OUR SPORTING COLUMN.

Columbia College Fall Races. - These races were rowed on October 26, over a one-mile course, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators. W. B. Parsons, '79, walked over for the single sculls in 7 min. 33 sec. '79 won the six-oared barge race in 5 min. 33 sec, '82 second, '81 third. Eldridge, '79, and Brown, '78, won the pair-oared race, beating Ridabock, '79, and Fiske, '81, in 7 min. 30 sec. College beat School of Mines in the four-oared barge race in 6 min. 51 sec. There were also some tub races and a canoe race.

Atalanta B. C. - At the Metropolitan Regatta, on October 17, Messrs. Downs and Eustis, after winning the pair-oared race, were run over by a tow-boat, their shell smashed, and they were forced to swim for their lives, Downs receiving a severe scalp-wound from the boat's paddle-wheel. They sued for damages, and were awarded $250 each, and $65 for their shell.

ATHLETICS.Taken as a whole, the times made at our fall meeting on last Saturday were fairly good. The track, of course, was rather slow, but not as much so as was generally supposed, as the time in the 100-yards, 220-yards, and hurdle-race will show, all these times being most excellent. Several men have said that the track is over distance, and that it should have been a fifth-mile measured eighteen inches from the pole. The track was laid out by a surveyor, and is a fifth-mile measured about two inches from the pole. Perhaps it should have been measured farther out, and we shall take steps to settle this point at once, and if the measurement is wrong, it will be rectified in the early spring. We regret extremely that any such mistake, if mistake it prove to be, should have occurred, but men seem to forget that fast time cannot be made on any track unless they really train, and if there was a single man in last Saturday's races who had trained himself into the pink of condition, we failed to notice him. Several gentlemen have ridden over the track on their bicycles, and their cyclometers make five laps an exact mile.

We recommend to the notice of H. A. A. some of the athletic sports in vogue at Amherst. A "Fat Men's Quarter-Mile" if introduced here, would excite much interest, and the entries would be large. A "Sack Race" would have its attractions, while a thrilling novelty would be a favorite race at Amherst, - at once humane, athletic, and amusing, - i. e. a "Greased Pig Race." A "barrel of cider to the class winning the most races" would also be an incentive to individual prowess, and would doubtless prove a strong card.