of sun-light faded into deep shadow. The light troops of a vast army of dense mists sweeping low over our heads, came shutting off the last light, and even as we looked in wonder, the wonder faded into fear, as the main body of the cloudy host charged upon us. It was a cold thick fog; the coldest and solidest I ever felt; apparently filled, indeed, with little particles of snow, which smote upon our thin summer clothing and chilled us through and through in an instant. Thicker and thicker it poured past, in interminable volumes, taking our remaining strength away with the warmth of our bodies, and our courage with our strength. We thought, in this perplexity, to follow the ridge on one of whose summits we were, downwards, and to grope our way out to the valley of the Saco by following the fall of the ravines. We

could not see twenty feet. The darkness, as the sun fell, momently increased. Our little local recollections having been frightened away by the mist-thoroughly befogged in a double sense-we had quite forgotten which way the ridge sloped downwards. Having followed it some distance in one direction, and coming to an ascent, we concluded that we were going wrong, and went the other way. Undertaking this time to be persevering, we kept on until we got fairly away from the neighborhood of our resting-place, followed one or two cross ridges which offered a fallacious prospect of leading us somewhither, and just as night fell, were thoroughly lost, colder, wearier, hungrier and more scared, than ever. We could not now see a step; and moreover, had been for an hour stumbling and even falling, from the weakness of excessive fatigue. But we dared not sit or lie down, lest the numbing sleep of the frost-cloud should take our lives away on its white cold wings. So we even betook ourselves to quadrupedal progressions. We crawled cautiously along, lowering each hand and knee with a separate care, to avoid cuts and scratches, and feeling out forward into the gloom, which seemed to press close upon our eyelids, so dense and palpable was it. We spoke to each other continually, lest we should become separated. Over and over again I put forth my hand for the next step, and upon quietly dropping it, found nothing under it. That was a sign that, I was within six inches of some precipice. Then I called a halt, and cautiously advanced one foot over the brink. If I could reach a footing below, we crawled down; if not, we coasted along

Over

the edge, or tried another course. how many hundred feet of sheer descent, I may have hung by the slippery hold of one hand and one knee-over what dark and empty depths, floored with edged and pitiless ledges of teeth, of sharp primeval stone, I put out helpless hand or foot into the ghastly gloom-I know not, nor do I care to know. But the helplessness of the unseen gesture yet burdens my memory. It has often haunted my rest. For years, if any slight disorder superinduced a dreaming condition, I was in dreams at intervals driven by cold mists or viewless winds, through interminable chasms walled up to heaven, where I saw that seeking gesture repeated to infinity. Over every ledge would then be put forth a helpless hand; pointing to me, clutching at the thick mist, holding wide-spread fingers stretched stiffly out, sweeping slowly hither and thither, vibrating up and down in frantic indecision; indicating dreadful variations upon the solitary theme of utter and desperate loss and helplessness.

So we wandered; until it became evident, as indeed it would have been before, if we had reasoned deliberately, that we should shortly become absolutely unable even to crawl, and should then of necessity fall over a erag, or stiffen and die. We therefore felt about for a soft rock; and having found one which, if not actually soft, was at least rather smoother than most, and moreover, a little sheltered from the wind-driven frost-fog, we slept and watched alternately, in miserable five or ten minute snatches, until some time in the latter part of the night; spending the time allotted to watching in thrashing the arms about, kicking, stamping, and the other doleful manœuvres which are useful in fighting against severe cold and overpowering drowsiness. At last, after an indefinite quan tity-it might, so far as my perception of the passage of time was concerned, have been a week-of wretched dozing and waking, the last detachment of the dreadful fog scudded over us. The moon and stars shone out, most glorious and welcome to behold. We drained the remainder of our brandy, summoned the remainder of our strength, and resumed our last plan of getting out of the mountains by following the fall of the watercourses. We climbed, with many falls and much danger, all stiff and chilled as we were hardly retaining any sensation beyond our elbows and knees, and articulating only with difficulty-down into a ravine, along whose lowest rift we

stumbled, sometimes in shadow and sometimes in the uncertain gleam of the moonlight, but free at least from the deadly cold and impenetrable darkness of the terrible frost-fog.

