‘ 84. 
improvement the educated young men who from time to 
time came into his military family. Fond of exercise, 
bodily and mental, he sought in natural history, as in geol- 
ogy, mineralogy, and conchology, objects for the long walks 
and drives conducive to health, while the arrangement of 
the specimens, their care and classification, and the study of — 
the habits of the animals which occupied the shells, gave 
scope to his wonderful powers of observation. Instead of 
finding his young officers a trouble, he was fond of their 
companionship, suggesting modes and objects of experiment, 
and encouraging them to do so likewise, thus cultivating 
originality of thought. His laboratory was at their service, 
and his companionship and example at their disposal. After 
a day’s labor he retired to this laboratory, glad to have with 
him such of the young companions of the day as desired 
to jom him. The honored President of this Academy can 
recollect, year after year, the computations, under Colonel 
Totten’s direction, of the thickness of revetments, the analysis 
of minerals collected in the field, classifications of shells 
gathered in days’ walks on the sea-shore, discussions of the 
curious structure of geological specimens in the neighbor- 
Newport, and of the curious mineralogical speci- 
mens of the upper portion of Rhode Island, which he en- 
couraged them to find. So upon the fort itself, the various 
researches fyhich I have described were marked out for 
Successive experimenting, with a generosity to his assistants 
which almost persuaded them that they were original with 
them. The determination of the measures used in laying 
out the fort and the practical apparatus employed in the 
Measurements, received his careful study. The practical 
character of these works impressed themselves upon the 
minds of the young officers, and furnished the fitting comple- 
ment to the theoretical training received at West Point. 
