Mr. Bishop's Canoe Voyage
Mr. Bishop has kindly sent us the following note of his progress thus far: --
PAPER CANOE "MARIA THERESA."
COBB'S ISLAND, E. S. VA.,
December 1, 1874.
EDITOR FOREST AND STREAM: --
I have rowed from Quebec by interior water courses to this island beach on the eastern shore of Virginia, having passed up the St. Lawrence River to the beautiful Richelieu; thence up that stream to Rouse's Point, where I entered Lake Champlain and the United States. Up Lake Champlain one hundred and fifty miles to Whitehall, and thence through the canal fifty-one miles to Albany, ended the journey made in a wooden canoe. In October I set out in one of E. Waters & Sons' paper "Baden Powell" canoes, on my journey Southward to Florida. My canoe is an open one. She is fitted with outrigger rowlocks, which allows me to row as well as paddle. In an open canoe, of only eight and a half inches depth of hold amidships, I consider sailing an unsafe undertaking; so I shall send my mast and sprit sail home by express from Norfolk, as I have not space to lose by carrying any unnecessary cargo. Having passed through Kill Von Kull and between Staten Island and the main land, I ascended the Raritan to New Brunswick, N. J., and followed the canal thirty-six miles to Bordentown, where it connects with the waters of the Delaware. Continuing southward, down the Delaware River and Bay, I hauled my canoe from a point above Cape Henlopen to Love Creek, head of Rehoboth Sound. Rowing across Rehoboth and Indian River Sounds, the canoe ascended White's Creek and made a second portage three miles overland, into Little Assowoman Bay. Since that portage was made I have been over the bays and sounds and through the net work of salt marsh thoroughfares, crossing the strong tidal currents of Chincoteague, Assowoman, Gargathy, Matomkin, Watchoprague, Little Mochipongo and Great Mochipongo Inlets to Cobb's Island which is situated about eight miles from the main land. I will cross to-morrow to the main land, and haul my canoe five miles overland to Cherrystone, on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. From Cherrystone Landing across the bay to Norfolk is a distance of thirty-five miles. This water I will cross on the steamer N. P. Banks to Norfolk, and then push on to the Currituck Sound via Elizabeth River and the new canal into North Landing River. Down the North Carolina Sounds to Cape Fear, thence along the Atlantic eighty miles to Georgetown, S. C., and by interior waters to the St. John's River, Florida. I will continue the journey, and southward, up the St. John's to Salt Lake, two hundred and forty miles, where I will make a portage of several miles east, to Indian River. The waters of Indian River will be followed to Jupiter Inlet, where becoming land-locked, it will be necessary, for the second time, to trust to the surface of the ocean, until the southern end of Florida is reached.
While in the Isle of Wight Bay, on the eastern coast of Maryland, it was my good fortune to visit Dr. Purnell's fine estate. I was much interested in finding the prairie chicken comfortably settled upon his meadows, the ancestors of which the Doctor introduced there some five years since, with the two species of the California "quail." The results of these interesting experiments I will forward to you when I can get a dryer camp table than a damp salt marsh, threatened by immersion by an in-creeping tide.
The dimensions of my canoe are: Length, 14 feet; beam, 28 inches; depth, 8 1/2 inches; height of bow from a horizontal line at keel, 28 inches; height of bow from a horizontal line at stern, 20 inches; weight of canoe, 58 pounds; paddle (double bladed) 2 1/3 pounds; oars (7 feet 8 inches) 6 1/2 pounds. Total, 73 pounds. My own weight is 130 pounds; blankets, charts, provisions, &c., about 100 pounds. I am, very truly yours, N. H. BISHOP