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By HAROLD T. PULSIFER

HEN the last forest is felled, the last mountain crowned with a chaplet of empty cans, the last vistas blotted out with billhis heart there will always remain a boards, and when the last trout has risen to the last fly, there will still remain the hunger for open water and a flaming unchanging and challenging sea. And memory that cannot be quenched. The growing fleets that dot our lakes, men who hunger to cross swords with the our sounds and bays, are proof that elementals, and men joying in primitive Americans are coming to a realization conflict with the gods their fathers knew, that the waters are, after all, the greatest will still be faring forth on the wine-dark recreation ground of mankind. And seas of Homer in search of that eternal when I speak of "recreation" I divide it goal that is forever lost in the attaining. into two divisions, so that the first means "again" and the second refers to the subject of the early chapters of Genesis.

Freight your argosies, if you will, with all the paraphernalia of a mechanistic age, give over sails for Diesels and your helms to Metal Mikes and let radio make vocal even the silent heavens-yet much of the old wonder of the way of a ship upon the sea will still endure. While the earth curves under the sky that mystic circle that can never be crossed by any prow will still stand as the symbol of the great search that has made mankind a worthy foeman of the gods.

The lure of great waters exists even in the microcosm of a duck pond. Give a boy a punt and a pole and let him voyage forth among the rustling cattails, and you will see in his eyes something of that wonder and delight in high adventure, something of that spirit that guided Columbus across the uncharted Atlantic. Give him a skiff to sail in the protected reaches of a sheltered harbor, and you will have launched a new Magellan. And when at last, with a sensitive hand upon the helm, with glances ranging from truck to horizon to catch the intentions of the wind, he feels the first lift of the sea under his prow as the headland is cleared, you will know that you have endowed his spirit with a power that is enduring and a joy that will last while there is breath in his body and blood in his veins. Transport him then, if you will, to the wide-spreading prairies or the lofty peaks of great mountains.

towards the waters is that yachting is becoming less and less a matter of social prestige and more and more a fundamental satisfaction. In some of its forms it can be enjoyed by any one with enough of this world's goods to possess even the humblest of cars. Those with longer purses are yearly manifesting an awakening desire to understand the intricacies, the traditions, and the art of the sport to which they give their allegiance. There are amateur designers of yachts who can give the best of professionals something to think about. Millionaires capable of navigating their own vessels around the world and a growing

In

Ewing Galloway, New York

host of younger men capable of commanding a schooner in an ocean race or of piloting a cruiser along the coast of Labrador are to be found in increasing numbers upon the roster of American yachtsmen. The names of those who can handle without professional help the smaller racing yachts is already legion.

The growth in yachting and in the number of its devotees is sure proof that Americans have not wholly given themselves over to standardized living. For even if standardization is bringing the possession of crafts of various kinds to a widening group of men and women, the lure of the waters is not one which appeals to a standardized soul. The young lady in "Punch" who said to her fiancé, "George, dear, don't you think that after you've seen one wave you've seen them all?" was never destined to the command of even a rowboat. I suspect, too, that she was never destined to occupy even the commanding position of a yachtsman's wife.

A yachtsman, no matter what his purse or his prospects, should be caught young and trained first of all in the school of small-boat sailing. Then only can seamanship become second nature; then only can the instinct be trained to do without thinking what must be done when there is no time to think. When split seconds mean safety or victory,

the mind that has formed in its youth the proper association between emergencies and actions will be the best mind at the helm. The sea can be an ungentle teacher, exacting a hard penalty for disobedience to its laws. It is also a great teacher which can train its followers to a selfreliance which can be learned nowhere better than under its tutelage.

If your children have any fairy godmothers, ask them to grant your children neither riches nor beauty; ask first of all that your children be permitted to go to school to the sea.