Our scheme was successful. After several hours' wandering, we finally came out, at late breakfast-time, upon a

narrow meadow in the valley of the Saco, a little above Crawford's House. A day's rest sufficed us to repair damages. As for Mount Washington, people who want to ascend it, may. For my own part, I don't think it any thing to boast of.

I

BELIEVE in mountains ' In electrician's phrase, they are "sharp points" which gently lead down to earth the sublimities of heaven. They are God's standing protests against mammon worship and all other calf idolatries. In the deep and benevolent recesses of creative mind, New York and Wall-street were surely foreseen, and thus came into existence the wondrous beauty and sublimity of the Hudson valley, with its Palisades, Highlands and Cattskills! Had God thought as Wall-street thinks, He would have made no such vast tracts of unsalable land so convenient to market. Mr. Croesus wouldn't give "that" for a hundred Dunderbergs and Round-tops: indeed he thinks quite contemptuously of the mountain-maker for such a thriftless waste of ground-room. Poor Croesus! he should study the physiognomy of Dr. Abbott's dried cats, if he would see a physical type of his spiritual self.

Most profoundly did I believe in mountains on that beautiful day in June 184–, when the steamboat Albany bore me for the first time past the frowning steeps of Butter Hill and Crow's Nest. During the previous winter my studious seclusion at a reputable country academy had been suddenly invaded by the tidings that a cadet appointment, unsolicited and undreamed of by myself, had actually been issued in my unknown and humble name, and that this weighty summons demanded instant acceptance or rejection. Now be it known that my nineteen sober summers, spent in miscellaneous farm work, had revealed to my consciousness no clear inspiration of martial fervors, nor was the military profession clothed in any sentimental fascinations for my rustic and quiet tastes. But I procured a copy of

that modern edition of the Institutes of Lycurgus. known as the Military Academy Regulations, and soon mastered this

elaborate code in all its Draconian severity. Overpersuaded and with many misgivings, I at last decided to accept; thus hoping at least to become well educated. Then came the sad severance of sacred home ties, and those stirrings of the inner depths with which Youth launches forth on life's tossing ocean. The stage, the canal-boat, the railroad and the steamboat, in turn expended their energies in accumulating the long miles which separated me from home and its ever-dear inmates. From mother to step-mother was I journeying, when first the rugged granite walls of the Highland gorge frowned down upon my eager eyes with that cold, hard frown which they have worn through the last four ages. Break-Neck Hill, Bull Hill, Butter Hill and Crow's Nest, brood in silent quaternion over the peaceful Hudson, as if in some mnemonic reverie of those Titans whose giant strength clave asunder their native union "in the old time before." During this dream of the ages, a scanty investiture of scrub trees has "mellowed the shades on their shaggy breasts," and the dark lichens, in hardy legions have encamped over the bald rocks, blackening their primal feldspathic blush into the similitude of rude, unshaven monarchs. Unused to mountains in my gently undulating birth-land, I gazed with fluttering heart on these silently speaking Memnons, so reminiscent of that prineval dawn when the sons of morning sang their chorus of creation. These rugged battlements rose before my mind both as monuments and as symbols. Their severe, unchastened outlines, their unimpressible, self-collected granite rigidity, their seeming consciousness of a mission knowing no to-day nor to-morrow, their sublime aspirings and deep down foundations; all spoke to me of that now visible Sparta whereof I was about becoming a conscript son. Thus stricken

with awe did I tread that shore, since so familiar.

