STREET.
 
 TO 
 
 TWO LADIES, 
 
 WHO HAVE IN TURN LAMENTED 
 
 MY BOATING TASTES, 
 AND HAVE IN TURN BECOME RECONCILED THERETO 
 
 TO 
 
 MY MOTHER AND MY WIFE, 
 
 THIS LITTLE PEACE-OFFERING 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 2015334
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS little book owes its origin to notes made by the 
 writer for a lantern exhibition of views taken by him 
 at two Meets of the British Canoe Association. These 
 descriptions proved of such interest to boating friends 
 as to encourage their arrangement in the present 
 form. At first the intention was to limit the issue to 
 private circulation ; but the extent to which the original 
 notes have developed has led to the decision to put a 
 few copies on sale. For such a humble production, 
 however, no frenzied public demand is anticipated. 
 
 The illustrations are, with one or two exceptions, 
 from photographs taken by the author, or from sketches 
 made by him. He takes this opportunity of thanking 
 a lady friend [M. W.] and Mr. A. Fownes for help 
 with the preparation of the sketches. 
 
 The humble origin of this effusion, and the proofs 
 it contains of hurried preparation, will, the author 
 trusts, secure it from the standard of criticism, to which 
 a more pretentious production might justly be sub- 
 mitted. Like the craft with which it chiefly deals,
 
 vi. Preface. 
 
 this book has but little depth, carries no valuable 
 cargo, makes little spread, and requires fair wind and 
 fine weather; like them it prudently attempts no 
 ambitious voyage : 
 
 " Larger craft may venture more, 
 But little ships must keep near shore. " 
 
 If, however, these rough notes recall past joys to 
 boating friends, and interest others in our glorious 
 sport, the writer's main object will have been accom- 
 plished. 
 
 That the members of the B.C.A. will consider this 
 publication as an attempt on his part to further the 
 cause of that body is the hope of their friend, 
 
 THE REAR-COMMODORE. 
 Liverpool, 1891.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. I. ON CAMPING i 
 
 II. CANOES AND CANOEING - 18 
 
 III. THE BRITISH CANOE ASSOCIATION - 50 
 
 IV. WITH THE B.C. A. TO LAKE WINDERMERE 54 
 
 V. WITH THE B.C. A. TO FALMOUTH - - 60 
 
 VI. THE CANOEIST AS PHOTOGRAPHER - 89
 
 CAMPING OUT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ON CAMPING. 
 
 " We're out on a tear to get fresh air, 
 
 And keep our livers healthy ; 
 We rise ere breakfast every morn, 
 
 To make us wise and wealthy. 
 We wear old clothes, and know no woes 
 
 Of irksome civilization ; 
 We carry a grease spot on our pants, 
 
 As a badge of emancipation. 
 
 Chorus : Then shake old pard, our palms are hard, 
 
 Our faces and hands are brown ; 
 We don't look gay in our camp array, 
 But we're mashers when in town. 
 
 Now you who dress in fine array, 
 And board at big hotels, 
 
 Who eat off china every day, 
 And pose as howling swells,
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 And never have an appetite 
 
 That's not produced by bitters 
 Just gaze on us and gnash your teeth, 
 
 You miserable critters ! 
 
 Chorus : Then shake old pard, our palms are hard, 
 
 Our faces and hands are brown ; 
 We don't look gay in our camp array, 
 But we're mashers when in town." 
 
 Camping Song. 
 
 / DAMPING, as the canoeist understands the 
 \~s term, includes sleeping in tents pitched on 
 shore, or erected on the canoes when dragged 
 ashore or moored afloat. A ' fixed ' camp is one 
 in which the tents are left erected in one place for 
 some days ; under these circumstances, of course, 
 greater luxury is possible than with the 'movable' 
 camp, where the tents are struck and re-erected 
 in a fresh place every day or two, in which case 
 as light a tent and as few impedimenta as possible 
 are taken. Various patterns of tent are in use, 
 such as the Mersey, the Clyde, the Bell, the 
 Marquee, etc. ; each having some advantage un- 
 der varying circumstances. The little tents, 
 with their ground sheets, poles, flys, and so forth, 
 pack up into remarkably little space ; a tent
 
 Camping Out. 3 
 
 with plenty of room and comfort for two can be 
 readily stowed away in a small canoe. 
 
 A large amount of quite uncalled for sympathy 
 is expended upon campers out, who are supposed 
 to be suffering great exposure and hardship. On 
 the contrary, however, camp life is most com- 
 fortable. The little tents, if properly pitched, 
 are dry inside, however it may rain, and when 
 shut up become warm and cosy even on frosty 
 nights. Nobody catches colds or sore throats 
 when camping. It is really remarkable how 
 slight susceptibility to colds there is during 
 camping, even with individuals who are martyrs 
 to these torments in civilized life ; and it is 
 equally notorious that a cold taken to the camp 
 vanishes with a rapidity such as coddling and 
 gruel at home could never insure. In the tents 
 campers sleep, cook, and feed during their cruises ; 
 although, when the weather is fine, much of the 
 cooking and eating takes place out of doors. 
 The science of camping requires study and prac- 
 tice ; the beginner loads himself up with un- 
 necessary things,and always forgets indispensable 
 articles ; the old campaigner learns and invents 
 dodges for economising room and weight he
 
 4 Camping Out. 
 
 never forgets the salt or his toothbrush. To 
 camp satisfactorily, it is well to think over, some 
 time beforehand, the things that may be required, 
 and to make a list of everything that can be done 
 with : a day or two before the cruise this list 
 should be examined, and everything crossed out 
 that can be done without. 
 
 In America, where there is more firewood and 
 freedom than in this country, the cooking is 
 generally done over camp fires of wood ; here, 
 ingenious little spirit cuisines are used, those in 
 most request being the Mersey, the Irene, and 
 the Boddington. 
 
 Life in camp, when several choice spirits are 
 gathered together, is a round of interest and 
 pleasure, from the early breakfast to the sing- 
 song last thing at night, and is thoroughly 
 health-giving from the morning plunge and swim 
 to the soothing pipe round the camp-fire before 
 turning in. And one's appetite in camp it is 
 enormous ! Certainly such an appetite is often 
 required, when one reflects that the cooking is 
 done entirely by the men themselves ; and won- 
 derful results some of them turn out. However, 
 hunger is the best sauce, and practice enables sur-
 
 Camping Out. 5 
 
 prisingly good dishes to be prepared. The man 
 who spoiled the simple kipper on the Monday, 
 and whose attempt at a stew resulted in a nasty 
 mess, may turn out a creditable five-course din- 
 ner before the end of the week. Tin meats are 
 a great boon to the camper ; eggs, bacon, and 
 steaks are comparatively simple to prepare ; but 
 some articles are a delusion and a snare to the 
 inexperienced. Onions do shrivel up so alarm- 
 ingly during the frying process ; whereas rice, on 
 the other hand, is so aggressive in its expansion, 
 that there may not be enough pans in camp to 
 hold what seemed only a handful or two when 
 put into the pot. All the same, no stalled ox 
 however toothsome a stalled ox may be could 
 taste so good as those camp stews, presided over 
 by an old hand, and to which each man con- 
 tributes whatever he has to spare. The stews 
 are constructed on the " tutti frutti " principle, 
 and it were invidious to inquire what there is in, 
 and easier perhaps to enumerate what there is 
 not. The camper-out has no regular meal times ; 
 he eats when he can get anything to eat, and 
 when he feels hungry, which is pretty well all 
 the time. A camper-out who has had nothing
 
 Camping Out.
 
 Camping Out. 7 
 
 to eat for four hours, is a ravenous animal, and 
 dangerous to meet. We have known a canoeist 
 to take his pug dog camping out with him, and 
 thoughtlessly leave it behind one scarce day : he 
 barely returned in time to keep "jugged puppy" 
 out of the bill of fare. " Snark's broth " is a 
 mixture we have never heard so termed except 
 in camp. It consists of milk and a raw egg 
 beaten up together, with a suspicion of Scotch 
 whiskey added thereto. Snark's broth is very 
 acceptable in the early morning, when the sing- 
 song was a little too long and boisterous the 
 night before, or a pipeful too much was smoked 
 before turning in. It also strengthens the courage 
 for the early dip, and has a reputation as a pick- 
 me-up after a fatiguing day or some extra exer- 
 tion or exposure. For sustenance during labour, 
 however, it cannot in our opinion compare with 
 tea, hot if possible ; if not, cold with a dash of 
 lemon juice added. 
 
 There is always plenty to do in camp, and the 
 time, when one is not sailing, is thoroughly em- 
 ployed with cooking, feeding, tidying up the tent 
 and canoe, drying things, and washing up. When 
 two men occupy a tent together, the duties are
 
 8 Camping Out. 
 
 usually divided : one is the best cook, the other 
 attends to the tent, to foraging, and to the un- 
 popular duty of washing up. 
 
 During camping is a good time to grow the 
 beards and moustaches one cannot start at home, 
 on account of the ridicule their early stages 
 attract. 
 
 It is difficult to relinquish the free gipsy life 
 when the time comes to return to the office, the 
 shop, the pulpit, or the " bar and its moaning." 
 Collars and leather boots are the necessities of 
 city life which are perhaps the most irksome to 
 renew ; but the top hat and the razor run them 
 close in unpopularity. For the costume in camp 
 is peculiar. Old clothes are worn out, and men, 
 of irreproachable exteriors at home, often re- 
 semble brigands or scarecrows in camp. 
 
 There are many popular camping grounds 
 where, in summer, tents and campers-out may 
 generallybe found all through the season. Several 
 such exist on the Thames ; and for the Mersey 
 and its neighbourhood, a very popular resort for 
 this purpose is Hilbre Island, at the mouth of the 
 estuary of the Dee. As this is a favourite camp- 
 ing place for the second canoe club of Great
 
 Camping Out.
 
 IO Camping Out. 
 
 Britain the Mersey Canoe Club we will devote 
 a little attention to it. Hilbre, although somewhat 
 difficult of access, is an admirable boating station, 
 and compares in this respect favourably with 
 Hoylake, which is silting up year by year, and 
 only allows of three or four hours' sailing on the 
 tide. Hilbre is only an island part of the time ; 
 for a considerable portion of each day the tide 
 leaves a waste of sand between Hilbre and the 
 Cheshire shore, and permits one to walk or ride 
 over from West Kirby or Hoylake. However, 
 there is always water at the north end of the 
 island to permit of sailing in the Hilbre Swash. 
 The island was formerly a coast-guard station ; 
 but for this purpose it was given up by the Ad- 
 miralty, who sold it to the Mersey Dock Board. 
 This Association keeps a look-out, a life-boat, 
 and a telegraph station on the island, and has 
 other buildings in which buoys and other marine 
 appliances used to be stored. Some years ago 
 Mr. Brandreth, the philanthropist who benefits 
 mankind with pills and plasters, rented some of 
 these buildings, and used to reside there with 
 his family. He kept boats, so that communi- 
 cation with shops and civilization was pos-
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 1 1 
 
 sible whether the tide was up or not ; and, in 
 general, he behaved like a small king a sort of 
 Robinson Crusoe, with the solitude modified by 
 a wife and children ; and monarch of all he sur- 
 veyed so long as he kept to the south end of 
 the island, and did not interfere with the Dock 
 Board officials and their preserves. One of his 
 boats is still at the island, and goes by the name 
 of the Pill-box, out of compliment to its former 
 owner, under whom, however, it had a more 
 nautical title. After some time Mr. Brandreth 
 had a difference with his landlords, the Dock 
 Board, and during the negotiations a few boating 
 
 AT HILERE ISLAND.
 
 12 Camping Out. 
 
 men who had coveted the house as a boating 
 station secured it,and founded the Hilbre Island 
 Club, consisting of about a dozen bachelors. 
 When a member commits the crime of matri- 
 mony it is tantamount to resignation ; as far as the 
 Hilbre Island Club is concerned, he might just as 
 well go away and die, except that after the former 
 calamity he may be welcome as a visitor, which 
 would scarcely be the case in the latter even- 
 tuality. The Mersey Canoe Club rent a large 
 shed, originally used for the storage of buoys ; 
 this shed has been fitted up with conveniences 
 for camp-life ship's bunks have been put up, 
 and hammocks are slung from the beams from 
 which other buoys have hung before. There is a 
 good cooking stove, and plates, knives, forks, 
 spoons, dishes, etc., are to hand ; so that the 
 club has a flourishing camping station. Many 
 canoeists spend bank holidays and week-ends 
 at the island, and some keep their boats here 
 altogether, for the tide is not here such a terror 
 as in the Mersey ; while smoke, dust, and soot 
 do not soil sails and gear, and ferry boats trouble 
 not. Camping-out at Hilbre has locally the title 
 of " Firking " applied to it, and the Hilbre Island
 
 Camping Out. 13 
 
 Club are respected far and wide as the " Firkers." 
 The origin of the term I know not. 
 
