A LATE BOAT RACE. 26 1 



two sets of men. If the best broad-jumpers of Oxford 

 and Cambridge were to contend, the average range of 

 one set would, in all probability, differ several inches 

 from the average range of the other set, nor would any 

 amount of practice or training alter the result. So in 

 any kind of contest whatever, as the records of such 

 contests show. Suppose now the Oxford eight in the 

 late race to have been so far superior in strength to 

 the Cambridge eight that they were able to propel 

 their boat one foot farther per stroke than the latter, 

 after an equal amount of practice, with equal coaching, 

 equal style, and with like equal conditions as to health 

 of the men, qualities of the boat, and so forth. This, 

 surely, will not be considered an unlikely difference in 

 any case, and certainly not in the actual case, consider- 

 ing what was known, even as far back as last November, 

 respecting the performances of the individual members 

 of both crews. The distance which a racing-boat is 

 propelled in a single stroke is about twenty-eight feet. 

 Of course the actual distance would be greater if one 

 stroke only were taken; but I am referring to the 

 distance due to each stroke in a race. Thus we may 

 allow for each stroke half a boat's length ; and in sixty 

 strokes, under equal conditions, Cambridge would lose 

 one boat's length ; and as Cambridge rowed about nine 

 hundred strokes in the late race, she would, according 

 to this estimate, have been fifteen lengths behind 

 Oxford at the finish. She actually lost by about ten 

 lengths, of which nearly four were lost before she 

 reached Hammersmith Bridge. Cambridge, in fact, 



