when the condition of the men requires it. They have no training-table, and, as I have said in another chapter, there is no trainer either for crews or teams in an English university. Training is understood to be simple and wholesome diet, regular habits, and, of course, practice, though there is none of the hard, continuous work that is enforced upon our crews and athletic teams. Whether breakfasting and dining in their own rooms or on invitation, the crew-men are restricted to training diet, while their luncheon (which may be eaten anywhere) must be taken at a fixed hour, confined to cold meat, a glass of water or beer, bread, and a simple pudding or jelly. Extremest punctuality is observed in hours of rising, eating, and retiring.

When in training it is customary for them to breakfast together as guests of some member of the crew or of their particular college, and to dine together at their own expense, and every man who rows joins the University Boat Club, and pays £3 10s. ($17.50) initiation fee.

Although interest in the torpids and their races is great, that which is evinced in the practice of the eights (called Mays at Cambridge, because coming in that term) and in their regatta in May is naturally much keener, because, as representatives of their colleges, they race for supremacy on the river, and "eights week" is the most attractive one of the season at either of the universities.

There is very little more training; like the torpids, they are invited out to breakfast by the different men of the college or the crew, and at times, when the interest is very keen, they are even dined.

At the proper time a paper is posted at the porter's lodge of each college for the names of those who wish to subscribe themselves as hosts, and it is another instance of the boating spirit to say that the list includes prac

tically every member of the college who can afford the entertainment.

They are coached by an old 'varsity oar who happens to be a member of their college, or, in the event of none being available, by a 'varsity oar of some other college, and during the eights' practice season the tow-paths along both the Isis and the Cam are filled with coaches on horseback, and I have seen one on a bicycle. A 'varsity coach at an English university, until he goes up with the crew to Putney, where the final touches are given, does not have the luxury of a steam- launch. The bumping races of the eights are conducted on the same system as those of the torpids, the only difference being that they are started 160 feet apart instead of 130 feet, and that they use regulation racing-shells.

Of the races in midsummer, that include the singles, pair oars, scratch eights, etc., it is only necessary to say that some extremely good rowing is to be seen, and that they are thorough sporting events. The colleges hold closed regattas of scratch events, for which there is no previous training, and for crews that are not chosen until the day of racing. The strokes are appointed by the college captain, but the balance of the crews are drawn from a hat into which the names of all entries are placed. Thus a scratch of four may be made up from as many different colleges as there are oars in the boat, while a pair may have, for instance, one Brasenose man and the other from Balliol.

The most important event of the year, so far as touching university representation, is the trial eights, which takes place the first week in December. During the racing of the torpids the captain of each college eight has his eyes open for suitable candidates, and in "eights week" the president of the University Boat Club and

the coaches are looking for likely material for the 'varsity crew. After the summer regattas sixteen of the best men are chosen and made into two crews, and these race to decide which shall be picked as the nucleus of the 'varsity boat, the substitute or substitutes being chosen (though not necessarily) from the unsuccessful eight. The Cambridge trials are rowed over the Adelaide course at Ely, on the Ouse, about three miles against a slow stream. The Oxford trials race with the stream about two miles, at Moulsford-on-Thames. The former take about nineteen minutes, and the latter little over ten, and both row in heavy-built clinker boats on sliding seats. From this time the 'varsity crew may be considered as being in existence, though it does not begin work before January 10th, nor go into serious training until about six weeks preceding the inter-university race on the Thames.

Once they have gone into training their regular coaching begins, and they breakfast and dine together every

day on the invitation and at the expense of one member of the crew, each in his turn, which continues until they go down to Putney, where they live in quarters, and have a regular training-table at the expense of the University Boat Club.

The manner of electing the 'varsity crew president (captain) differs at the two universities. At Oxford the captains of the college crews only are the electors, each college of the university thereby having but one vote. At Cambridge the captains of all the college crews-i.e., torpids and eights-form the electing committee. Thus one college may have more votes than another, and old Cambridge men have questioned the advisability of a system that permits the representation of Trinity (which has four times as many undergraduates as any other college at Cambridge), while more promising material in other and smaller colleges is ignored. The Cambridge boat, in fact, seems to stand in need of more unity and less Trinity.

It may readily be seen from what I have written that neither Oxford nor Cambridge experiences anything like the difficulty of Harvard and Yale in turning out a 'varsity boat. Really there is no comparison whatsoever in the making up of eights at the English and American universities, since oarsmen come to their coaches ready-made, while we are obliged to build a new crew and develop untried men nearly every year. Only in the event of men making the 'varsity in their second or third college year do we get veteran material. Nevertheless, while our difficulty is infinitely greater, it could be much simplified if we patterned after the Englishmen in building up a boating spirit-creating more interest and rivalry in class crews, and not shutting out the undergraduate from all chance of keeping in touch with the 'varsity.

Of the form of Oxford- and I particularize because