 Camping-out is not, as some have suggested, 
 merely another term for loafing ; hard work is 
 often necessary to its enjoyment, and the idler 
 who shirks his share of the duties, while taking 
 advantage of the results, is soon detected and 
 admonished. Camping-out does include some 
 loafing ; it would not be the holiday it is other- 
 wise. Camping may be defined as an out-door 
 sport, consisting of living on one's own resources 
 in the open air, away from centres of civilization. 
 The flavour of camping may be more prominently 
 gipsy or nautical. The sport is pursued in un- 
 conventional attire ; there is no uniform proper 
 thereto, but the clothes are generally old and 
 shabby. Camping-out includes some idling and 
 smoking ; some wandering about the country ; 
 some cooking, tent-pitching, foraging, chopping 
 firewood ; some exploring and sight-seeing, and 
 a good deal of eating and healthy out-of- 
 doors existence. Common, but not necessary, 
 factors are rowing, sailing, fishing, shrimping, 
 botanizing, photography, tennis, cricket and 
 other games; carpentering at boats or furniture,
 
 14 Camping Out. 
 
 banjo -playing, singing and other music, and 
 so on. 
 
 Camping requires a healthy constitution to 
 thoroughly enjoy it ; but the bilious, the sickly, 
 or the over-worked cannot spend many hours, 
 in fine weather, engaged in the less laborious 
 branches of the art, without becoming sounder 
 and better men and enthusiastic campers. Once 
 a camper always a camper ; once catch the 
 disease and other forms of sport lose their charms. 
 Business or family cares may prevent indulgence 
 in the life, but the longing will be there. Some- 
 times when the boys are holding a few days 
 camp, a stouter and more bald-headed one than 
 the rest will turn up one day among them, and 
 it is whispered from one to the other that this 
 was a gallant camper in the brave days of old. 
 He is less active than he used to be, he perspires 
 over what he does more than in the past; but 
 the spirit is willing, however weak the flesh. 
 Perhaps he has told the wife he was going to 
 spend the day with a sick friend, or some similar 
 evasion, for he is more careful of his clothes than 
 he used to be, and before dark he has gone. 'Tis 
 the camper of old, re-visiting the scenes of a sport
 
 Camping Out. 15 
 
 he is no longer able to indulge in. As a letter 
 from home to the exile, or the sound of cow-bells 
 to the Swiss peasant in a foreign land, so is the 
 sight of his cooking cuisine, or of old clothes 
 which he cannot wear out, to the camper who 
 cannot " get off." 
 
 The married man, at any rate for a few years 
 after the catastrophe, is ruined as a canoeist and 
 camper-out, unless he has fortunately happened 
 upon a mate of similar tastes. " Canoeing and 
 camping are both so very dangerous," says the 
 bride, " all my friends say so, and dear mamma 
 said she was sure you would give them up now." 
 Many a good canoeist have we known to brave 
 the breeze in safety, but to go down before the 
 curtain lecture. However, thanks be ! many of 
 them return to us anon ! If the young husband 
 be allowed to come to camp at all, it is in a half- 
 bred manner. A few wives there are who camp 
 out with their worse halves, or insist on them 
 spending a large part of their time in camp ; but 
 most married couples go to hotels or apartments 
 and visit the camp occasionally, being rowed over 
 in a barge, or driven across in a growler. A 
 canoeist of our acquaintance had been married a
 
 1 6 Camping Onf. 
 
 short time previous to one of our meets. On 
 former occasions, when going for a holiday, he 
 had been accustomed to take his luggage and 
 blankets in a rubber bag, and his bed and lodg- 
 ings in a tin box ; he generally forgot his tooth- 
 brush, and had to run back for it, and bring it in 
 his vest pocket along with some postcards and 
 a pipe. On this occasion he had to pack days 
 before, and write for rooms, and send a deposit, 
 and give references, and all that sort of thing. 
 Happening to call on him, we found him in the 
 porch, contemplating in speechless misery the 
 amount of luggage a married man requires. We 
 took a detective photograph of him at this 
 moment as a warning to other campers, and to 
 be issued to the various Canoe Clubs in leaflet 
 form for distribution, with underneath Punch's 
 advice to those about to marry " don't." 
 
 Men who have camped together become very 
 attached to one another. In the camp all classes 
 and ages amalgamate ; to be a canoeist and a 
 gentleman is all the qualification required. The 
 liveliest and best of campers are not always the 
 younger men, and the most popular may hold the 
 lowest social position elsewhere. The freedom
 
 Camping Out. 17 
 
 from artificial restraints, the mutual help required 
 and given, the rough gipsy existence, remove all 
 distinctions of age and rank. The enthusiastic 
 camper is always young and jolly. Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes voices the condition of affairs 
 when he writes : 
 
 " Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys ? 
 If there has, take him out without making a noise ! 
 Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite ! 
 Old Time is a liar ! We're twenty to-night ! 
 We're twenty ! We're twenty ! Who says we are more ? 
 He's tipsy young Jackanapes ! Show him the door ! 
 " Grey temples at twenty " ? Yes ! W/ute, if we please ; 
 Where the snow-flakes fall thickest, there's nothing can 
 
 freeze ! 
 
 We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told, 
 Of talking (in public) as if we were old ; 
 That boy we call " Doctor," and this we call "Judge ;" 
 It's a neat little fiction of course its all fudge. 
 That fellow's the " Speaker " the one on the right ; 
 " Mr. Mayor," my young one, how are you to-night? 
 That's our " Member of Congress," we say when we chaff ; 
 There's the " Reverend " What's his name ? Don't make 
 
 me laugh ! 
 
 * -;.-'* * * * * * * 
 
 Yes, we're boys always playing with tongue or with pen, 
 And I sometimes have asked, shall we ever be men ? 
 Shall we always be youthful and laughing and gay, 
 Till the last dear companion drops smiling away ; 
 Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its grey ! 
 The stars of its Winter, the dews of its May ! 
 And when we have done with our life-lasting toys, 
 Dear Father, take care of Thy children, the Boys." 
 
 c
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 CANOES AND CANOEING. 
 
 " On the great streams the ships may go 
 About men's business to and fro ; 
 But I, the egg-shell pinnace, sleep 
 On crystal waters, ankle deep. 
 I, whose diminutive design 
 Of sweeter cedar, pithier pine, 
 Is fashioned on so frail a mould, 
 A hand may launch ; a hand withhold ; 
 I, the unnamed, inviolate 
 Green rustic rivers navigate ; 
 My dipping paddle scarcely shakes 
 The berry in the bramble-brakes. 
 Still forth on my green way I wend ; 
 Beside the cottage garden end : 
 And by the nested angler fare, 
 And take the Covers unaware. 
 By willow, wood, and water-wheel 
 Speedily fleets my touching keel ; 
 By all retired and shady spots 
 Where prosper dim forget-me-nots. : ' 
 
 ROBERT Louis STEPHENSON.
 
 Camping Out. 19 
 
 To give an unexceptionable dictionary defini- 
 tion of a canoe is, now-a-days, no easy task. To 
 hear large boats, yacht-rigged, heavily ballasted, 
 and able to carry 5, 6, or more passengers, called 
 canoes might lead one to imagine that anything 
 in the way of a boat, and sharp at both ends, may 
 be rightly so termed. The possession of a canoe 
 stern, as it is called, does not of itself constitute 
 a boat a canoe. The term " Canoe Yawl " has 
 lately been introduced to include the larger boats 
 which somewhat resemble canoes ; but even this 
 is not entirely satisfactory, for the boats are not 
 canoes, and very many of them are not yawls. 
 
 The chief canoe club in this country, the Royal 
 Canoe Club, thus classifies canoes. A first-class 
 canoe must not exceed 16 feet in length, with a 
 maximum beam of 30 inches for that length ; 
 the beam may be increased ^j-inch for every 
 inch of length decreased ; but the length may 
 not be decreased below 1 2 feet, nor the beam be- 
 low 28 inches. Second-class canoes may not 
 have less beam than 26 inches. There are also 
 regulations as to ballast, centre-plates, and sail 
 area, while out-board deck seats are forbidden. 
 These measurements, however, only refer to
 
 2O Camping Out. 
 
 canoes for the club races, and not as to what is 
 and what is not a canoe. Dixon Kemp defines 
 a canoe as " a vessel propelled with a paddle or 
 with sail, by a person or persons facing forward ; 
 she is a vessel capable of navigating shallow 
 water as well as open rough water ; and she is a 
 vessel not too large or heavy for land portage by 
 two men when her ballast and stores have been 
 removed." With regard to this it may be ob- 
 served that, now-a-days, oars and folding row- 
 locks have become very common, even in small 
 canoes, and the deck-seat position for sailing is 
 general, therefore the canoeist does not face for- 
 ward during either method of progression. 
 Again, " shallow " and " portage " require defini- 
 tion themselves. How shallow ? For a Norfolk 
 wherry would fit this part of the definition. 
 What is portage ? Does it mean merely lifting, 
 as would seem from the next sentence in 
 Mr. Kemp's book ? Even if so, the Vital Sparks 
 and the other boats he calls Mersey Sailing 
 Canoes must be re-named ; while if the word 
 means carry round a rapid, or past a lock, they 
 need be two strong men who portage some of 
 the canoes of to-day.
 
 Camping Out. 21 
 
 British canoes are decked over, and are classed 
 according to various types, named after the first 
 boats constructed on the different designs. The 
 chief models are : the Rob Roy, a light, short 
 boat, with no sheer, and chiefly suited for pad- 
 dling; the Nautilus, a wider boat, with rising floor, 
 much sheer, and a rockered keel, adapted for 
 sailing ; the Ringleader, longer than the Rob 
 Roy ; and the Pearl, with a flatter floor than the 
 Nautilus. Perhaps a better classification is that 
 of Dixon Kemp's, into paddling and sailing 
 canoes ; the latter again being divided into 
 paddleable-sailing and sailable-paddling. 
 
 Next to Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy), 
 Messrs. Baden Powell (Nautilus) and Tredwen 
 (Pearl) have done most towards the evolution of 
 the modern British canoe. These two gentlemen, 
 not only by the designs, rigs, and fittings they 
 have developed, but also by their skill in the 
 practical handling of their boats, have done much 
 to popularize and improve the sport in this 
 country. 
 
 The R.C.C. and the Mersey C.C. recognize a 
 class for Canoe Yawls, which they define thus: 
 length over all not exceeding 20 feet ; beam not
 
 22 Camping Out. 
 
 less than 3 feet ; depth from upper side of deck 
 to under side of keel, measured at any point, not 
 exceeding 3 feet ; rating not to exceed 0*5 
 
 .-length X saiUrea-l nQ b a H ast OUtSlde Or beloW the 
 
 L oooo J ' 
 
 garboards, excepting centre-plate or drop keels ; 
 no transom or counter-stern. This would include 
 the Mersey Sailing Canoes a large class of sail- 
 ing boats which may reach 20 feet in length, 
 5 feet 6 inches in beam, and 2 feet 6 inches in 
 depth, with 8 cwt. or more ballast, and consider- 
 able passenger accommodation; although it is 
 to be observed that the Vital Sparks are ex- 
 cluded, as they have lead keels. The larger class 
 of boats is becoming very popular in this country, 
 especially on the Mersey and Humber. Very 
 handy and comfortable boats they are, but it is 
 to be hoped their popularity will not diminish 
 the demand for canoes ; for the canoe proper is 
 a more suitable boat for inland work, including 
 cruises on rivers, canals, lakes, and similar waters, 
 where an occasional portage may be required, 
 and where sailing is frequently impossible. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss build or rig, 
 nor to dilate upon the pleasure and health to be 
 derived from the sport of canoeing. Since 1865,
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 when Rob Roy launched his first canoe, and 
 especially since his entertaining books were 
 published, the sport has become popular in 
 England, and still more so in America and 
 Canada. The sailing cruising canoe of the 
 present day the poor man's yacht, as it has been 
 called affords in our opinion the best all round 
 
 sport of any boat that swims. On deck in a 
 fresh breeze there is excitement enough for any- 
 body; sitting below, and paddling down a river, 
 there is sufficient security for the most timid. 
 The writer has sailed in many different kinds of 
 craft at home and abroad, and has himself owned
 
 24 Camping Out. 
 
 many varieties during the years he has taken 
 pleasure in no other form of sport than boating. 
 For the delight of sailing for sailing's sake 
 fasgaudia navigationis he prefers a British sail- 
 ing canoe to any clipper yacht or sailing boat 
 afloat. In no other vessel are craft and crew so 
 in sympathy; in none is there such a sense of 
 not only directing the energy of the flying body, 
 but of being the thing itself actually skimming 
 over the tide. Only a bird can know what a 
 canoeist feels in a sailing canoe, on a wind, 
 sitting on deck, with the foot under the opposite 
 coaming the fall of the sheet in one hand, and 
 the tiller in the other a fresh breeze on the 
 cheek, and a little popple on the briny. 
 
