OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE ROWING. 159 



was going wrong. One who has taken part in boat-races 

 very soon detects any irregularity in the rowing by which I 

 do not of course refer to so gross a defect as not keeping 

 time. All the men of a crew may be keeping most perfect 

 time, and may even present the appearance of keeping stroke 

 together, and yet may not be feeling their work simul- 

 taneously. I was aware that something was going wrong, 

 but I found it impossible, without abandoning the style of 

 rowing in which I had been so carefully trained, to keep stroke 

 with the rest of the crew. It seemed to me that they were 

 doubling over their work, because while I was still swaying 

 backwards they had reached the limit of their swing. Then 

 they did not seem to me to feather with that lightning flash 

 which the Cambridge style enjoins. Altogether, I left them 

 after three or four long pulls with the impression that, 

 though they might be very effective watermen, they had but 

 a poor style. 



Soon after, however, I had occasion to watch Oxford 

 oarsmen at their work, and I found that they row in a style 

 wnich, without being actually identical with that of the 

 London waterman, resembles it in all essential respects. 

 The moment the oar catches the water, the body is thrown 

 back as in the Cambridge style, but the arms, instead of 

 being kept straight, immediately begin to do their share of 

 the work. The result is that when the body is upright 

 the arms are already bent, and the stroke is finished when 

 the body is very little beyond the perpendicular position. 



Now let us compare the two strokes theoretically. In 

 each stroke the body does a share of the work, and in the 

 Cambridge stroke the body even seems to do more work 

 than in the Oxford stroke, since it is swayed farther back. 

 In each stroke, again, the arms do a share of the work, but 

 in the Oxford stroke the work of the arms is distributed 

 equally as a help to that of the body, whereas in the Cam- 

 bridge stroke the work of the arms is all thrown upon the 

 finish of the stroke. At first sight it seems to matter very 

 little in what order the work is done, so long as the same 



