The Cruise of the Branwen

THE OLYMPIC GAMES trouble as other nations are taking to a.chieve some degree of mastery in these hitherto unknown competitions. The thong used to throw the javelin was an exclusively European invention, chiefly applied to light-armed troops, and its value was decisively proved by the experiments carried out for Napoleon by General Reffye, who demon– strated that a javelin thrown only twenty metres with the hand alone could be propelled eighty metres with the thong. At the Olympic meeting in Athens, the Swedish javelin without a thong was used, weighing 2 lb. and Lemming won with 53 metres 90. Practical experiments by Colonel Balck in Sweden, and Mr. Henry Balfour, keeper of the Pitt Rivers Museum, in Oxford, have gone a long way towards developing this style. In using the thong, the fingers must draw the loop tight from the pointwhere it isfirmlyattached to the shaft. There will, of course, be a difference in the action, according as distance or accuracy is the object. In the latter-which is derived from war and the chase-the weapan is painted and thrown horizontally; in the former it is blunt and poised with one end higher than the other. There is, in fact, just the difference observable between throwing down a wicket from the deep field and throwing the cricket-ball in athletic sports. Just as the run in throwing the cricket– ball consists of a few short, springy steps, so in throwing the javelin for distance the runner is careful to be able to turn his head backwards, at one point, in order to see his right hand-a 74