 What is there in this world, lovely woman 
 excepted, to equal for beauty a white-winged 
 canoe ? A racing cutter under full sail is a 
 glorious sight, but, in her own way, the clipper 
 yacht's humble sister the sailing canoe is no 
 less beautiful, and has the additional charm we 
 associate with the tiny in nature. No doubt 
 many a good amateur sailor sails in ugly craft, 
 with dingy sails, and with fittings rough and 
 ready; and many a dingy old hooker has sailed
 
 Camping Out 25 
 
 in a-head of a fleet of more handsome vessels at 
 the close of a hard sailed race. None the less 
 smartness, tidiness, and cleanliness is rightly the 
 desire of most men who own a boat, however 
 small or cheap she may be. A canoeist would 
 rather hear his boat's praise than his own. It is 
 all very well for the genial Autocrat of the 
 Breakfast Table to advise that : 
 
 " True to our course, though our shadow grow dark, 
 
 We'll trim our broad sail as before, 
 And stand by the rudder that governs the bark, 
 Nor ask how we look from the shore." 
 
 But the amateur seaman is very concerned as to 
 how he looks from the shore. There must be 
 clean sails properly trimmed, with no Irish 
 pennants trailing aloft, no lines towing below ; 
 for the smallest boat may be ship-shape. 
 
 Canoeing is not a summer pursuit alone. 
 Even in winter paddling is generally, and sail- 
 ing often, possible ; while in the dark long even- 
 ings the canoeist has rigging to be done, designs 
 and fittings to be considered, logs to be written 
 up, camp fires to be arranged for, lantern slides 
 to be looked at or prepared ; while many a
 
 26 Camping Out. 
 
 bonnie boatie has been built during the off- 
 season by its future crew. 
 
 Much nonsense has been uttered about the 
 danger of canoeing. The boats are generally 
 life-boats, and even if upset can be righted, re- 
 entered, and bailed. Of course the canoeist 
 should be able to swim, but so should everyone. 
 It is not at all a necessity to the sport ever to 
 upset : we know canoeists of over fifteen years' 
 standing, constantly afloat at all times of the 
 year and all the year round, who have never been 
 upset ; but, should such an accident occur, there 
 is no harm beyond a wetting. Of what other craft 
 can this be said ? It has been the writer's fate 
 to be capsized in various craft, always due to his 
 own carelessness or that of others : he has vivid 
 recollections of the comparative safety of an up- 
 set canoe to other capsized craft. On the Mersey 
 the little canoes are seen out at all seasons. With 
 spars housed and lashed, and apron on, they will 
 live in really heavy seas under paddle, and it 
 must be pretty stiff when they can't sail with 
 some bit of a rag showing. A canoeist who has 
 practised upsetting, righting, and climbing into 
 his canoe, has little to dread from an accidental
 
 Camping Out. 27 
 
 capsize. In what other craft does the crew upset 
 for the mere pleasure of so doing ? In what 
 other clubs is capsizing an intentional incident in 
 races held at their regattas ? Again, whoever 
 heard of a canoeist being drowned? I don't refer 
 under the term "canoeist" to the man who thinks 
 it looks easy enough, and who stands on the side 
 of the coaming when getting in, or who imagines 
 you have only to pull some strings, up goes the 
 sail, and off you go. To him who will take some 
 little trouble to understand his boat and the 
 elements of sailing, and who will paddle before 
 he sails, and sail with a small sail before he 
 emulates the racer's spread, the sport is safe 
 enough. The cherub aloft pays special attention 
 to canoeists, as he must have felt who inscribed 
 on his canoe the verse : 
 
 " They say that I am small and frail, 
 
 And cannot live in stormy seas : 
 It may be so, yet every sail 
 
 Makes shipwreck in the swelling breeze ; 
 Nor strength, nor size can hold them fast, 
 
 But fortune's favour, heaven's decree. 
 Let others trust in oars and mast, 
 
 But may the gods take care of me." 
 
 As an instance of how slightly the canoeist
 
 28 Camping Out. 
 
 rates a capsize we may relate the following. At 
 a regatta of the Mersey Canoe Club, one of the 
 sailing races was from Tranmere to Eastham, on 
 
 the Mersey. There was a stiffish breeze blowing, 
 and most of the boats of the competing fleet were 
 under small sail or reefed. One of the members, 
 however, showed symptoms of starting with full 
 sail. " You are never going to take that sail to- 
 day," said our genial captain and starter. " Why, 
 certainly ! " was the reply. " You can't possibly 
 carry it, man !" Now whether this remark, acting 
 on the contrariness of human nature, determined
 
 Camping Out. 29 
 
 our friend to take that sail, or whether he had 
 previously made his mind up to that attempt, we 
 know not ; but off he went with it all standing. 
 Three several times between Tranmere and East- 
 ham was he blown clean over ; three times did 
 he right his craft, crawl in again, re-hoist that 
 ridiculous sail, and continue the voyage, scorning 
 both help and advice. He did not win the race, 
 but as he passed the mark-boat he was heard to 
 console himself with the enquiry : " Who said I 
 couldn't carry that sail ? " 
 
 Canoeing is a form of boat-sailing that requires 
 both practice and some natural gift before a man 
 can become an expert It is well for the intend- 
 ing canoeist, if possible, to learn the rudiments 
 of the art in some other form of craft ; in one 
 in which a little tardiness in the necessary 
 manoeuvres is not so readily punished as it is in 
 sailing a canoe. We know men who have spent 
 many a holiday canoeing who have never become 
 decent sailors ; they are, many of them, admirable 
 paddlers and campers, and are enthusiastic about 
 canoeing, but sailors they will never make it is 
 not in them. They have not the instinct that 
 tells the expert when the ship is out of trim, when
 
 3O Camping Out. 
 
 she is off the wind, or when everything is drawing 
 its best ; or they lose heart when the canoe heels, 
 down sail, and resort to the trusty paddle. How- 
 ever, no one knows how skilful a canoe sailor he 
 may become with patience and practice ; there 
 are many examples of beginners, after only a few 
 trials afloat, carrying off racing cups from old 
 hands who have served a life-long apprenticeship 
 to the sport. 
 
 A canoe is one of the most difficult of 
 sailing boats to manage, and experienced yacht 
 and boat sailors may be all at sea in a canoe. 
 We remember inviting a man who did not 
 know what fear was when aboard " a boat that 
 is a boat," to join us in a sail. As soon as he 
 saw the kind of craft in which he was expected 
 to go afloat, and observed the apparent flightiness 
 of her behaviour under sail, he remarked that 
 there was not money enough in Liverpool to 
 induce him to go aboard. A canoe under sail 
 appears to the onlooker much less under control 
 than she really is. The readiness with which 
 she heels to the varying strength of the breeze, 
 and the nearness of her crew to the water, give 
 her an appearance of instability, very strange
 
 Camping Out. 31 
 
 to the eye of the sailor (professional or amateur), 
 who is only accustomed to stiffer craft This 
 appearance is increased by the crew being pro- 
 portionally so much larger than in any other 
 form of boat. " That's suicide, that is," we were 
 lately told by the anchor watch of a coasting 
 schooner, past which we were sailing. Little did 
 he imagine that he good easy man ran much 
 greater risk every time his crazy hulk bore him 
 " up along." 
 
 To the beginner it is valuable, and almost 
 necessary, to go out a few times with some more 
 experienced canoeist to teach him "the ropes." 
 For this purpose a double canoe or a canoe yawl 
 is useful ; if these be not available the instructor 
 may paddle within hail. It is one of the chief 
 advantages of canoe clubs that the young canoe- 
 ist, joining such a body, can always find friendly 
 members to show him the rudiments of the art, 
 and to accompany him a few times in case of 
 emergency. It is, however, worse than useless to 
 give the novice advice in the shape of a string of 
 technical terms, such for instance as : " Never 
 been out before ! Oh, there's nothing in it this 
 is the main halliard, you pull that and up goes
 
 32 Camping Out. 
 
 the sail, cleat it, take the sheet in one hand and 
 the tiller in the other, keep her full, and there you 
 are ! " It was full of such judicious advice that 
 the writer first went afloat ; he had some idea of 
 the " strings," but never having been in a sailing 
 boat of any kind before, he knew nothing of the 
 actual management of a canoe under sail. How- 
 ever, it sounded ridiculously simple, for, of course, 
 " in the puffs you just luff her up, sit well out to 
 windward, and ease the mainsheet ; keep her to 
 the wind, but, if you get off the wind, for Heaven's 
 sake don't gybe." The writer imagines he believed 
 luffing to consist in pulling in the string called 
 the sheet ; and he remembers that, as he did not 
 know what a gybe was, he felt confident he could 
 not do it. After paddling well away from 
 critical eyes, he hoisted sail, and even to-day he 
 can recall the sense of bewildered amazement 
 with which he regarded the fuss such a proceeding 
 entailed. The canoe rushed wildly about, and 
 began describing circles, over which the startled 
 novice had no control whatever ; he was too con- 
 fused to uncleat the halliard and drop the sail, so 
 he hurriedly thought over his nautical aphorisms. 
 There was but little time for consideration he de-
 
 Camping Out. 33 
 
 termined, however, not to "gybe," but to "pre- 
 pare to luff." There was a strong breeze, and the 
 canoe, by some arrangement or other, had now 
 got the wind abeam, and was lying well over ; 
 this was evidently the time for action, so the 
 sheet was firmly hauled in. The result was so 
 unsatisfactory that the further measure of sitting 
 out to windward was thought necessary, and 
 would have been carried out had he not been 
 fairly ' chucked ' out to leeward ; and cold enough 
 is half an hour in the Mersey in the month of April, 
 for he had not learned to get back on board, so 
 had to hold on until rescued. Thus endeth the 
 first lesson, and in a day or two we went afloat 
 again. What makes canoe sailing a speciality is 
 the fact that, with this craft, the constant tending 
 of the mainsheet is as important as the attention 
 to the tiller, while in no other boat is the personal 
 balancing of the crew, as shifting ballast, of so 
 much importance in proportion to the initial 
 stability of the vessel itself. When sailing in 
 larger craft, even in large yachts, the canoeist 
 has the feeling that the mainsheet ought to be 
 loose, and he is inclined instinctively to lean his 
 puny weight to windward whenever the vessel 
 heels.
 
 34 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 Running before the wind is, we consider, the 
 canoe's weak point. She readily runs under, and 
 with her low freeboard, the boom soon catches 
 the water as she rolls both risky events. A 
 gybe commonly either finds the crew in the way 
 of the boom, or carries this spar forward of the 
 mast, where the leverage may soon roll the canoe 
 over. Almost every canoe capsize the writer has 
 witnessed or heard of has been when before the
 
 Camping Out. 35 
 
 wind. In anything in the way of a breeze, even 
 an intentional gybe in a canoe is something to 
 anticipate with interest, and to look back on 
 with relief. 
 
 Canoe Yawls. In a chapter on canoeing 
 something may be written about the variety of 
 boats included in the class of the canoe yawls. 
 These boats resemble canoes in their shape and 
 build, and in the character of much of their work. 
 Having little draught, they can be navigated on 
 rivers and inland waters, and, having keels or 
 centre-boards, they are seaworthy boats about 
 harbours and estuaries, and even on more open 
 waters. A canoe yawl is almost as easily rowed 
 as a canoe is paddled ; true, it cannot be so 
 easily carried ashore, or dragged round obstacles, 
 or taken by train, as the canoe proper ; on the 
 other hand, it is a better sailer, and allows of two 
 or more sailing together. Talking, idling, and 
 moving about are more easily managed when 
 several friends are seated in a canoe yawl ; the 
 position is less cramped, and meals can be better 
 prepared than when the men are divided up in 
 the separate canoes in the form of a little fleet 
 A boat-tent is readily erected on the yawl, and
 
 36 Camping Out. 
 
 two or more may sleep in comfort afloat. On 
 a cruise, or where the camp is a movable one, 
 this does away with the labour of frequently 
 pitching and striking shore-tents. A canoe 
 yawl affords sport resembling that obtained 
 both in a canoe and in a yacht ; with, however, 
 some of the special advantages of both these 
 forms of craft omitted. It is not so independent 
 of wind and tide as a canoe, nor so safe if upset, 
 and it lacks the weatherliness and accommoda- 
 tion of a yacht. Two, three, or more men may 
 go away for quite a long cruise, coastwise, in a 
 canoe yawl ; but such close and constant com- 
 panionship requires more good temper and com- 
 radeship than does a cruise in larger vessels. 
 There is no chance of retiring to the cabin for a 
 smoke or a sulk ; no secure corner in which to 
 be quiet or sick. Sometimes there is hard work 
 to be done, sometimes a spice of danger to be 
 faced, often a disappointment to be supported ; 
 and unless the crew be " jolly companions, every 
 one," rows will be frequent. In small boat-sail- 
 ing, as much as in any sport, the best laid 
 schemes " aft gang agley," or astray, or however 
 the Scottish bard may express it ; and, like
 
 Camping Out. 37 
 
 Mark Tapley, its votary must be jolly under all 
 circumstances. We believe that, if you can go 
 a cruise with a man in a canoe yawl without a 
 rumpus, your friendship will stand any strain 
 likely to be thrown on it ashore : a most mild 
 and agreeable man at tennis, or in the social 
 circle, may prove an irritable and cranky nuisance 
 afloat. 
 
