496 SPRINGFIELD AND THE ARSENAL. 



to visit the locality on the Connecticut River where the 

 well-known birds tracks foot-prints of birds have been 

 found, and to have an opportunity of sailing down the 

 Hudson River from Albany to New York. 



In company with Professor Henry Rogers, I therefore 

 left Boston this morning on a visit to President Hitch 

 cock, of Amherst College, to whom the world is indebted 

 for a knowledge of these remarkable foot-prints ; and 

 who, when they were first discovered, had the moral 

 courage to pronounce them to be what then appeared 

 in the highest degree unlikely and absurd impressions 

 produced by the feet of ancient birds walking over a thin, 

 muddy, and impressible surface. 



A few hours brought us to the town of Springfield, 

 whence four railways take their departure to Boston, 

 Albany, New York, and towards Lake Champlain and 

 Canada, by the head- waters of the Connecticut River. 



While waiting for the train at Springfield, we visited 

 the United States arsenal, which has been established 

 on a rising ground in the suburbs of the town. The 

 main building or store was still incomplete. It consisted 

 of three floors, each of which was large enough to contain 

 100,000 stand of arms. The workshops were especially 

 interesting. Among the more ingenious pieces of machi 

 nery were those for turning the stocks of muskets, and 

 for boring out the hollow in which the lockjis inserted. 

 This machine will probably appear amongr the other 

 American articles in the Exhibition of 18|1. If so, I 

 particularly commend it to the attention of my English 

 readers. Springfield, from its position as the place of 

 meeting of so many railways, is remarkably well chosen 

 as the site of a national arsenal. Weapons for 300,000 

 men can, upon the first telegraphic signal, be despatched 

 either up the Connecticut towards Lower Canada, through 

 Albany towards the Lakes, or to the Atlantic shores 

 northward by Boston, or southward by New York. 



