throw himself, even if he will, into the arms of another college ; suill less can a dissatisfied candidate for one shade of blue ‘ rat” and desert to the enemy. But in tideway and other clubs on the Thames there is such a brisk competition for good oarsmen that a man who finds he is likely to lose his chance of selection in one club has opportunities for obtaining distinction under some rival flag, and very possibly he already belongs to more than one such club, and can put his services up to auction as it were. Hf he finds that he will be relegated 10 some com- paratively unimportant seat in the club which has claims of Jongest standing upon him, he may, if he is unpatriotic and cantankcrous, look out in some other club for a berth of greater distinction. Such men are not uncommon, and are thorns in the side of any captain. ‘I‘hey tax his sixth sense of tact more than anything: if he gives way to them, he risks spoiling the arrangement of his crew; if he stands firm, he may send a valuable man ever to the enemy. Qn the other hand, it must be said that many rival captains would decline to accept the services of a deserter of this sort, and would feel that if such an one would not be truc to one flag, he could not be safely trusted for long to row under another,
Beside this sort of malcontent, whose ambition is to be ant Cesar aut nuilus, the captain has to contend with obstructives of other classes, There is the habitual grumbler, who is never happy unless he has a grievance. ‘To-day he cannot row pro- perly because the boat is always down on his car. Yesterday he was complaining that his rowlock was too high, and he had leave to lower it accordingly. He may not be really bad-tem- pered, nor mutinous ; even his growls haye a ¢riste bonhomie about them; in one sense he is a sort of acquisition to the social element of the crew, for his grumblings make him a butt for jokes and rallies. But when this system of grumbling goes beyond a certain point it sorely tries a captain’s patience, Another sort of incubus is the old hand, who has never risen beyond mediocrity, who has plenty of faults, but who can be relied upon for a certain amount of honest work, and