 The writer well remembers one of the most 
 enjoyable cruises he ever made was in a canoe 
 yawl. As an illustration of the all-round work 
 these little boats are suitable for, it may per- 
 haps be permitted him to give a short account 
 of this voyage. 
 
 Early one April three of us started for a voyage 
 down the Welsh coast. Stores for a cruise were 
 shipped, not forgetting those necessaries to the 
 sailor (amateur or professional), ' beer and baccy.' 
 As it was so early in the year, we arranged to 
 sleep ashore, at hotels if possible. One of the 
 crew being a young Sawbones, there was shipped, 
 out of deference to him, and to be strictly con- 
 sidered as a ' medical comfort ' for emergencies, 
 a little wicker-cased bottle containing a universal 
 panacea. This medicine-chest was entrusted to
 
 3 8 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 the surgeon to the expedition, and was by him 
 labelled ' Rye ' ; his scientific instincts tempted 
 
 "3VJL 
 
 him to ticket the receptacle ' Alcohol,' but the 
 lay members induced him not to do so, as there 
 was quite enough confusion with the methylated 
 spirit on board without further complications. 
 It would have been a shame, they said, to inter- 
 fere with the simplicity of the arrangement by 
 which we always mistook the spirit for water, and 
 vice versd. The cook invariably poured water 
 into the cooking cuisine, and made the tea or 
 slaked his thirst from the methylated spirit tin. 
 To save his life it was necessary, though difficult,
 
 Camping Out. 39 
 
 to induce him to always drink beer. Therefore, it 
 was resolved to keep the whiskey in the bottle, in- 
 stead of in a tin, and then we could only confuse 
 it with the oil for the riding light ; a mistake of 
 much less importance, for, whichever was taken, 
 the Doctor was satisfied ; he said it was a delusion 
 that cod-liver-oil was better than other oils for 
 medicinal purposes, so whichever you got Spirit 
 Vini. Rect. or Oleum Colzae was the very one 
 he would have recommended for your complaint. 
 We started from Tranmere, on the Mersey, 
 rather late in the evening, with an hour's ebb-tide. 
 It was necessary to wait outside Hoylake gutter 
 until the flood brought enough water for us to 
 sail up to Hoylake ; so the hook was thrown 
 over and tea prepared. Oh that first day of a 
 spring holiday, after the cold fogs and hard work 
 of the winter ! How jolly to be in a boat again 
 to be without collars and top-hats to be beyond 
 reach of the postman, the tax collector, and the 
 " knocker-up in the morning." How real and 
 vivid everything seems ! It is many years ago, 
 but the writer remembers as though it were last 
 week that festive meal in the dark in the Rock 
 Channel, as we sat huddled together in the well
 
 4O Camping Out. 
 
 of the boat under the lowered mainsail (for the 
 nights are chilly in April), the lights of the 
 Hoylake lighthouses ahead, and those of Bidston 
 and Leasowe shining astern. For company 
 there was a flat anchored near, waiting a tide so 
 as to have the flood to Liverpool. The writer 
 can recall the whole scene the articles of the 
 menu the very conversation. Many of the 
 remarks made he can remember ; among them a 
 flash of genius from one of the party. The piece 
 de resistance of the meal was potted meat spread 
 upon bread and butter, and much annoyance was 
 caused by the reef-lines from the improvised 
 tent continually falling into the preparation ; how- 
 ever, in the midst of his irritation our friend an- 
 nounced the discovery of a new nautical proverb, 
 viz : " every reef-point has its own potted meat." 
 As evidence of our guileless state of mind, I may 
 state that this idiotic remark was received with 
 laughter, and became a common saying on board 
 whenever things did not go quite as desired ; 
 sharing in popularity with a proverb one of us 
 had devised on a previous cruise when, after we 
 had run aground, he was persuaded to jump out 
 on to some suspicious-looking mud, in order to
 
 Camping Out. 41 
 
 push us off, by our assuring him it was as ' hard 
 as iron ' ; he sank in the black abomination up 
 to his knees, and, in his misery, gave vent to the 
 insane sentence "All that's slimy is not fish." 
 It must be an ingenuous state of mind that can 
 see fun in such remarks, but the boating man 
 will laugh at anything. These proverbs belong 
 to the class of joke which it is impossible to 
 write with any effect, or to explain to anyone 
 who was not present at their birth. Such are 
 the allusions common to two or more individuals 
 in which outsiders can see no fun, but are 
 astonished at the merriment the simple remark 
 never fails to bring forth ; simply because the 
 stranger cannot picture the original cause or 
 scene to which, consciously or not, the joke owes 
 its richness in the appreciation of the elect few. 
 These witticisms are mysterious to the unini- 
 tiated until, by repetition and the mellowing of 
 time, they also return the allusion its due meed 
 of laughter, though they would be puzzled to say 
 why. Most families and ' sets ' have such jokes, 
 with which strangers intermeddle not; such as: 
 " Just like the fat policeman, eh ? Bob " ; or. 
 "Polly knows why the milk is sour"; at which
 
 42 Camping Out, 
 
 other members of the charitable home-circle 
 laugh, while Bob gets cross and Polly blushes. 
 Goldsmith's squire was peculiarly attached to 
 the family story of the "grouse in the gun-room," 
 and Slender says to Shallow : "Pray you, uncle, 
 tell Mistress Anne the jest how my father stole 
 two geese out of a pen good uncle." Probably 
 the squire's guests and Mistress Anne thought the 
 crusty old anecdotes as wearisome as the reader 
 will mine. But while we have been talking the 
 tea and potted meat are done ; there is now 
 water enough in the lake, so we up anchor and 
 sail to opposite the Hoylake lighthouses, make 
 all snug, and arrive at the Stanley Arms at mid- 
 night Next morning the sun was brightly shin- 
 ing, and there was a gentle breeze in the direction 
 we desired. After sailing close to the north end 
 of Hilbre Island, a course was shaped for the 
 Menai Straits. A spinnaker was set, and we 
 bowled along merrily, telling tales, singing songs 
 (choruses indispensable), feeding, and taking 
 turns at steering and at dozing ' forrard.' The 
 wind gradually increased in strength first the 
 spinnaker had to come in, and soon we had to 
 reef mainsail. On nearing Puffin Island we
 
 Camping Out. 43 
 
 found rather high waves for so small a boat as 
 ours, and the little ship rolled badly. The 
 skipper at the helm seemed to regard the state 
 of affairs with equanimity his only concern 
 apparently being the spray on his eye-glass ; but 
 then he was an old hand, who had " wantoned 
 with the breakers from a boy," and probably cut 
 his teeth on marlin. 
 
 There is no disguising the fact that we two 
 others were getting into a blue funk. We began 
 to get out the life-belts, merely, of course, for 
 curiosity's sake ; we were too full of false shame 
 to put them on ; however, a nasty gybe soon 
 altered this to the extent of our blowing the belts 
 up at any rate. The writer made internal resolu- 
 tions to forswear boating and take to skittles. 
 We were somewhat comforted by seeing the boss 
 so placid, but all the same we got our shoes and 
 overcoats off ; would that I could say we reviewed 
 our past sinful lives with dismay perhaps the 
 story books are wrong, perhaps our consciences 
 were lighter then than now. Personally, my own 
 firm intentions were to sell the boat at Beaumaris, 
 or even give her away if necessary, if we ever got 
 there. Nevertheless she carried us many a mile
 
 44 Camping Out. 
 
 since then. The tide was running well out of 
 the Menai Straits, so we did not make rapid way, 
 as reckoned along the shore of Puffin Island, 
 although we were flying through the water. The 
 ' Prince Arthur ' came steaming out close to us, 
 and seemed quite a companion in the dusk after 
 our lonely sail ; she did not appear to recognize 
 the waves over which we were making such a 
 fuss. We dropped anchor at last under shelter 
 of-Beaumaris Pier, after a run of six hours from 
 Hoy lake a creditable passage for a boat i6| ft. 
 long X 5 ft. beam, with depth from gunwale to 
 garboards of i| ft, and a thin 8-inch keel of boiler- 
 plate dropping one foot. In the morning we 
 walked to Bangor and back by the famed Sus- 
 pension Bridge. On leaving Bangor we saw a 
 crowd of boys, evidently in wait for their prey 
 the tourist. Our costume, a cross between that 
 of a bargee and a railway porter, was enabling us 
 to escape unnoticed and untaxed, when the Doctor 
 must needs air his limited stock of Welsh. The 
 result was deplorable ; the whole pack started in 
 pursuit, singing lugubrious Welsh songs, inter- 
 spersed with petitions of " penny for sing." 
 Threats and frowns were of no avail. The
 
 Camping Out. 45 
 
 Doctor's Welsh vocabulary included some awfully 
 guttural 'cuss' words, which, if they were as 
 blood-curdling in meaning as in sound, should 
 have destroyed the entire population of the neigh- 
 bourhood, and given the Medico himself the lock- 
 jaw. All in vain. Temporary relief and revenge 
 could be obtained by throwing a penny down the 
 hill, when the crowd would charge down upon it 
 and fight over it. By this means a good return for 
 the penny in torn clothes and youthful ill-feeling 
 was produced, and a few strides respite secured. 
 Eventually, however, we had to arm ourselves 
 against the descendants of Glendower and Jones 
 with half-bricks, and, when round a corner, we 
 resorted to precipitate and ignominious flight. 
 About midday we got afloat, and beat across, 
 under storm mainsail, against a dead ' noser ' to 
 Conway a wet day's work. Out of the Conway 
 estuary a strong tide was running, and to make 
 way we had to row, kedge and tow. The latter 
 method was very unpopular, the water being cold, 
 and the bottom consisting of mussels, all and each 
 of which had its business end upwards and fresh 
 sharpened. 
 
 Next morning we started from Conway, hoping
 
 46 Camping Out. 
 
 to get to Rhyl. The wind seemed favourable, but 
 this was due to the draught up the harbour, for 
 outside a stiff head-wind was found. A yacht was 
 spoken, and we heard that she had given up after 
 trying to beat round the Great Orme's Head. So 
 we returned for a sail up the Conway river. 
 Favoured by a fair wind, bright clear sky, and 
 the tide, we had a glorious sail up to Trefriw. 
 We could sail close to the banks, on to which 
 two of us would occasionally leap for a stroll ; 
 we sang, we ate, we drank, we smoked ; how the 
 Lotos-eaters would have enjoyed life the more 
 had they known tobacco! We left the return 
 journey a little too late on the tide, and had some 
 difficulty with the channel, having to all turn out 
 and wade occasionally. The crass stupidity of 
 the few Welshmen on the banks endeared them 
 to us personally, but their advice did not much 
 facilitate our progress down stream. One ' race ' 
 down, which we had to run, gave us some anxiety 
 on account of the partly submerged boulders, 
 but we escaped with only one unpleasant bump. 
 A grand dinner and a subsequent cigar and smoke 
 with some Mersey yachtsmen at Conway con- 
 cluded a day well worthy the distinction of a red
 
 Camping Out. 47 
 
 letter ; in fact we could not have imagined any 
 improvement, except perhaps to drift : 
 
 " With indolent fingers fretting the tide, 
 And an indolent arm round a darling waist." 
 