West Point is about fifty-three miles from New York, on the west bank of the Hudson. It consists of an irregular angle or point, elbowing the Hudson into the sharpest curve of its entire navigable course. A plain of about 160 acres elevated over 150 feet above the river, crowns this point, while the limiting bluffs and slopes coming down to the water's edge offer many beautiful clusterings of foliage and outlooking granite spurs, to greet the river Voyager. On the plain is the Academic Hall, the Chapel, Hospital, Library, Cadet Barracks, and Mess Hall, the houses of the Professors and officers, and the open area for military evolutions. Under the hill to the northwest lies the quarter known as Camptown, which consists of the soldiers' barracks and the various small tenements demanded by the motley academic retainers of all minor degrees. In the rear or to the west, the plain is shut in by a range of hills. Mount Independence being just abreast and wearing old Fort Putnam as its head-dress. About a mile west, Redoubt Hill rises still higher, and between this and lordly Crow's Nest winds the valley threaded by the Canterbury road. Across the river is Constitution Island, crowned with fort ruins and the house of Queechy's authoress. Fort Montgomery is about six miles below the Point, and is accessible by a delightful route, joltings excepted. So much for topography.

Now a word, partly of counsel, relative to Cadet appointments. "How can I become a Cadet ?" is a question very prone to arise in a "young American's" mind when stirred by fifes and feathers. Briefly thus. For each Congressional District one Cadet is allowed, whose appointment is practically in the gift of the Representative in Congress from that District. Contingencies considered, a vacancy occurs about once in three years for each district. So, querist, your appointment depends first, on there being a vacancy for your District, and secondly, on your worthy or unworthy M. C. The President makes twelve appointments at large each year, but as you value your peace of mind, do not hope to be one of his elect. And be not over-sanguine on any score, for it is said that during the Mexican war, nearly ten thousand applications were made during a single year, if I remember correctly. Appointments all come from the Secretary of War, to whom a formal application should be made; but your M. C. really selects for appointment. Now

a far more vital question for you to consider is whether you are fit to be appointed. Of ninety-six Cadets appointed in the class of 1840, only twenty-five graduated, and generally only from a half to a third of those first appointed, "doff the Cadet to don the Brevet." The Surgeon's examination often signifies exeunt for a dozen neophytes, and as many more exhibit such idiosyncracies in reading, writing, orthography and arithmetic, that the unsympathizing Academic Board quietly remands them back to citizenship. Then comes the January examination, when the algebraic wrecks are consigned, in fearful numbers, to the parental underwriters. So too in June and January, even to the last, the ill-ballasted, the weak-helmed, the mal-adapted, are singled out from among their stouter fellows, and with stern justice are banished from seas too rough for them. The martial aspirant should consider these things before becoming a Cadet, and remembering well that Cadetship is no mere holiday training, no refined peacockism, but a four years of discipline to body, mind and heart, severer by far than any other educational course in our land involves. But if a sentiment of vigorous manhood, a courage patiently to endure present trial for future good, and above all, if an orderly zeal for intellectual culture and hardihood are living facts in his nature, then I know not how else a youth can become so much a man, as by a West Point education.

I cannot but feel an involuntary pity for the new cadet who is just landing at the old wharf, where a sentinel is in waiting to conduct him to the Adjutant's office, there to record his entrance on he knows not what-small and great tribulations. The poor fellow has just left the endearments of home, and by a rapid transition has now become a stranger among the mighty hills. But, worst of all, instead of receiving kindly hospitality, he becomes for a time one of an inferior caste, towards whom too often the finger of derision is pointed, and over whom the fourth class drill-master flourishes with too snobbish zeal his new-born authority. Once, too, he was deemed a fair subject for all kinds of practical jokes, often coarse and witless; which disgusting heathenism. Heaven be praised! is passing more and more under ban, and is now, I believe. laudably loathed as ungentlemanly by the cadets themselves. Then, too, to be called "a conditional thing." a thing," and a plebe" in slow promotion; to be crowded five in a room, with the floor

and a blanket for a bed; to be twice or thrice a day squad-drilled in "eyes right" and left face," in "forward march," and in the intricate achievement of about face;" to be drummed up, and drummed to meals, and drummed to bed, all with arithmetic for chief diversion; this is indeed a severe ordeal for a young man who is not blessed with good nature and good sense, but with these excellent endowments it soon and smoothly glides on into a harmless memory.

