REGATTA COURSE.

THE Springfield course has been thoroughly tried, and has turned out so bad that all are agreed that we must select a new racing-ground. At Springfield the finish is five miles in a direct line from the city and about seven by the road, and the railroad and hotel accommodations are not very good. That, however, might be put up with, were it not for the fact that it is generally considered necessary in boat-races to have water to row on. There is, to be sure, some water in the Connecticut, but not enough. Nearly in the middle of the course, and about a mile from the start the bottom showed itself last year, and yet last year was not unusually dry. This was in the direct course of the boats, and although no boat actually ran into it during the race, yet some boats had to go over the shoals around it. Besides, the current is very uneven in different parts of the river. The channel is never over one third, and often only one fourth, of the river's breadth. Out of the channel the current is very much weaker than in it.

A suggestion was made in one of the daily papers last summer, that to study these currents and use them was a great science, and whichever crew used head-work enough to avail itself of them ought to have the benefit. The author of that suggestion must have forgotten that the positions of the crews at the start are given out by lot, and I hope that he does not accuse any of his friends of using head-work or management in the drawing of places.

Perhaps in no course will it be possible not to give advantage to some crews over others in assigning the positions, but where five crews start in a current one eighth of a mile per hour, and six others in one of nine eighths of a mile per hour, it is an easy piece of calculation to see that in five minutes the six would be carried four hundred and forty feet ahead by the difference in current. If the five outside of the current could make up the difference and keep even with the others until the end of the race, they would have had to row a quarter of a mile farther than the other crews. There was certainly that difference between the currents where Harvard and Yale started and where Cornell was placed last year.

With a course like that at Springfield boating will be greatly discouraged, and it is of the utmost importance to the success of rowing in America that a good course be selected this coming year, and one which will not have to be changed again; for every change causes many inconveniences and drawbacks. This question of choice should be carefully considered, and if what is here said can provoke any interest on the subject, it will have answered its purpose.

Saratoga has been mentioned, and it has no doubt great advantages, especially in hotel accommodations; but the course is three miles away from the city, and, if the race is not rowed towards the city, the finish will be six miles away, and there is nothing but a carriage-road leading to the lake. There is no steamer, but just such a little teapot as one of those at Springfield this year, which can never keep up with the crews. It has deep water and no current, which are great advantages; but, considering that it is so far out of the way of the New England colleges, we are led to look back again to New England waters.

New London presents itself as one of the most central places that has ever been mentioned. That course came very near being selected in '71, and was not given up on account of any known disadvantage; but the meeting of the Committee was at Springfield, and the members were invited to dine at the Ingleside House, and so the Ingleside course was selected, and for the next two years we kept going nearer the ocean in hopes of finding better water, but with limited success.

At New London there is a course perfectly straight, according to the United States chart, for six miles, and for four miles with no part narrower than thirteen hundred feet, which is very nearly half as broad again as the start at Springfield. Also, there are no shoal places on the New London course. The banks are steep, so that the steamers go close to either shore, and the current is unusually even in all parts. As for convenience to spectators, the course ends within five minutes' walk from the city. Besides the Norwich and New London lines of steamers and the tugs belonging to the harbor, any number of steamers can be chartered from New York to follow and keep up with the boats during the race. There is a carriage-road on one side of the river and the New London Northern Railroad on the other, and both in sight of the river. The Railroad once offered to run a train of open cars, following the crews and carrying any number of people, and they will no doubt repeat the offer. With the cars and steamers there will be a chance for viewing a straight away race not found on any other racecourse.

As for hotel accommodations, New London boasts of a new hotel in the city, which they say "cannot be surpassed by any in New England in point of management and by but few in capacity." Besides that, there are three more in the city and two down the harbor. Norwich, with several large hotels, is nearer in point of time to New London than Springfield was last year from the finish of the course. Besides, as the race finishes close to the city, the crowds can go away that evening to Boston, New York, etc., either by boat or by rail, and have the choice of several lines.

As to question of smooth water, that can only be told by actual trial. Some one ought to be sent by one of the boat-clubs to try the water for four or five days in a shell, and give a report after thorough examination and personal experience, and also to find out whether the city will clear the course for the race, offer prizes, and oblige steamers to slow up and look out for shells.

The Thames cannot be much rougher than the Connecticut at the Peconsic Narrows, which is said to be the roughest place in the whole race, and was yet the starting-place for the last two races.

The summer winds at New London are south-west. The river runs south, and at the end of the course Winthrop Point projects well out from the west bank, and so protects the river from below. Moreover, as there is a tide of two feet, there will always be one time of day when the wind and current being together it cannot be very rough, so that the crews will not be deprived of practice for days and days together, as they were at Springfield.

A Norwich paper, in talking of the course on the Thames, says, that in the latter part of the afternoon there are seldom more than ripples of an inch high, and often it is perfectly calm; but what is meant by the words "ripples" and "seldom" and "often calm" it is hard to say, unless the writer himself has rowed there in a light boat.

Supposing, however, the course to be sufficiently smooth, - and, besides what has already been mentioned, we add good, healthy sea-air and the possibility of sea-bathing, - it would seem hard to find a better place for our regattas.

The Hudson above Troy has been mentioned, but, like Saratoga, it is out of the way, and has not even the advantage of still water, which can be had at Saratoga. At all events, let the courses be thoroughly and impartially considered. Let not the decision be left until the spring freshets, and then given to a committee who are more pleased with a course if they are driven round town in carriages and lunched than by the merits of the course itself. Let us take advantage of the present interest, and remove all obstructions to a sport which is to strengthen the American character as well as American muscle.