 Next day another fine and glorious morning 
 greeted us, the wind had gone down somewhat, 
 and seemed more in our favour. A good sail 
 out of the harbour and estuary was made, but 
 the wind falling light, it was necessary to row 
 round the Orme, in order to get out of the tide 
 setting up the river, and into that flowing home- 
 wards. The wind veered about in light gusts, 
 and the greater part of the day was spent in 
 drifting past Llandudno and getting sunburnt 
 Many varieties of sea-bird allowed us to come 
 close to them because we had no gun, of which 
 fact it is proverbial birds make it a point to 
 acquaint themselves before they come near human 
 beings, to jeer at and abuse us for our incapacity 
 to do them harm. Towards sundown we were 
 opposite Abergele Church, a well-known land- 
 mark, and the question arose whether we should 
 put into Rhyl or sail on through the night. The 
 latter course was determined upon, but the wind 
 kept light and occasionally headed us, so our
 
 48 Camping Out. 
 
 progress past the lights of Rhyl was a slow one. 
 We lighted the riding light and put it under the 
 stern sheets, where we sat abreast with the sail 
 cover over our legs, thus making a warm air 
 chamber for our legs, as the night was cold. 
 Here we sat through most of the night, chatting 
 and singing until we passed the Point of Aire 
 light, which we found after steering by a pocket 
 compass and the stars. Soon we noticed, by our 
 position with regard to the furnace lights of 
 Mostyn, that we were being rapidly carried up 
 the Dee by the tide, so after running into a buoy, 
 which seemed to get up in the darkness and rush 
 at us, we found it best to row for an hour or more. 
 By this means a good course for Hilbre Isle was 
 made, and a few minutes hard pulling got us 
 round the point and into the tide for Hoylake, 
 where we anchored at 4 o'clock in the morning. 
 It was considered too cold to sleep on board, and 
 we could not go on to Liverpool on this tide, so 
 we went ashore in the hope of finding some good 
 Samaritan to take us in. We hammered at the 
 Lake Inn for some time, but were ordered to 
 ' begone,' so we ' begoned.' The lighthouse 
 seemed the only thing awake and friendly, so for
 
 Camping Out. 49 
 
 that we made. The keeper took pity upon us 
 and found us a house where we got a bed, for 
 which, cold and tired as we were, we were deeply 
 grateful. After three hours of blissful sleep, an 
 early start enabled us to reach the Mersey be- 
 times. Here the boat was run up the Yacht Slip 
 at Tranmere to the Mersey Canoe Club premises ; 
 her crew returning to work and the ' busy haunts 
 of men.' This extensive and successful cruise in 
 a canoe yawl took, therefore, less than five whole 
 days ; and by neither a canoe nor a yacht could 
 it, in its entirety, have been similarly carried out.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE BRITISH CANOE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 " A sudden thought strikes me, 
 Let us swear an eternal friendship." CANNING. 
 
 Previously to the year 1887, although the 
 various canoe clubs of Great Britain had held 
 meets on different waters for camping and canoe- 
 ing, no attempt at an inter-club meet had been 
 made. In August, 1887, three or four clubs 
 were invited by the Royal Canoe Club to ar- 
 range a cruise in company on the Norfolk Broads. 
 A few men from each of these clubs assembled, 
 and a very successful cruise took place. At a 
 meeting held during this cruise it was suggested 
 that an association to arrange for future meets 
 of the kind should be formed ; the idea was dis-
 
 Camping Out. 51 
 
 cussed, was enthusiastically adopted, and, de- 
 spite influential opposition, has been carried to 
 a successful issue. The enormous advance in 
 America of late years in the sport of canoeing, 
 both in skill and popularity, has been largely 
 due to the success of the American Canoe 
 Association, so it was determined to found on 
 similar lines an association for Great Britain. 
 As the face of friend sharpeneth friend, it was 
 felt that such an association, with its meets, camp 
 fires, etc. where the doings of the clubs, the 
 designs, rigs, and performances of boats, the 
 suitability of camping and sailing grounds could 
 be discussed and compared would give the 
 sport in this country an impetus there were signs 
 of its being in need of. Much increased interest 
 in the sport has already (1890) been the result 
 of the formation of the society ; and canoeing in 
 this country owes much to those gentlemen who 
 founded the Association. The B.C.A. has now 
 a hundred and fifty members, and its success is 
 established. The gentlemen to whom this is 
 chiefly due are : Mr. E. B. Tredwen, its first 
 Vice-Commodore ; Mr. Percy Nisbet, its invalu- 
 able Secretary-Treasurer from the commence-
 
 52 Camping OiLt. 
 
 ment until now ; Mr. T. H. Holding, and Mr. H. 
 Wilmer, all of the Royal Canoe Club ; Messrs. 
 Bartley and Livingstone, of the Mersey Canoe 
 Club; Mr. G. F. Holmes, of the Humber Yawl 
 Club ; and Mr. R. M. Richardson, of the Tyne 
 Club. The Association has been fortunate in re- 
 ceiving the approval of Rob Roy Macgregor, 
 who has been its Commodore from the com- 
 mencement. 
 
 The first meet was held at Loch Lomond in 
 1888, the second on Lake Windermere in 1889. 
 Both of these were enjoyable gatherings, despite 
 the rainy weather which accompanied both 
 expeditions. The meet in 1890 was on Falmouth 
 Harbour, and was an unequivocal success in 
 every way. 
 
 We will add a few extracts from the B.C. A. 
 rules, and can cordially recommend every canoeist 
 to apply for membership to the Secretary at 
 i, Water Lane, Great Tower Street, London, E.G. 
 
 "This association shall be called 'The British 
 Canoe Association.' Its object shall be the 
 promotion of Cruises and Meets, whereby Canoe- 
 ists of the United Kingdom, irrespective of clubs, 
 may unite for the purpose of cruising and camp-
 
 Camping Out. 53 
 
 ing ; furthermore, it aims to establish reasonable 
 tariffs for land and water transit of canoes, for 
 procuring concessions and permissions for the 
 navigation of Canals, Streams, and Lakes, and in 
 all possible ways to procure increased facilities 
 for cruising, camping, and exploration. Any 
 gentleman may become a member of this Associa- 
 tion whose application for membership has been 
 approved, and who has been duly proposed, 
 seconded, and elected by the Committee. The 
 officers of this Association shall be a Commodore, 
 Vice-Commodore, and Rear-Commodore, and a 
 Secretary-Treasurer, to be elected at the General 
 Annual Meeting." 
 
 Ladies are eligible for membership.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WITH THE BRITISH CANOE ASSOCIA- 
 TION TO LAKE WINDERMERE. 
 
 Oh Windermere ! Thy placid charms 
 
 I never can forget ; 
 Thy hills, thy rills, thy pleasant farms, 
 
 Thy everlasting wet ! 
 Full many a rainy place I've seen, 
 
 In equinoctial clime ; 
 But there the rain came now and then, 
 
 Here it rains all the time ! 
 
 THE CANOEIST'S FAREWELL. 
 
 The camp-site for 1889 was situated at Bee- 
 holm, at the Waterhead end of Lake Winder- 
 mere, on the opposite shore to the landing place 
 for Ambleside. The camping place was in a 
 very pretty spot, on ground sloping down to the 
 water, and well sheltered by lofty trees. The 
 shore consisted of sharp stones, therefore small 
 wooden piers were constructed in order to facili- 
 tate the landing from and the embarking in the 
 boats, and to afford a diving place for the morn- 
 ing swim. The water of the lake is so cold that,
 
 Camping Out. 55 
 
 on rising in the early morning, it took some time 
 to determine whether it was not 'altogether too 
 chilly this morning for a bath/ or whether one 
 had not 'got a bit of a cold coming on,' or 
 whether a swim on an empty stomach was not a 
 bad thing in general, and this morning in par- 
 ticular. Now, when there was, in addition to the 
 anticipated shock, a painful limp over stones all 
 carefully arranged by a painstaking dispensation, 
 with the points up, while the cold water crept 
 slowly up one's shivering frame, the odds were 
 against the bath ; the result being that one went 
 about all day with that feeling of a cowardly 
 dereliction of duty, which seems to generally 
 haunt the Briton who has omitted his morning 
 dip. After the stages were constructed, this slow 
 wading into the element was unnecessary; it was 
 much less excusable to funk ; the pyjamas were 
 resolutely thrown off, a run down the plank 
 taken, and, although the water was always 
 "co-o-older than ever this morning, boys" ; still, 
 each boy felt he would be disgraced before his 
 conscience if he did not screw his courage to the 
 sticking place and take the plunge. 
 
 The Meet was fairly well attended ; several
 
 56 Camping Out. 
 
 lady members lodged at Waterhead, or at Bee- 
 holm Farm ; two of these were brides, one being 
 on her honeymoon. There is always a funny 
 man in camp, so of course these poor creatures 
 were told that they had come to the camp in 
 the search for ' canoebial ' bliss. 
 
 The canoes were unloaded from the trains at 
 Lakeside, and, as the camp was at the other end 
 of the lake, it was necessary to sail or paddle 
 them thereto. 
 
 The farm at Beeholm supplied dairy produce ; 
 for other stores Ambleside was very convenient, 
 and, the Association having rented a big row- 
 boat, the camp attendant was able to bring stores, 
 letters, and whatever else was required, across 
 from the village to the camp. 
 
 The view from the camp was a lovely one, in- 
 cluding the Langdale Pikes and other hills ; 
 Waterhead, with Mr. Mclver's seat and landing 
 place ; and, further down the lake, Lowood, be- 
 loved of the newly wed. 
 
 Although there were one or two very fine days 
 during the fortnight, still on many of the days the 
 Lake District upheld its character for ' heavy wet.' 
 There was too much weather about, and the rain
 
 Camping Out. 57 
 
 was " frequent and painful and free," as was the 
 language in which it was discussed, or merely 
 4 cussed.' 
 
 Fortunately, the very finest day of the meet 
 favoured the coaching expedition. A coach was 
 chartered for a drive to Keswick ; the previous 
 rain had laid the dust, and, the day being glori- 
 ously fine, the drive through much of the loveliest 
 part of the Lake District was thoroughly enjoyed. 
 It was a very pretty sight to see the fleet sailing 
 over to Waterhead to join the coach at the 
 Waterhead Hotel. The club flag was hoisted 
 behind the coach, and the language, of course, 
 was nautical. The driver never rightly under- 
 stood how to port or starboard his horses when 
 requested so to do, and it took some time to 
 induce him to stop by the command to 'cast 
 anchor.' It is very probable that he considered 
 us quite a new variety of lunatics ; for the long- 
 shore loafer, with his mouth full of nautical terms, 
 is not so common an object at the Lakes as at 
 the seaside. He was perhaps more accustomed 
 to discordant noise such as the din we succeeded 
 in making with his coach-horn ; for it is probable 
 that, by practising on this instrument in turns,
 
 58 Camping Out. 
 
 and assisting it by a sixpenny trumpet, we estab- 
 lished a record in the district After an enjoyable 
 drive through lovely scenery, a luxurious meal 
 was provided at the Royal Oak at Keswick ; 
 after which the company strolled about the 
 neighbourhood ; many devoting their energies 
 to buying Keswick lead pencils with the names 
 of the purchaser, or of friends at home, stamped 
 thereon. 
 
 Sing-songs were held in the camp on several 
 evenings, banjos and good voices being at com- 
 mand. There was a piano in the committee 
 marquee, and two concerts were carried out, to 
 one of which visitors from the neighbourhood 
 were invited ; a creditable vocal and instrumental 
 performance resulted, which earned the com- 
 mendation of the local press. After the concert, 
 one of the brides presented the little flags won 
 in the races which had been held ; for, although 
 racing is not regarded as a feature of these meets, 
 a few had been arranged and carried out. 
 
 Two evenings were enlivened by lantern-slide 
 exhibitions of canoeing cruises, held in the mar- 
 quee. 
 
 On one evening a convivial supper of the
 
 Camping Out. 59 
 
 members and their friends was discussed at the 
 Waterhead Hotel ; after this the boats were 
 illuminated by Chinese lanterns, and were pad- 
 dled and sailed about the lake between the camp 
 and Ambleside. A very pretty effect was pro- 
 duced, and was witnessed by large numbers of 
 people from the neighbourhood. Processions in 
 line and in file were carried out, the evolutions 
 ending in a mass meeting in the centre of this 
 end of the lake, and here songs and choruses 
 took place, after which the lamplighted boaties 
 returned to camp. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Association, Mr. 
 R. M. Richardson was elected Vice-Commodore ; 
 and various places for next year's meet were 
 discussed. After the meeting the members were 
 photographed in group for the new Year-Book. 
 
 When the time came for our pleasant camp to 
 break up, it was agreed that such gatherings 
 were the best way to spend one's holidays, and 
 with Black-eyed Susan we cried : 
 
 " We only part to meet again."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WITH THE BRITISH CANOE ASSOCIA- 
 TION TO FALMOUTH. 
 
 " A wet sheet and a flowing sea, 
 
 A wind that follows fast, 
 And fills the white and rustling sail, 
 And bends the gallant mast." 
 
 ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. 
 
 For the fourth inter-club meet, and the third 
 of the British Canoe Association, Falmouth was 
 selected by the votes of the constituency ; the 
 other places submitted for consideration by the 
 management having been Holland and Lough 
 Erne. 
 
