Punctuality is an important detail of discipline in a crew. It is a good system to order a fine to be levied by the secretary upon anyone who exceeds a certain limit of grace from the hour fixed for practice. It is better that the secretary or treasurer should levy it than the captain, because thereby the captain in this detail places himself under the subordinate officer's jurisdiction, and is himself fined if he is late. He can do this without loss of dignity, and in fact adds to his influence by submitting as a matter of course to the general regulation. It spoils the discipline of a crew if a captain takes French leave for himself, and keeps his men dancing attendance upon him, and yet rates them when one of them similarly delays the practice. [Illustration: EMBARKING.] In making up a crew a captain is often in an invidious position. It is said by cricketers that the danger of having a leading bowler for captain of an eleven is that he is often judicially blind as to the right moment for taking himself off. Similarly, for a stroke to be captain, or rather for a likely candidate for strokeship to be captain, may be productive of misunderstandings and mischief to the crew. In old days stroke and captain were synonyms. The 'stroke' was elected by the club. He was supposed to be the best all-round oar, and as such to be capable of setting the best stroke to the crew. His office attached itself to his seat. In sundry old college records of rowing we find the expression 'a meeting of strokes,' where in modern times we should speak of a 'captains' meeting.' The U.B.C.'s departed from this tradition more than forty years ago. Since then captains have been found at all thwarts, even including that of the coxswain. Most college clubs followed the U.B.C. principle forthwith, but not all so. We can recall an incident to the contrary. At Queen's College, Oxon, there remained a written rule that stroke should be captain as late as about 1862. In or about that year a Mr. Godfrey was rowing stroke of the Queen's eight in the bumping races, and was _ex-officio_ captain. He had previously stroked the Queen's torpid, and with good success. One night during the summer races Queen's got bumped (or failed to effect a bump). Some of the crew laid the blame of their failure upon their stroke, for having rowed, as they alleged, too rapid a stroke. A college meeting had to be called, and a new stroke to be 'elected,' before a change could be made in the order of the boat for the next night's race! Mr. Godfrey was asked to resign his seat as stroke, which of course he did, and took the seat of No. 6. His successor was thus elected captain. Much sympathy for Mr. Godfrey's unfortunate statutory deposition from command was openly expressed by out-college oarsmen, and the result was before long that a change was made in the code of the Queen's College Boat Club, and its adaptation to that of the more advanced rules which found favour with the majority of the U.B.C.