THE CADENCES OF CREW

To an oarsman a cadence is a series of practice strokes taken at a gradually increased beat. To a layman the word suggests rather the flow and rhythm of a sport unsurpassed in beauty. The following pictures of the annual Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta on New York's Onondaga Lake, painted by Harvey Schmidt, express both meanings of the word. So does the first-person account by a Harvard undergraduate of a race recently rowed on Cayuga Lake. It begins on page 74.

In a ritual march, oarsmen carry the fragile shell on their shoulders from the boathouse to the float, where they will flip it overhead to their knees and slide it neatly into the water

At almost any time during the morning of the race one or more crews can be seen stroking easily along below the lush greenery of Onondaga Park, on their way to the starting line

Under one of the many signs set up to mark the course, spectators clustered on the bank watch the exhausted boatloads come to rest in disorderly array beyond the finish line

The race done, rowers must still find strength for the long pull to the boathouse

FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

HARVEY SCHMIDT