ling Catawba, are very fair, but cost from six to ten shillings a bottle. Iced water, iced milk, and iced green tea are constantly drunk at all meals, as also tea and coffee made in the usual manner, which, as in most hotels, are generally bad. A variety of drinks are sold at the hotel bars, generally of bad whiskey, rum or brandy, with water, sugar, and mint or other flavours; also sweet soda-water, and syrups of various kinds.

Ice is cheap and plentiful everywhere, and everyone has it at every meal, both in winter and summer; the usual way is to pay so much a month and the ice cart calls and deposits a lump of from ten to thirty pounds weight on the pavement in front of the door, daily or every other day.

It may be useful to other travellers if I state that the cost of my tour, including travelling, hotel-charges and all etceteras, was eight dollars or about thirty-two shillings per day, exclusive of the cost of the voyage out and home, which amounted to thirty guineas.

G

CHAPTER VI.

THE HUDSON-WEST POINT-LAKES GEORGE AND CHAMPLAIN NIAGARA-DETROIT-CHICAGO

THE MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI-THE EMIGRATION

QUESTION.

ON a fine morning in September, I left New York by steamer to go up the Hudson River. The navigable length of this river is about 150 miles, up to Albany, the capital of New York State, and for 120 miles it has sufficient depth of water for vessels of the largest class. The scenery throughout is very fine, and much resembles a chain of the English lakes ; steep cliffs, wooded heights and picturesque towns, villages and villa residences, are found on both banks; and as we proceed upwards, the imposing background formed by the Kaatskill Mountains heightens the effect of the scenery above anything of the same kind that I have witnessed in Europe. It is the fashion to compare this river with the Rhine; but they are in truth very unlike each other.

The prevailing colour of the scenery of the latter is brown, on the Hudson it is green, except when the changing tints of the autumnal foliage produce a brilliant variety of red and yellow. The Hudson has no mediæval castles, and few legendary tales but those preserved or created by the charming fancy of Washington Irving, but it has beauties of its own quite as admirable as those of the more historical river.

Fifty miles up, we come to the buildings of West Point, the famous military school of the States, where I landed in order to visit a place of which I had heard so much. I was received very kindly by General Ruger the Governor, and Colonel Upton the Commandant, who showed me over the whole place.

The Academy was founded in 1802 for the education of officers for the United States Army, and comprises the barracks with accommodation for 250 cadets, a riding school, laboratory, observatory, chapel, hospital and quarters for officers. The nominations are made by the House of Representatives, the candidates having only to pass an easy qualifying examination. But during the course of study, which lasts for four years and is very complete and severe, about two-thirds

of those entering are gradually eliminated, the remainder being recommended to Congress for commissions in the Engineers, Artillery, Cavalry or Infantry. The cadets wear a neat grey uniform, and the discipline is very strict and even severe. The value of the training received here was remarkably shown in the great Civil War, when the West Point men came signally to the front, and scarcely a single man rose to distinction throughout the war who had not been trained at West Point. Grant, Lee, Sherman, McClellan, Beauregard and Meade were all graduates of the academy; Sheridan was, I think, the only man of note who was an outsider. Many of the graduates stay but a short time in the service and afterwards betake themselves to the more lucrative occupations of civil life; for, in the United States, as in England, the pay of the officers is but small.

The United States Engineers have for many years borne a high reputation all over the world for their scientific attainments, and in the American war showed that such acquirements certainly did not disqualify them for high military commands, as it was the fashion to imagine in England up to very

recent times. Nearly all the best generals on both sides had been in fact Engineer graduates, and to the names already mentioned may be added those of Humphreys and Abbott, whose work on the physics and hydraulics of the Mississippi is the most valuable contribution of modern times to the science of Hydraulics; Gillmore well known for his writings on Limes and Cements; Cullum for his work on Military Bridges; Newton for the extensive and original Blasting operations executed by him; Merrill, Gillespie and others, all alike distinguished in peace as in I had the pleasure of meeting many of these officers, from whom I received a very cordial welcome and much personal kindness, which I am sure my brother officers of the corps in England and India will reciprocate if they have the opportunity. The United States Engineer officers are employed similarly to our own; besides the care of all forts, and river, coast and lake defences, they have charge of all works for the improvement of river navigation and of harbours generally, which are carried on by appropriations made annually by Congress for the purpose.

war.

I left West Point after a very agreeable visit and proceeded up the Hudson to Rhine