 A better choice than this magnificent harbour 
 could not have been made, and the meeting was 
 a success in every way. 
 
 The camp field was situated at Pencarrow 
 Point, on the outer harbour, about a mile and a 
 half from Falmouth town by water, and about the 
 same distance from Flushing by the road, from 
 which village there is a ferry across the inner
 
 Camping Out. 6r 
 
 harbour to Falmouth. The postal address was 
 Mylor ; the camp being situated at the mouth of 
 Mylor Creek, and near the parish church. Stores 
 and other necessaries could readily be obtained 
 from Falmouth by road or water ; while a farm 
 close by supplied the campers with dairy and 
 farm produce. The camp was situated near the 
 shore station and recreation grounds of the train- 
 ing ship Ganges, and to the officers of this ship 
 the Association became much indebted for the 
 loan of water-breakers, forms, tables, etc., as well 
 as for their presence at some of the camp festivi- 
 ties, and, with their ladies, for their patronage of 
 the club concert. Several campers had the 
 advantage of inspecting the Ganges, and of at- 
 tending the Sunday services on that vessel. 
 
 The meet was favoured with beautiful weather. 
 Good breezes were the rule, and capital sailing 
 was possible every day, although towards the 
 end of the fortnight there was just a shade too 
 much weight in the wind for the smaller boats. 
 
 The Liverpool contingent and their boats 
 journeyed to Falmouth by water, being shipped 
 on board the Mary Hough, in the Trafalgar 
 Dock, on Saturday, July 26th. After a pleasant
 
 62 Camping Out. 
 
 voyage Falmouth was reached early on the 
 Monday morning, the boats were slung over the 
 ship's side into the harbour, and sailed, rowed, or 
 paddled to the site of the camp ; extra stores, 
 gear, and luggage being transported on a ' quay 
 punt,' as a variety of sailing craft is called in this 
 region. 
 
 On arriving in view of the camp, one of us 
 remembered having read in a guide-book that 
 the water of Falmouth Harbour is pleasantly 
 warm. He stated this as a fact to his com- 
 panions, so, although it was very early in the 
 morning, overboard some of us went. Possibly 
 the lively anticipation of something of the nature 
 of a hot bath caused the shock to be more felt 
 than would otherwise have been the case ; any- 
 way the writer had not reached the surface after 
 the plunge before he had thoroughly made up 
 his mind to slay the pretended friend whose 
 misrepresentations had induced the performance. 
 This individual's head was also above the surface, 
 and was also gasping for breath ; his evident 
 consternation assisted him to shift responsibility 
 on to the guide-book, but not until the dispute 
 had rendered us all pleasantly warm. The sea
 
 Camping Out. 63 
 
 is not so tepid at Falmouth in summer as one 
 would expect from its geographical position. 
 Nevertheless, very few of the campers omitted 
 the morning swim. In the shallower waters of 
 the roadstead, slimy filaments of seaweed, many 
 yards long, are so abundant as to interfere with 
 
 the comfort and even the safety of the swim. 
 Near the camp shore, however, this weed was 
 fortunately less plentiful. For anyone who ob- 
 jected to wade down the pebbly beach, a good 
 dive could be got from the quay wall at Pencar- 
 row Point, or from the top of the house-boat 
 moored opposite the camp. One bright morning
 
 Camping Out. 65 
 
 the writer took his hand-camera and photographed 
 some of the men in the air as they dived from 
 the quay. 
 
 It is not intended to give any detailed descrip- 
 tion of the doings at the camp, or of the scenery 
 of the neighbourhood ; but merely to refer shortly 
 to the more prominent occurrences. 
 
 On arrival at the camp it was found that the 
 London men had already pitched their tents ; 
 that the committee tent was up ; and the piano 
 hourly and anxiously expected. During the 
 first day we Mersey men pitched our tents, rigged 
 our boats, and got generally fitted up for a fort- 
 night's gipsy life. 
 
 The camp was prettily situated in a field facing 
 the Carrick Roads. In this enclosure there were 
 eventually over twenty tents erected, besides the 
 commodious committee marquee. A tall flag pole 
 was raised in the centre of the field, and from it 
 waved the Association's blue and white burgee. 
 
 Along the sea front of the field were ranged 
 the Mersey tents, nine in number. This was 
 dubbed Mersey Row, and, as the various tents 
 had fancy names on painted signs, communica- 
 tions could be addressed to Lilyshaven, Tavies-
 
 66 Camping Out 
 
 holm, Wolfsden, or the Pocket - handkerchief 
 Mersey Row, B.C.A. Camp, Mylor. 
 
 At the top of the field, furthest from the shore, 
 were four prettily-decorated tents ; these were 
 the married quarters, although only one lady 
 actually slept in camp. In all there were 48 
 members present at the meet, including six of 
 the fair sex ; while there were over thirty boats 
 belonging to members. The open character of 
 the sailing ground probably accounted for the 
 large proportion of canoe yawls present, for of 
 these there were a dozen. In addition, there were 
 a yacht, a house-boat, and a rowing boat, the 
 remainder being canoes. Three men lived on 
 the house-boat, the crews of two of the yawls 
 slept on their boats, two or three men with 
 families slept in Falmouth or at the farm, the 
 others lived in the camp. Three of the canoes 
 were of the Canadian pattern, and weatherly 
 little boats they proved with their centre-boards 
 and drop-rudders. 
 
 The regatta of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club 
 took place a day or two after our arrival, and the 
 Committee arranged a race for canoe yawls. 
 Seven of these craft started, and a very interest-
 
 68 Camping Out. 
 
 ing race resulted. The writer sailed his new 
 canoe yawl the Tavie in this race, so will give 
 a short account of the affair from his point of 
 view. The Tavie is of the class called Mersey 
 Sailing Canoes she is 17 feet 6 inches long, 
 4 feet 7 inches beam, I foot 9 inches gunwale to 
 garboard, with a centre-board dropping i foot 
 6 inches ; she carried main and mizzen rig on this 
 occasion ; but for light winds she has a larger 
 mainsail, carries a jib, and discards the mizzen. 
 There was a strong breeze blowing into the har- 
 bour, and, while sailing about before the start, 
 our mainsail had been close-reefed. Having 
 noticed the Vital Spark, a larger boat with a 
 heavy lead keel, put her gunwale under in some 
 of the puffs, we at first only ventured to shake out 
 one reef. Relying, however, on our crew of three 
 heavy-weights, we shook out the reef just before 
 our first gun. While we were waiting for our start- 
 ing gun, the racing yachts came back into the 
 harbour for their first time round the course, the 
 renowned ' Thistle ' leading the fleet. She came 
 tearing into the harbour before the wind, and as 
 she rounded Pendennis Point her spinnaker was 
 handed, and a row of men along the weather
 
 Camping Out. 69 
 
 ~T 
 
 gunwale tailed on to the mainsheet in a line, and 
 got into swing for running it in. A grand sight 
 she was as she cut round the Committee mark- 
 boat, bursting up a hissing wave from her bow 
 as she came on the wind, for her reach out to 
 sea on the final round. She formed a vision of 
 speed and beauty, and of smart yachtmanship, 
 we shall never forget While admiring her, and 
 keeping out of the way of her competitors, we 
 heard our first gun. The five minutes' interval 
 between the guns was filled with as much interest 
 and manoeuvring as if we had been all clipper 
 yachts. The Tavie got off with a good lead, 
 Vital Spark being second. It was first a long 
 and a short leg among the shipping in the inner 
 harbour, to a buoy moored opposite the Royal 
 Cornwall Yacht Club. Just after rounding this 
 the Tavie was passed by the Vital Spark and a 
 yawl with green sails ; on the reach out to the 
 Chequer-buoy these boats increased their lead, 
 while the Doris, Queenie, and Cacique closed up 
 on us. By the manner in which we heeled over 
 as we got into the open water and the breeze 
 outside the harbour, we began to funk the ap- 
 proaching gybe, and to be sorry we had taken
 
 70 Camping Out. 
 
 out that last reef. The manner in which our 
 green-sailed rival gybed was anything but re- 
 assuring ; she lurched over, took in a lot of the 
 briny, and wobbled a moment or two, then came 
 on the wind, and fouled the buoy ; so her crew 
 dropped sail, bailed, and returned to the harbour. 
 A moment later our boom was over, and we were 
 tearing along before the wind for the training 
 ship Ganges, with the Vital Spark a-head, and 
 the Doris and Queenie alongside. And now be- 
 fore the seas we rolled badly, our boom lifting 
 and occasionally dipping in the waves ; so we 
 made bad weather of it, and got to leeward of 
 Doris and Queenie, the former being also a-head 
 of us. By putting the boat-hook on the boom, 
 and seating two of the crew on it, we steadied 
 ourselves ; and, sailing by the lee, we managed to 
 be second round the Ganges. From thence to 
 the flag-ship it was a dead beat to windward, 
 during which we dropped the Doris, and were 
 hunted home by the Queenie. We finished some 
 minutes behind the Vital Spark Queenie third, 
 Cacique fourth, Doris fifth : the first three in 
 being the prize-winners. It was interesting in 
 the evening to sail about the harbour, and to in-
 
 Camping Out. 71 
 
 spect the racing yachts at anchor ; some of them 
 flying winning-flags, and all being things of 
 beauty ; and it was pleasant to sit in the parlour 
 of the Greenbank Hotel, sipping shandy-gaff, 
 watching the frou-frou of a regatta evening in 
 the harbour, and talking over the day's events. 
 
 CANOE YAWL "TAVIE" UNDER RACING MAINSAIL. 
 
 At Mylor Regatta, a few days later, there was 
 also a race for canoe yawls. At high water this 
 creek is a lovely and extensive sheet of water, 
 and on ariving at its head we found quite a lively 
 water picnic going on. There was a band upon
 
 72 Camping Out. 
 
 the Committee mark-boat, well practised up in 
 * See the Conquering Hero ; ' crowds of rowing 
 boats were splashing about, and the banks were 
 crowded with holiday folk. The weather was 
 bright and warm, and the music, the gay colours 
 of the ladies' attire, the white sails of the boats 
 and yachts, contributed to a pretty picture, not 
 unlike a miniature edition of the famous Henley 
 Regatta. Besides the sailing races, there were 
 rowing contests and a canoe paddling race. The 
 course for the canoe yawl race was down the creek 
 and out round a buoy in the harbour, back up the 
 creek and round the flag-ship twice round. As 
 regards the race itself, it may be shortly described 
 as Snake first, the rest nowhere. This wonderful 
 little canoe yawl from Oxford was just suited by 
 the smooth water, and the constant tacking up 
 the narrow channel. It was a pity she did not 
 arrive in time for the Royal Cornwall Regatta, 
 as it would have been interesting to compare her 
 performance in the lumpier water and stiffer 
 breeze, and with the longer boards of that day. 
 It is probable that there also she would have made 
 an example of the rest of our canoe yawl fleet, 
 for later on, after the camp had broken up, she
 
 Camping Out. 73 
 
 beat the famous Mosquito Yacht Fleet 40 
 minutes on a 2O-mile course in a strong breeze, 
 at Falmouth Town Regatta. 
 
 During the fortnight in camp, only two of the 
 expeditions carried out were arranged for by the 
 officers of the Association the coach ride to the 
 Lizard, and the voyage to the Helford River. For 
 the other cruises members were left to make their 
 own arrangements, to go alone, or in small fleets, 
 or not at all, as they willed. There being such 
 different classes of boat present rendered it diffi- 
 cult to make distant expeditions to suit every 
 kind of craft ; especially as the British canoeist 
 is jealous to resent the least appearance of " boss- 
 ing." Nevertheless the writer feels that it might 
 have been better to have endeavoured to persuade 
 all in camp to join in more expeditions than was 
 done. By so doing the habits of loafing around 
 the tents or sailing about just opposite the camp 
 might have been combated ; as might the tempta- 
 tion to sail round Trefusis Point into the inner 
 harbour, moor at the Greenbank quay, and sit in 
 the cosy parlour of that hostelry looking out on 
 the busy Venice-like scene in the haven, smoking 
 and lazying the happy hours away mea culpa,
 
 Camping Out. 75 
 
 mea magna culpa ! True, canoeists are at these 
 meetings in search of recreation, and, no doubt, 
 there is plenty of rest and repose in such a life ; 
 but it is just a little stagnant, and afterwards 
 there is a sense of not having made the most of 
 one's opportunities. Like the Lazy Minstrel at 
 Streatley, we used to 
 
 " Sit and lounge here on the grass, 
 And watch the river traffic pass." 
 
