Two of the five international yacht races between the 'Shamrock'
and 'Columbia' have been sailed this week off Sandy Hook without decisive result, owing to the fixture of a time limit. Both on Tuesday and Thursday the wind flat- tened, the yachts were becalmed—on Thursday they were enshrouded in haze for a great part of the time—and the race was left unfinished. On Tuesday the 'Shamrock' was lead- ing slightly at the end of the race ; on Thursday they were far apart on different tacks. It is admitted, however, even by the Americans that the 'Shamrock' is the fastest yacht that has ever crossed the Atlantic, and that in seamanship her skipper—Captain Hoga.rth—is more than a match for his antagonist, Captain Barr, of the 'Columbia.' The interest taken by the London public in the fortunes of the Sham- rock '—which, though owned by an Irishman, was designed by a Scotchman, and built by an Englishman—has been sufficiently shown in the enormous crowds which have blocked the Embankment to watch the ingenious " cineyachtograph " entertainment provided by the Evening News. Here the movements of the yachts during the race are indicated on a large and brilliantly lighted screen, representing the plan of the course, on which the positions of the dummy yaolats are altered every ten minutes according to the cable messages. So far, the moral result of the contest has been admirable. In spite of the enormous number of excursion steamers, the course has been perfectly kept by the redoubtable Captain Robley Evans, the greatest fire-eater of the United States Navy, and the equanimity of "the most excitable people in the world," as a correspondent justly describes the Americans, remains unimpaired, while the popularity of Sir Thomas Lipton is such that if he were to be naturalised to-morrow, he would be almost as formidable a candidate for the Presidency as Admiral Dewey himself.
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