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CHAPTER VII.

SIDING SEATS.

I. THEIR ORIGIN.

WHEN sliding seats were first used they completely revolution- ised oarsmanship, aud caused old coaches whose names were household words to stand aghast at the invention.

The best use of them was but imperfectly realised by those who first adopted them ; and many of the earliest examples of sliding-seat oarsmanship were sufficiently unorthodox, according to our improved use of them in the present day, to justify the declaration of more than one veteran whose opinion was always respected that—‘if that is sliding, it is not rowing.’

The mechanical power gained by a sliding seat is so great that eyen if he who uses it sets at defiance all recognised prin- ciples of fixed-seat rowing, he can sti!l command more pace than