15. To return the feathered oar to the square position at the right time and in the correct manner.
16, To raise the hands at the right moment, and so to lower the biade into the water at the correct instant.
17. To recommence the action of the new stroke at the right instant.
These several details present an apparently formidable list of detailed studies to be followed in order to execute a series of strokes and recayeries in the mest approved fashion. In performance the operation is far more homogeneous than would appear from the above disjointed analysis of the scyeral move- ments to be performed. ‘he division of movements is made for the purpose of observation and appreciation of possibly several faults, which may occur in any one of the movements detailed. As a fact, the correct rendering of one movement— of one detail of the stroke—facilitates correctness in succeeding or contemporaneous details ; while, on the other hand, a faulty rendering of one movement tends to hamper the action of the bedy in other details, and to make it mare liable to do its work incorrectly in some or all of them. Expetience shows that one fault, in one distinct detail, is constantly the primary cause of a concatenation of other faults. To set the machine in incorrect motion in one branch of it tends to put the whole, or the greater part of it, more or less out of gear, and to cripple its action from beginning to end of the chapter,
Taking these various details seriatim.
1. The back should he set stiff, and preserved stiff through- out the stroke. Obyiously, if the back yields to the strain, the stroke is not so effectual. Besides, if the back is badly humped the expansion of the chest is impeded ; and with this the action of the pectoral muscles and of the shoulders (of both of which more anon) is also fettered. Vurther, the lungs have less free- dom of play when the back is bent and the chest cramped ; and the value of free respiration requires no explanation,
We have said that the back must be stiff. If the back can be straight, from first to last, stiffaess is ensured, ipso facto. If