 And could sympathize with him when he sings : 
 
 " Upon the winding Thames you gaze, 
 
 And though the view's beyond all praise, 
 I'd rather much sit here and laze, 
 Than scale the Hill at Streatley." 
 
 It Is in vain for Commodores and Secretaries 
 to urge energy, and to enumerate the views that 
 ought to be seen, and the places that should be 
 ' done.' The lazy laureate of the Thames should 
 have been made a life member of the B.C.A. for 
 writing that verse : 
 
 " And when you're here, I'm told that you 
 Should mount the Hill and see the view ; 
 And gaze and wonder, if you'd do 
 Its merits most completely :
 
 76 Camping Out. 
 
 The air is clear, the day is fine, 
 The prospect is, I know, divine 
 But most distinctly I decline 
 
 To climb the Hill at Streatley." 
 
 Of a large proportion of the men in camp it 
 might have been said, just as truly as of the 
 House of Peers : They " did nothing in particu- 
 lar, and did it very well." 
 
 However, the majority joined the expedition 
 to the Helford River. This creek is some dis- 
 tance outside the harbour, across Falmouth Bay. 
 The Naval Manoeuvres had commenced, and a 
 fleet was anchored in the bay. We spent the 
 morning sailing round these kettles, longing for 
 an invitation aboard, which we did not get. 
 About mid-day the breeze died away to a flat 
 calm, so some of us had a swim, others a doze. 
 Soon a smart breeze sprang up, and off we sped 
 to Helford. We landed at Durgan to refresh ; 
 there we met the skipper of the Snake, and he 
 offered the writer a passage back on that curiously 
 designed little ship. During this sail we ex- 
 perienced how swift and stiff this little boat is ; 
 and, oh ! how very wet ! 
 
 One of the charming features of boating at
 
 Camping Out, 77 
 
 Falmouth is the number of lovely creeks opening 
 out of the harbour in various directions. Most 
 of them were explored by us, especially those of 
 Mylor, St. Just, St. Mawes, and Penryn. 
 
 The Fal River resembles rather a creek or 
 arm of the sea than a river, and is navigable up 
 to Malpas at all times of the tide ; and, when 
 the tide is up, for some two miles further to the 
 important city of Truro. Four of us had a very 
 jolly day up this river in the Tame t being fortu- 
 nately able to go the whole distance to Truro 
 and back under sail. With the flood tide under 
 us, and a fair wind, we ran up to Malpas, and 
 were entranced with the beauties of King Harry's 
 Passage and Lord Falmouth's lovely seat 
 Tregothnan and with the well-wooded banks 
 of the river, and of the pretty creeks opening 
 out of the main stream. On reaching Malpas 
 we found that we had over-run the tide, and so 
 the channel hence to Truro was between slightly 
 submerged mud-banks, and the navigation there- 
 fore difficult. On a rising tide, however, a run 
 aground on mud is a temporary inconvenience, 
 and by the help of sailing directions from men 
 unloading timber from barges at the little quays 
 
 H
 
 78 Camping Out. 
 
 on the banks, we managed to get very early on 
 the tide to Truro. These directions were fre- 
 quently both complicated and amusing. One, 
 we remember, was : " Keep the door of the 
 office on this quay dead astern until you get the 
 two gates in the big field opposite in a line, then 
 come sharp round and head for the middle arch 
 of the railway bridge." Sure enough this course 
 carried us up a channel, with only a few inches 
 depth of water on each side of us. At high 
 water the river from Malpas to Truro forms a 
 pretty and extensive sheet of water, navigable to 
 barges ; at low tide there is merely a shallow 
 stream winding through mud-flats. Clever as 
 we were in getting to Truro so early on the tide, 
 we were only a minute or two ahead of the little 
 passenger steamer which, in a marvellous manner, 
 worms her way through the intricacies of the 
 passage up to Truro and back to Falmouth. 
 
 Soon after we had tied up near Truro Bridge, 
 the canoe yawl Queenie and two or three canoes 
 arrived. We landed and explored the city, and 
 laid in a store of fresh fruit. The writer had 
 spent some of his early youth in Truro, and ex- 
 perienced the pleasure of revisiting, and recogniz-
 
 Camping Out. 79 
 
 ing places he had not seen for over 20 years. 
 He led his friends about to see where he had 
 formerly lived where he had fallen in the ' leats ' 
 where he had fought and been thrashed by the 
 grocer's boy, and where the village idiot used to 
 stand ; he would have dragged them off to view 
 the farm where he had seen a pig killed, had 
 they not betrayed a preference for a visit to the 
 Cathedral. Everything appeared just as he had 
 left it in this pleasant, stagnant little city ; 
 nothing seemed to have been pulled down in the 
 quarter of a century, little besides the Cathedral 
 erected. Since the decline in the mining value 
 of the neighbourhood, and the silting up of the 
 river, this, the chief city of the county, has 
 diminished in importance, and would probably 
 have still further declined, but for the stimulus 
 of the new Bishopric and its interests. Were 
 the river channel efficiently dredged out, com- 
 merce and wealth might again return. Familiar 
 as the river and city were to the writer, he made 
 the common experience how much less in size 
 and importance things really are than they 
 appear in the memory, however vivid, retained 
 from boyhood long ago. This disproportion is
 
 8o Camping Out. 
 
 probably due to the lack of objects of comparison 
 in the experience of childhood. True, Landor's 
 monument is high, but not so "blooming" high 
 as a countryman described it ; Lemon Street is 
 steep, certainly, but not all that steep, though 
 the Lemon Street of memory is like the side of 
 a house. This must be the house in which we 
 lived ; but, bless my soul ! how it has shrivelled ! 
 Why, our despised and economical lodgings at 
 home are more imposing ; those leats are not 
 the broad, clear streams we have portrayed to 
 our acquaintance ; this river is not the broad, 
 clear expanse we have described to envious 
 schoolmates. Distance has not only lent en- 
 chantment to the view, but, strange to say, 
 magnitude as well. We once witnessed a dive 
 from the Town Bridge into the tide below, and 
 thought the dive a marvel ; since then, whenever 
 Tommy Burns, or other modern bridge jumper, 
 has been referred to, we have instanced this hero 
 of "when we were boys." . Can this be the bridge? 
 Why, were the river but as clean as years ago, 
 we'd do the deed ourselves, and ask no bribe. 
 While others sought the Cathedral we wandered 
 off to the barber's shop in the market place,
 
 Camping Out. Si 
 
 where our childhood's hair had been cut. Joy ! 
 the barber with the funny name was still alive. 
 We entered, and, for old time's sake, waited while 
 he finished his lunch and another customer, just 
 to have him cut our hair again (it did not want 
 cutting, and, alas ! there's less of it to cut). Art- 
 fully we led the conversation back to years ago ; 
 the old man thought he remembered us, probably 
 in compliment to our evident expectation that the 
 whole population of the place had followed our 
 subsequent career with pride. Relatives and 
 friends, however, he could talk to us about, and 
 had heard that some of us were ' doing well ' in 
 London and Liverpool. To ' do well,' alas ! 
 Truro's sons must leave their lovely, sleepy, 
 dwindling native place. We too soon found that, 
 to do well, the quicker we did the same ourselves 
 the better, for the tide was falling. Once, when 
 a boy, our boat had stuck in the mud of the river 
 and been left by the tide, and one such experience 
 will last an ordinary lifetime, if economically 
 used. After a few exciting stick-in-the-muds, 
 we reached Malpas in safety. From there the 
 breeze was right ahead, and came in knock- 
 down puffs round corners, and through gaps 
 in the woods on the banks.
 
 82 Camping Out. 
 
 A lot of patient tacking was necessary to get 
 out of the river, but there was too much incident 
 in the proceedings for this to be at all monoton- 
 ous. One moment we would be laughing over an 
 anecdote, while the sail flapped idly, the next 
 four anxious faces would be observing the centre- 
 board from the vantage point of the windward 
 coaming. From Trelissick Point, however, a true 
 wind and a long board put us in position to lay 
 our moorings. 
 
 Falmouth town was quite a short sail or paddle 
 from our camp, and an interesting place we found 
 it, with its long street running parallel to the 
 busy inner roadstead. It reminded us strongly 
 of several little towns we know on the Riviera. 
 
 The Camp Committee made a new departure, 
 by arranging for camp dinners in the evening in 
 the large tent. These were much appreciated 
 by those too late, too tired, or too lazy to prepare 
 their own meal. On several evenings a few de- 
 generate campers dined at the Greenbank ; this 
 unworthy proceeding so sapped the moral nature 
 that, facilis decensus, one of them remained there 
 to sleep. 
 
 Fishermen visited the camp with freshly caught
 
 Camping Out. 83 
 
 fish, very welcome for breakfast as rivals to the 
 popular kipper. Had time allowed we might 
 have supplied ourselves with fish, for shoals of 
 mackerel were in the harbour all the time. Al- 
 though more familiar with the paddle and the 
 tiller than with the cricket bat, eleven of us 
 accepted the challenge from the Ganges to a 
 cricket match. The boys won, but the canoedlers 
 were not disgraced. 
 
 One day was devoted to a united driving ex- 
 cursion to the Lizard. After the famed rocks 
 and lighthouses had been inspected, and seven 
 amateur photographers had eased their minds 
 by the exposure of all the plates they had with 
 them, a capital meal was discussed at the Lizard 
 Hotel. 
 
 The camp created much interest in Falmouth 
 and the neighbourhood, and was visited by a 
 good many people. A successful concert was 
 held in the committee tent one evening, to 
 which visitors were invited ; after this the camp 
 was illuminated, and the camp band rendered 
 night hideous. This band was enrolled early in 
 the meet ; it was chiefly remarkable for the dis- 
 cordancy of its performance, and the extra-
 
 8 4 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 ordinary attire of the performers. The chief 
 instruments were a fog-horn, a gong, a toy 
 trumpet, and a drum, and, for the uniform, hat 
 shops and millinery establishments had been 
 ransacked at Falmouth. Early in its career this 
 band developed symptoms of taking upon itself 
 the duty of securing early rising in camp ; but 
 remonstrances, in the form of strong language 
 and weighty missiles, on the part of those dis- 
 turbed, induced the musicians to confine their 
 attentions to an after breakfast parade. 
 
 MORNING GYMNASTICS.
 
 Camping Out. 85 
 
 On one evening the popular B.C.A. Secretary 
 and Mrs. Nisbet gave a reception in the com- 
 mittee tent. The dressing for this function 
 afforded some amusement ; for, as visitors and 
 ladies were to be present, a toilette was essential. 
 Chins, which for days had grown more and more 
 stubbly, were sacred from the razor no longer, 
 but were painfully rasped by candle light. The 
 clothes of civilization were unearthed from bags 
 and boxes ; until, by a system of mutual accom- 
 modation in the way of coats, collars, watch- 
 guards, etc., a more or less respectable appearance 
 was the general result. An enjoyable evening 
 was spent, and, after the ladies had retired, a 
 noisy sing-song was continued into the "wee 
 sma' hours " beyond the twelfth. 
 
 From the farm, milk, eggs, and butter were 
 obtained. Junkets and Cornish cream were 
 consumed in such quantities as to prove that 
 canoeists do not possess livers, or have unlimited 
 faith in the healthiness of their out-door life, or 
 the skill of their family doctors. 
 
 No accident of any importance occurred during 
 the meet, although three upsets in sailing canoes 
 took place. Two of these were due to ' pressing,'
 
 86 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 and were not unexpected ; the third was of an 
 amusing nature. A new member, desiring a 
 picture of his canoe in full trim, for exhibition to 
 the friends at home, induced a comrade to go 
 out in a punt with a camera, in order to take a 
 photograph of the canoe as it was sailed past. 
 After getting everything ship-shape, and having 
 manoeuvred into position, our neophyte's anxiety 
 to get both ship and crew on to the negative 
 directed his attention from the necessary balanc- 
 ing, and over went the whole concern. A photo- 
 graph of this catastrophe was all his friend
 
 Camping Out. 87 
 
 obtained for him on this occasion, and it is 
 doubtful whether that will be exhibited to the 
 " old folks at home." 
 
 The piano in the committee tent was in fre- 
 quent request. The B.C. A. is rich in musical 
 talent, instrumental and vocal, and the ladies 
 were always kind in the matter of accompani- 
 ments. Perhaps the most popular song was 
 ' The Agricultural Irish Girl ' ; its refrain might 
 be heard in the distance as wandering canoeists 
 strolled back to camp. In fact this song became 
 a kind of B.C. A. National Anthem ; at all periods 
 of the day the virtues and charms of the Irish 
 Girl were chanted ; and her memory beguiled 
 the toilsome return to camp by road or water, 
 when, but for it, tired arms and legs would have 
 felt still more weary. 
 
