i$3 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



But nothing was done in this way which would have caused 

 the loss of the race if the Cambridge crew had really 

 had it in them to win. If the better of two crews puts 

 on rather too much steam at first, they draw so quickly 

 ahead that they soon begin to feel that they have the race 

 in hand, and so proceed to take matters more steadily. In 

 such powerful and well-trained crews as both universities 

 usually send to the contest, very little harm is done by 

 varying the order of the work a little rowing hard at first 

 and steadily afterwards, or vice versa. It is easy for lookers- 

 on, most of whom have never taken part in a boat-race, to 

 theorise on these matters. But those who know what boat 

 racing is (as distinguished, be it noticed, from most contests 

 of speed) know that the better boat is almost sure to win in 

 whatever way the stroke may set them their work. A good 

 crew, unlike a good horse, requires no jockeying. 



The difference of the rivers Cam and Isis has been 

 urged as a sufficient reason for inferiority on the part of the 

 Cambridge crews. That the difference used to tell un- 

 favourably upon the chances of the light blue flag before the 

 river had been widened and the railway bridge modified, 

 and that even now the Cambridge crews would not be all 

 the better for a better river to practice on, cannot be denied. 

 But I question whether even before the widening of the 

 river, this particular cause sufficed to counterbalance the 

 advantage of the Cantabs in point of numbers. Nor do I 

 think that those who urged the inferiority of the Cambridge 

 river have recognised the principal disadvantage which it 

 entailed upon the light-blue oarsmen: 



The first circumstance to be noticed, in this connection, 

 is the difference in the conditions under which racing-boats 

 were and are steered along the two rivers. A Cambridge 

 coxswain has in some respects an easier, in others a more 

 difficult task than the Oxonian. In the first place, he has 

 very little choice as to the course along which he shall take 

 his boat. All he has to do is to steer as closely round 

 each corner as possible \ and the narrowness of the river 