Folks are found who contend that West Point is a hotbed of aristocracy, where caste and titles rule. It would be pleasant to exhibit to such an one the ununiformed new class, presenting a line of about one hundred young men of all types, at least in externals. Side by side are seen the flabby Kentucky jean and the substantial Yankee homespun, the ancient long-tailed, high-collared coat of the farmer's boy, and the exquisite fit of the fashionable New York tailor. The hands inured to work dangle in contact with the unsoiled fingers of a diplomatist's son, or of the petted scion of an F. F. V. After the examination for admission, all these external distinctions vanish, and the Cadet Quartermaster receives in store a most singular assortment of exuvia. Jolly Billy Tooten! I wonder if that vivid green coat in which you so outshone the very beetles, still exists in that all-receiving, naught-surrendering receptacle! From some chance rumors, I much fear that times have since been when poor Tooten has needed that green chrysalis of his short-lived plebeship, for very warmth's sake.

I can

It is surely the fault of the President and M. C.s. if the Cadet appointments are aristocratic; and examination into the antecedents of several classes of cadets have actually shown the reverse to be the fact, as determined by the circumstances and occupations of their parents. conceive nothing more truly democratic than the total obliteration of all hereditary prestige which characterizes the academic administration, and the social opinion in the corps. I have known two President's grandsons, two protégés of General Jackson, several sons of Secretaries, and other high functionaries, found deficient for the simple reason that they were deficient; and I have known heads of classes exalted ab aratro, simply for their superior merits. Before me lies a little volume by a Vermont farmer's son, who successfully competed for the headship of his class with a talented son of Henry Clay; and this but illustrates the real course of

Their

events in this respect. The history of the Academy consistently and uniformly shows that class standing is governed, as far as possible, by actual proficiency and con luct. This, I conceive, is the cardinal feature of all decent democracy; and, moreover, it is at West Point only that this simple principle can rule educational policy, since elsewhere the distinctions of wealth and station cannot be absolutely banished or neutralized. Thanks to their common pay, their uniform. their commons, and their regulated barracks, cadets must fare essentially alike. pay was originally $28 per month, but General McKay, that veteran higgler of Ways and Means. succeeded in chipping $4 per month from their short coattails, with the natural effect of loading graduates with debt. if they have not wealth or wealthy relatives. Thus a blue light of democracy has almost made wealth essential to cadetship; and now that roast beef and cadet's gray are so uppish in their tendencies, I see not how a poor boy can go through the Academy, without incurring an indebtedness in some private channel, which must operate sadly to his after detriment. Cadet pay ought now to be, at the very least. $35 per month, to maintain that broad and invaluable equality between the representatives of the various social strata whence cadets are derived.

After three or four weeks of squad drills, and the safe passage of his candidate examinations, the thing" becomes a full fledged "plebe," and assumes the Cadet uniform. Happy day on which he sheds the motley badges of his rude probation, and when the last black coat vanishes from the daily marches of the gray battalion-that fiery mass of living valor, rolling on "-to tea! Cadet's gray is a peculiar fabric, well known in the realms of dry-goodsery; and its color is such a felicitous average of all the besullying contingencies of real life, that it never shows dirt, even when threadbare. Excellent solution of a mighty problem! Long may it remain untouched by innovating zeal, and may the bell-buttoned brevity of the Cadets' coat-tail never cast shorter shadows! The calculus of variations has of late been freely applied to the army uniforms, Proteus acting as tailor general. Hence we say, with feeling and emphasis, esto perpetua of Cadet's gray, bell-shaped buttons, black cord, white drilling, and all. But alas for headgear, if genius have no better inspiration in reserve! For full dress, the Cadet first wore a cumbrous scale-decked, bell

crowned hat; then the leathern top firebucket hat, with woollen pompon. For undress, the two-lobed leathern bellowscap prevailed; then the leathern top-cap, with the duck-bill visor; and then the present edifice of cloth. Decently to invest army heads, has given still greater trouble; and the protracted incubations of several army boards. after one or two addles, hatched that oblique conic frustum, which is now reigning, and which cannot fail to strike terror to a foe. If our Genios, and Genins, and Genii generally come not to the rescue. the next change may be to bear headed, or bareheaded, or à la "headless horseman." Sartor Resartus needs a new chapter.

