reached an upright position, the arms have already reached the chest, and the stroke is finished. Thus the Oxford stroke takes a perceptibly shorter time than the Cambridge stroke; it is also, necessarily, somewhat shorter in the water. One would, therefore, say it must be less effective. Especially would an unpractised observer form this opinion, because the Oxford stroke seems to be much shorter in range than it is in reality. _There_ we have the secret of its efficiency. It is actually as long as the Cambridge stroke, but is taken in a perceptibly shorter time. What does this mean but that the oar is taken more sharply, and, therefore, much more effectively, through the water? Much more effectively so far as the actual conditions of the contest are concerned. The modern racing outrigger requires a sharp impulse, because it will take almost any speed we can apply to it. It will also retain that speed between the strokes, a consideration of great importance. The old-fashioned racing-eights required to be continually under propulsion. The lightning-feather was a necessity in their case, for between every stroke the boat would lag terribly with a slow-feathering crew. I do not say, of course, that the speed of a light outrigged craft does not diminish between the strokes. Anyone who has watched a closely contested bumping-race, and noticed the way in which the sharply cut bow of the pursuing boat draws up to the rudder of the other as by a succession of impulses, although either boat seen alone would seem to sweep on with almost uniform speed, will know that the motion of the lightest boat is not strictly uniform. But there is an immense difference between the almost imperceptible loss of way of a modern eight and the dead ‘lag’ in the old-fashioned craft. And hence we get the following important consideration. Whereas with the old boats it was useless for a crew to attempt to give a very quick motion to their boat by a sharp, sudden ‘lift,’ this plan is calculated to be, of all others, the most effective with the modern racing-eight.