Still the gallant fellows struggle on, inspired by an agony which none may describe in such a race, and they never falter for an instant, but pull as if they were determined to win. During the first mile and a half of the race, Burnham received the back wash of the Oxford boat, by keeping all the time in a line behind Darbishire's crew with a seeming blunder that actually called tears of rage to the eyes of Americans on the steamboats. Getting along by Chiswick Church, which was crowded with people, the Oxford crew pulling 40, their boat was a length ahead of the Harvard bow oar, and Hall, the coxswain, took care that no ground should be lost by his steering. Then Darbishire spoke the word to his crew, and throwing all the powder they could into their backs, they gave Harvard only the alternative of pulling to Barnes's Bridge for an honorable defeat. Never for a moment did Oxford flag, but kept the stroke as if grim death was at their heels, yet all the time throughout the race they seemed easy in their style, and regular as the pendulum of an eight-day clock. The want of time and catch in the Harvard stroke was very noticeable at Barnes's Bridge, and here the same immense crowds were gathered as at the bridge at Hammersmith, and now the Oxford boat being positively a length and a half ahead, and no mistake, the cries and shouts were most appalling. Past the green fields in the Duke of Devonshire's meadows a large crowd was gathered, who hailed the appearance of the Oxford crew with great and significant pleasure. The race was now lost, virtually. Harvard was out of time--knocked up--and the men in her boat were laboring like oxen in chains. The morale of the Harvard crew was gone a mile below Barnes's Bridge, when Loring's oar hung loose for the first time, and nothing human could now give old Massachusetts a victory. It was a gallant struggle, too, and nobly waged. Passing the "White Cottage" and the "White Hart" in the race for the Ship Tavern at Mortlake, the Harvard crew, in the last quarter of a mile, put on a desperate spurt and rowing for a minute and a half at 44 strokes, they gained ground on Oxford, whose crew seemed as fresh as when they began.