 The annual meeting of the B.C. A. was held on 
 the 4th of August in the committee tent. Rob 
 Roy Macgregor was re-elected Commodore, and 
 Mr. H. Wilmer, R.C.C., Vice-Commodore ; while 
 Mr. Percy Nisbet could not resist the unanimous 
 request that he should continue the B.C.A. Secre- 
 tary and Treasurer. 
 
 Take it all in all, the B.C.A. meet of 1890 was
 
 88 Camping Out. 
 
 a success which will long be remembered by 
 those present A jolly set of fellows assembled, 
 who fraternized cordially, and who, it is to be 
 hoped, will meet again in 1891. 
 
 Thus ends my short account of two holidays 
 with the British Canoe Association. If it induce 
 one good fellow to join our cruises, he will never 
 regret it ; and if it serve to recall happy days to 
 old members, the writer will not regret his trouble. 
 
 Many a time at the camp sing-songs have we 
 enjoyed the Eton Boating Song trolled forth by 
 our genial Secretary ; many a time, as we paddled 
 or sailed back in the dark to our lamplighted, 
 home-like little camp, have we joined in the 
 chorus. With the sentiment thereof I close this 
 humble account of boating holidays with the 
 B.C.A., in the hope that 
 
 " Nothing in life shall sever 
 The ties that unite us now."
 
 A IJETECHVE CAMERA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE CANOEIST AND PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 " To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." 
 
 To canoeists, and boating men generally, 
 photography supplies the one thing needful to 
 make their sport the most fascinating of any 
 under the sun, by enabling them to secure per- 
 manent pictures of scenes and events, to be en- 
 joyed at times and seasons when, in this country 
 at least, it is impossible to pursue the pastime 
 itself. 
 
 The canoeist visits scenes in river valleys rarely 
 visited by any other than an occasional fisherman ;
 
 9O Camping Out, 
 
 in such valleys he finds scenery more lovely than 
 any on the roads and highways of more general 
 resort. Few are gifted with the artist's skill, but 
 all may cultivate the artistic sense to detect 
 what will make a good picture, and anyone may 
 readily master the chemical and mechanical 
 details of the photography-made-easy of the 
 present day. The artist has the advantage in 
 the matter of colour ; but the canoeist has seldom 
 time to spend in the production of painted 
 pictures, and, as a photographer, he has the great 
 advantage of being able to prepare lantern-slides 
 from his negatives. These enable him, on winter 
 evenings, to sail his cruises o'er again, to picture 
 his travels to friends and brother canoeists, to 
 enliven the camp-fire, and to illustrate his enter- 
 taining descriptions of adventures by flood and 
 field. By this means he may kindle others with 
 the desire for similar voyages. The writer, an 
 ardent canoeist, but an indifferent photographer, 
 rejoices to know that, to lantern-slide exhibitions 
 of past cruises he has made, more than one 
 vigorous canoeist of to-day owes his first attraction 
 to the sport. All enthusiastic canoeists marvel 
 why everybody does not canoe, and are eager for
 
 Camping Out. 91 
 
 others to participate in the delights the sport 
 affords ; and we believe that lantern-slide exhibi- 
 tions are amongst the best recruiting means that 
 could be adopted by the clubs. 
 
 The hand camera, the so-called detective, is 
 particularly suitable for the canoeist. It need 
 be of but small weight and bulk ; it is simple and 
 inexpensive. It is, of course, impossible with 
 the hand camera to take pictures equally good, 
 from an artistic point of view, as those which may 
 be taken with the stand camera ; but, in canoeing, 
 incidents are constantly occurring for the record 
 of which the stand camera is useless ; moving 
 
 ' O 
 
 scenes and objects appear, and, long before the 
 stand camera could be ready, the opportunity to 
 fix them is past. A small hand camera can be 
 kept safe and dry in the smallest of Rob Roys, 
 and is pre-eminently the camera for a canoeist. 
 
 It may be thought that no eulogy of photo- 
 graphy for the canoeist's purposes is called for 
 in these days when nearly everybody photographs, 
 and when the term ' amateur photographer ' 
 generally has the adjective 'ubiquitous' attached 
 thereto ; but it is to indicate the special suitability 
 to the canoeist of the detective camera that this
 
 92 Camping Out 
 
 chapter is written. This camera does not advertise 
 its presence by standing obtrusively on three legs, 
 and so often attracting an inquisitive and insult- 
 ing group of passers by ; it may resemble an 
 innocent bag or basket externally, and, even in 
 crowded thoroughfares, may pursue its task un- 
 noticed. The amateur who uses the ordinary 
 stand camera is a familiar object. We see him 
 strolling about our city streets or country lanes, 
 laden like a pack-horse, gazing up at the windows 
 and roofs of the buildings like a glazier on the 
 look-out for a job. When he gets a view which 
 he considers suitable for distortion, he proceeds 
 to unload himself of his paraphernalia, revealing 
 stools and bags, instruments of various kinds, and 
 a series of things like fishing-rods. After he has 
 scattered apparatus all over the roadway, he pro- 
 ceeds, with infinite trouble, to fit things together. 
 Generally he has forgotten how to do it, or has 
 left some indispensable portion of the machinery 
 at home ; but sometimes he gets the concern put 
 together eventually, after collecting a mob of 
 errand boys and other loafers, and engaging the 
 suspicious attention of the policeman on the 
 beat. Of course he is under a constant fire of
 
 Camping Out. 93 
 
 chaff, and is told to "Mind and get me in, mister;" 
 but he endeavours to display himself oblivious to 
 all this, and, with a far-away gaze at the desired 
 object, he goes through a conjuring performance 
 under a black duster. His expression of intent 
 suspense gives way to one of relief, and he either 
 laboriously takes the concern to pieces again, and 
 loses part of it, or he staggers along with it all 
 standing like the proprietor of a Punch-and-Judy 
 Show, and accompanied by a similar retinue, to 
 some other point of vantage. At last he is satis- 
 fied, and marches off with something in his box to 
 inflict upon his friends ; probably with a portrait 
 of some inquisitive urchin's head occupying most 
 of the foreground. 
 
 So cumbersome is the apparatus for any but 
 the smallest pictures, as to lead sometimes to 
 amusing misunderstandings. It is told of a 
 canoeist that, desiring a morning effect, he left 
 camp early with his camera for a neighbouring 
 village. Here he began to erect his tripod. A 
 rustic inhabitant watched the proceedings with 
 interest for a while, and then ventured the re- 
 mark : " You bees rayther early, mister." " Not 
 so very," replied the photographer, " it's past nine
 
 94 Camping Out. 
 
 o'clock." "Aye, aye," continued chawbacon, 
 "just so, but I mean you bees rayther earlier 
 than t'others. Fair don't begin till Toosday." 
 Now the proprietor of a detective camera escapes 
 all this trouble and publicity ; his apparatus is 
 simple and unostentatious. The modern hand- 
 camera is a most ingenious construction. It is 
 small, light, and simple. It contains everything 
 required for taking good photographs within 
 itself, and nothing is loose, so as to be lost or 
 forgotten. The sensitive plates are contained 
 within the camera itself, and as many as fifty or 
 more pictures may be taken without opening the 
 box. Its use is simple, and easily learned ; in 
 fact, with diy plates and a hand-camera, photo- 
 graphy is almost as easy as the proverbial falling 
 off a log. The hand-camera has its own peculiar 
 faults, nevertheless. For one thing, it is not 
 suitable for portrait taking ; but this may be 
 almost reckoned a virtue. For sea and landscapes, 
 as well as for instantaneous work, amateurs can 
 confidently compete with professionals ; but the 
 portraits of the former, even with stand-cameras, 
 are commonly libellous. Ghastly distortions of 
 one's external appearance are produced by them,
 
 Camping Out. 95 
 
 and we are assured they are excellent likenesses. 
 To have a friend take to portraiture is the next 
 worst thing to having him take up the fiddle. 
 
 The secret method of working, too, on the part 
 of the hand-camera, has led to some unpopularity 
 with regard to its advent in general society. To 
 one who is not always prepared to have each 
 deed he performs published, the detective camera 
 is a foe artful and not insignificant. It can 
 assume the disguise of an innocent travelling- 
 bag, a hat-box, or lunch basket It may imitate 
 any harmless object, and no one is safe from its 
 searching eye and its recording retina. There 
 is no other warning than the click of the shutter, 
 and that occurs too late for prevention ; but just 
 in time to tell us that, in imperishable gelatine, 
 our absurd or ill deed is registered ; the image 
 of which, developed in darkness or by becomingly 
 lurid light, and in a suitably odorous atmosphere, 
 is unaffected by salt water, and so secure from 
 the tear of the pitying recording angel. 
 
 By the exercise of the secret, stealthy espionage 
 of the detective camera, it is possible for the 
 owner thereof to become as unpopular as a mad 
 dog. If he photograph his best friend in the
 
 96 Camping Out. 
 
 pursuit of his hat, there may be a coolness be- 
 tween them for days ; if a picture of an aspiring 
 oarsman be taken while the less interesting por- 
 tion of his figure is in view as he catches a crab, 
 the only way to prevent open hostilities is by 
 promising to destroy the negative. If one photo- 
 graph a lady in anything but her best clothes, 
 or with her hair untidy, or running from a mouse 
 or a cow, or anything undignified of that sort, 
 he becomes a nasty mean thing right away. 
 Should one, however, be so lucky as to get a 
 shot at a couple of lovers 'carrying on,' his success 
 is complete ; in one moment he can make two 
 enemies for life. Let him beware of threatening 
 to make a magic-lantern slide of the subject, and 
 of exhibiting it to a party of mutual friends, 
 unless he be big and strong, or very fleet of foot, 
 such a proceeding may otherwise lead to great 
 damage to person and camera. It is much 
 better to walk on as if one had not noticed any- 
 thing. 
 
 Photography is so easy now that few remember 
 the trying circumstances of the old time wet 
 plate photographer, " who used to go about with 
 iodine stains on his fingers, and a perfect wealth
 
 Camping Out. 97 
 
 of collodion perfume on the breeze about him. 
 And yet he would voluntarily suffer ostracism 
 from society, and lug about the country a pack 
 as big as the effects of some prosperous old 
 clothes merchant, all for the sake of the pastime 
 he loved." A writer in an American paper 
 thus amusingly describes the disadvantages he 
 laboured under : " As soon as his plate was ex- 
 posed, he had to rush it into his dark tent and 
 develop it. He couldn't wait till he got home, 
 and then get some good-natured professional to 
 do it for him, but had to surround that dark 
 tent right there on the spot, and develop the 
 plate, and sometimes a case of galloping con- 
 sumption, while the landscape waited to find if 
 it was all right, or whether he would have to sit 
 again. The dark tent was a curious affair. It 
 looked something like an umbrella with a floor 
 to it It had three orifices in the side, and the 
 idea was for the photographer to stick his head 
 in one and his hands in the others, and go on 
 with his work secretly and, but for the all power- 
 ful and ever present collodion, alone. It re- 
 sembled the way the dentist worked on the 
 Girton girl's teeth. The operator remained out-
 
 9-8 Camping Out. 
 
 side, though most of the work was carried on far 
 back in the interior. To an outsider the pho- 
 tographer, in the full act of using his dark tent, 
 resembled a man working a dress rehearsal of a 
 Punch-and-Judy Show, with the curtain down. 
 Now, if by a stretch of the imagination you can 
 picture a Punch-and-Judy Show that had some 
 minutes previously been rotten-egged, and then 
 draw the analogy, you will have a pretty correct 
 idea of the general appearance and perfume of 
 the place. In this exposed position the pho- 
 tographer was obliged to sit with his both hands 
 muzzled, and his head handcuffed, while the 
 neighbouring fields might be filled with billy- 
 goats, or small boys with sling-shots. And 
 could he stir ? No ; he could not so much as 
 even budge without exposing his plate to the 
 light, and himself to ridicule." 
 
 Let us be thankful that we live in the days of 
 dry plates and hand-cameras. 
 
 I do not desire the canoeist to make an idol 
 of his camera the canoe is a jealous mistress ; 
 but a small camera can enhance the pleasure 
 even of canoeing. 
 
 True, photography is powerless to reproduce
 
 Camping Out. 99 
 
 the colour, the movement, the life and atmo- 
 sphere of a scene in any but a feeble manner ; 
 no description can bring back the sensation of 
 the breeze on the cheek, or the spray on the 
 brow the sound of the rippling water at the bow, 
 of the songs of the birds on the banks the glow 
 of health and energy in the frame : for these it is 
 necessary to go afloat on the lovely waters of our 
 country, and to view nature with a lover's eye ; 
 but some faint reminiscence of all these have we 
 obtained many a time as, by our magic-lantern, 
 we have recalled to " view each well-known 
 scene."
 
 FAREWELL.
 
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