258 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



A LATE BOAT RACE. 



THE sports in which our youth take delight are of little 

 use unless they encourage manliness and generosity, 

 not only in those who take part in them, but in those 

 also who witness and discuss them. I regret to notice 

 sometimes comments on the University Boat Kace 

 which seem at once ungenerous and unsportsmanlike ; 

 they also betray considerable ignorance of the actual 

 conditions under which contests of the kind are under- 

 taken. In the Spectator a writer does not scruple to 

 insinuate that the Cambridge crew of 1878 were not only 

 beaten, but disgraced. ' It is usual to say,' he writes, 

 * in the case of a race like this, that the losing crew 

 were beaten but not disgraced; we have no wish to 

 depart from the polite phraseology which usage 

 sanctions, but it is obvious that there must have been 

 a screw loose somewhere. When the raw material 

 which the captains can draw from is practically 

 identical, a repetition of the Harvard fiasco ought not 

 to be possible in a race between Oxford and Cambridge.' 

 Among the faults committed by Cambridge, it seems, 

 was her attempt to secure the lead at starting, which 

 this writer considers * simply suicidal.' But in this he 

 confounds the tactics of boat racing and horse racing. 

 Forcing the pace at starting is unquestionably disad- 

 vantageous for the weaker horse in a race ; but getting 

 the lead at starting in a boat race is a positive 



