It may seem, at first sight, that, after all, the result of the Cambridge style should be as effective as that of the other. If arms and shoulders do their work in both crews with equal energy—which we may assume to be the case—and if the number of strokes per minute is equal, the actual propulsive energy ought to be equal likewise. A little consideration will show that this is a fallacy. If two men pull at a weight together they will move it farther with a given expenditure of energy than if first one and then the other apply his strength to the work. And what is more to the purpose, they will be able to move it faster. So shoulders and arms working simultaneously will give a greater propulsive power than when working separately, even though in the latter case each works with its fullest energy. And not only so, but by the simultaneous use of arms and shoulders, that sharpness of motion can alone be given which is essential to the propulsion of a modern racing-boat. I have said that the two crews are severally rowing in the style which has lately been peculiar to their respective Universities. But the Cambridge crew is rowing in that form of the Cambridge style which brings it nearest to the requirements of modern racing. The faults of the style are subdued, so to speak, and its best qualities brought out effectively. In one or two of the long series of defeats lately sustained by Cambridge the reverse has been the case. At present, too, there is a certain roughness about the Oxford crew which encourages the hopes of the light blue supporters. But it must be admitted that this roughness is rather apparent than real, great as it seems, and it will doubtless disappear before the day of encounter. I venture to predict that the ‘time’ of the approaching race, taken in conjunction with the state of the tide, will show the present crews to be at least equal to the average.[17] (From the _Daily News_, April 1869.) FOOTNOTES: [15] The grip is never properly caught without the pause; but anything beyond a momentary pause is a bad fault in style.