296 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS, 



peculiarities a long' stay of the oar in. the water, a 

 quick rise from and return to the water, the oars 

 remaining out of the water for the briefest possible 

 interval of time. In the case of the Oxford boat 

 quite a different appearance is presented there is a 

 short stay in the water, a sharp rise from and return 

 to it, and between these the oars appear to hang over 

 the water for a perceptible interval. It is, however, 

 when the boats are seen from the side that the 

 meaning of these peculiarities is detected, and also 

 that the fundamental distinction between the two 

 styles is made apparent to the experienced eye. In 

 the Cambridge boat we recognize the long stroke and 

 " lightning feather " inculcated in the old treatise on 

 rowing : in the Oxford boat we see these conditions 

 reversed, and in their place the " waiting feather " and 

 lightning stroke. By the "waiting feather," we do 

 not refer to what is commonly understood by slow 

 feathering, but to a momentary pause (scarcely to be 

 detected when the crew is rowing hard) before the 

 simultaneous dash of the oars upon the first grip of 

 the stroke.* And observing more closely which, by- 

 the-way, is no easy matter as either boat dashes 

 swiftly past, we detect distinctive peculiarities of 

 " work " by which the two styles are severally arrived 

 at. In the Cambridge crew we see the first part of 



* The grip is never properly caught without the pause ; but any thing 

 beyond a momentary pause is a bad fault in style. 