Calet life has two phases, essentially distinct, involving separate agencies and experiences, and requiring separate expositions: these are, first, the military; and second, the academic, or student life.

The corps of Cadets usually numbers about 250, and is organized into a battalion of four companies. all officered by Carlets. Over these is the Commandant of Cadets, a lineal army captain, who is the immediate military head of this battalion; also four lineal army lieutenants, commanding the four companies, as Assistant Instructors of Tactics. The Cadet first class furnishes the requisite Cadet captains and lieutenants; the second class, the sergeants; and the third class, the corporals; while all other cadets (four stalf officers excepted) serve indiscriminately as privates. Squad drills are conducted by fourth or third class Cadets, generally the corporals; company drills, by the Assistant Instructor in Tactics; and battalion drills, by the Commandant of Cadets, or an assistant. In ordinary roll-calls in marching to meals, &c., the Cadet officers officiate alone.

This orga

nization prevails for all infantry instruction, and for the regulation of camp and barrack police. For artillery instruction, for cavalry, for fencing, and for academic instruction, special arrangements are ordered, on the basis of classes and class rank.

Between the 20th and 25th of June comes the annual marching into camp, this being pitched on the N.E. portion of the plain. The examination being ended, the first class having graduated, the old third class being gone on furlough, and all the classes being duly promoted, then comes the flitting. Orders are published at parade to pitch the tents and march into camp at a stated hour, vacating all the barrack-rooms; which orders provoke

66

such a stampede of tables, buckets, chairs, trunks, mattresses, &c., to the now vacant recitation rooms, that a first of May in Gotham is comparatively tame. In Congressional phrase, the wasp-waisted vampyres." in committee of caryatides, crown their heads with tables, and, sighing for unattainable wheelbarrows, work on with such vigor, that in two or three hours the barracks contain only iron bedsteads, and accoutrements hanging on the gun-racks. Before breakfast, the camp ground is laid out, and the tents erected, by the quickened diligence of their future occupants. At the indicated hour the signal sounds, the companies are formed and marched into the parade ground, when the battalion, with the band playing and colors unfurled, marches to its new home.

A

The encampment consists of eight rows of tents, two to each company, opening on four streets, or camping grounds; and a broad avenue runs down the centre of the camp. The tents of the company officers, and of the Instructors of Tactics, are pitched opposite their respective companies, and the Cominandant's marquee is placed centrally down the broad avenue. The guard tents, three or four in number, are at the opposite end of the camp. chain of six or eight sentinels surrounds the camp ground day and night. The guard consists of three reliefs, which walk post in turn, through the twenty-four hours, for which each guard is detailed. This detail is drawn as equitably as possible from the four companies, and guard duty recurs once in from three to five days, making it really quite hard work for those not inured to it. That direful sound of the corporal, pounding on the tent floors with the butt of his musket, and bawling, "Turn out, second relief!" tears most frightful rents in the blessed garment of sleep, which settles down so gently on the poor weary plebe, while he dreams of home and mother. On waking to the hard reality, he rubs his eyes, snatches his musket, adjusts his cartridgebox, and quietly takes his place among the eight martyrs.

When the relief is duly marshalled, it is marched by its corporal around the line of posts, each sentinel challenging the longed-for delegation with a fierce Who comes there?" as though he thought them horse marines at least. The corporal responds, "friend, with the countersign," which cabalistic word being demanded, the corporal advances and whispers it over the Sentinel's bayonet point; whereupon, he so rises in the sentinel's