630 [ Assembly 



erected by Amberst, might even now be restored. The form of the 

 vast quadrangular barracks, which enclosed the esplanade, may 

 still be distinguished ; one side has been totally demolished, and 

 another partially removed. They formed, until the desecration 

 was arrested by the present proprietors, quarries that supplied 

 building material to a wide region. Two of these barracks re- 

 main in partial preservation, one 192 feet and the other 216 feet 

 in length. The walls yet stand, and although roofless, without 

 floors, and the beams charred and blackened, they are in more 

 perfect condition than any other part of either ruin. The inner 

 walls bear the soldier^' idle scribblings of almost a century ago ^ 

 each room contains a broad and lofty fireplace.. The garrison 

 well, almost one hundred fe^t deep, remains. The direction of 

 the covered way, conducting to the lake, although occasionally 

 fallen in, may readily be discerned. 



' How changed the scenes, since the chivalry oi France and Eag- 

 land, and the savage warriors from Acadia to the precincts of 

 Hudson's Bay, were marshalled on these shores. Last autumn, 

 standing on a lofty eminence on the southern limits of Essex coun- 

 ty, I gazed far along the bold banks and tranquil bosom of Lake 

 George. The view was as lovely as in the age of Montcalm and 

 Howe, but not a sound broke the deep stillness of nature, not 

 a form interrupted its solitude. When I stood amid the ruins of 

 Crovrn Point, cattle were ruminating in its bastion, and a soiitaiy 

 robin twittered among the branches of a tree, whose roots were 

 interlaced among the rocks of the ramparts. I saw sheep feeding 

 upon the walls of Fort Carillon, and plucked wild grapes from a 

 vine clustering upon the ruins of its magazine. 



The English fort at Crown Point was esteemed impregnable to 

 any ordinary attack The deep ditcb, and high walls of ponde- 

 rous masonry, which surmounted it, and the solid work of its 

 foundations, guarded it alike from assault or gradual approaches. 

 Formidable as it then appeared, it is believed that it would be 

 untenable against the heavier ordinance and increased power of 

 the projectiles of modern science. 



* This campaign of A mherst was marked by only two other events? 

 but of widely different aspects. Tlie one was the construction of 



