Mr. Mellen, the Oxford Stroke, who is an American at
Brasenose,. rowed with admirable judgment and coolness. He gave the men behind him time to finish each stroke, and this is a large part of the secret of winning the Boat Race. Paradoxical though it may seem and feel the real way to get in more strokes is to finish each stroke completely before getting on with the next. It was a great day for Dr. G. C. Bourne, as he had not only taught Mr. Mellen to row, but had designed the boat in which Oxford won. In this boat the broadest section is placed further forward than ever before on the prin- ciple that you should make the largest hole in the water at the initial contact and that the after part of the boat should be designed so as to slide through that hole with as little friction as possible. The fact that the Oxford boat was proved to run well between the strokes will probably cause Cambridge to make the same experiment next year.
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