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February 40 Telescope default that route fell to Detroit & Cleveland Line ships that would otherwise spend the day idle in Cleveland. To held down the Detroit-Sandusky route called for a bold innovation, and Ashley & Dustin ordered their first metal-hulled steamer from Detroit Dry Dock Co. This was the Frank E. Kirby, "the flyer of the lakes." Together with her later consort and eventual successor, Put-in-Bay of 1911, the Kirby is one of Detroit's best-remembered excursion steamers. The article bel ow, from Detroit Free Press of September 15, 1889, summed up the line's history to that important year. Put-in-Bay, Sept. 14. Few cities in this country possess facilities for water excursions to the same extent as Detroit. There are routes in many directions, all but one or two in perfectly sheltered waters whereby the passenger from Detroit may take a refreshing day's outing and return to his home again by the same evening. This fact came very forcibly to mind during the voyage to this point a few days ago. The trip down the Detroit River is charming. The sights and scenes are always of sufficient interest to engage the attention of the most careless traveller. Lake Erie, though not always smooth, is tolerably well hemmed across its upper end by the Point au Pelee peninsula which juts out from the Canadian shore in the very direction of the islands Pelee, North Bass, Fox, Middle-Bass, Put-in-Bay and half a dozen smaller ones which are something like stepping stones to the Ohio line. This picture was taken in 1888, showing a group of steamers in Put-in-Bay harbor. Prominently at left is City of Sandusky (ii), which before that year was the Ashley & Mitchell steamer Jay Cooke. Beyond her bow is Toledo's steamer Chief Justice Waite, while above the dock is seen the stack of American Tagle. In mid-harbor at right is the Ashley & Mitchell steamer Pearl, which went on the Detroit-Sandusky route the next year to replace the burnt Alaska. DOSSIN MUSEUM COLLECTION. GIFT OF CAPT. FRANK E. HAMILTON