built after the model of the Rob Roy or Nautilus, with all its
belongings, is about one hundred and twenty-five dollars; and these
figures deter many a young man from enjoying the ennobling and
healthful exercise of canoeing. A first-class sneak-box, with spars,
sail, oars, anchor, &c., can be obtained for seventy-five dollars, and
if several were ordered by a club they could probably be bought for
sixty-five dollars each. The price of a sneak-box, as ordinarily built
in Ocean County, New Jersey, is about forty dollars. The Centennial
Republic cost about seventy-five dollars, and a city boat-builder
would not duplicate her for less than one hundred and twenty-five
dollars. The builders of the sneak-boxes have not yet acquired the art
of overcharging their customers; they do not expect to receive more
than one dollar and fifty cents or two dollars per day for their
labor; and some of them are even so unwise as to risk their reputation
by offering to furnish these boats for twenty-five dollars each. Such
a craft, after a little hard usage, would leak as badly as most cedar
canoes, and would be totally unfit for the trials of a long cruise.

[Diagram of Sneak-Box "Centennial Republic"]

The diagram given of the Centennial Republic will enable the reader of
aquatic proclivities to understand the general principles upon which
these boats are built. As they should be rated as third-class freight
on railroads, it is more economical for the amateur to purchase a
first-class boat at Barnegat, Manahawken, or West Creek, in Ocean
County, New Jersey, along the Tuckerton Railroad, than to have a
workman elsewhere, and one unacquainted with this peculiar model,
experiment upon its construction at the purchaser's cost, and perhaps
loss.