114 
I was surprised to learn that the young men clean their rooms 
and clothes themselves, as well as make their own beds: only the 
cleaning of shoes and boots, and carrying of wood may be done 
by servants. But Colonel Thayer thinks, that if too many servants 
were in the school, the cadets would have too great an opportu¬ 
nity of remaining in connexion with the world, without the 
knowledge of the officers. The cadets are divided in four com¬ 
panies, and live in two large massive buildings, three stories high. 
In the older of the two buildings, two occupy one room; in the 
other, three are placed in one room. They sleep on mattresses, 
which are spread out on the floor in the evening, and have 
always two chambers, one for sleeping and the other for study. 
—This opens upon a long corridor. The cadets keep their 
arms also in their rooms. Their uniform consists of a grey' 
jacket, with three rows of yellow buttons, bound with black cords; 
in winter, grey, in summer, white pantaloons; white leather equip¬ 
ments, as worn by the army, and, for fatigue service, leather caps. 
The officers wear the uniform of the artillery corps, to which 
they belong. Notwithstanding the extraordinarily fine situation 
of the school, the cadets have not a healthy appearance, perhaps 
because they have too little recreation. 
After having seen the rich private library of Colonel Thayer, 
he took us to the school. We met with a class which was en¬ 
gaged in descriptive geometry. Several cadets, who stood at the 
board, demonstrated some problems of this science very correctly, 
and answered with great ease and accuracy some questions and 
objections, which Professor Davies made to them. We then at¬ 
tended a physical lecture of Lieu tenant Prescott, which, however, 
appeared to be elementary; he explained the principles of the doc¬ 
trine of heat, and then related" the theory and history of the 
thermometer. 
The institution possesses a fine library and a collection of maps, 
which receives constant additions. We found several of the 
newest German maps. Colonel Thayer is a man who labours 
under a disease with which they say I am also afflicted, namely, 
the bibliomania; on that account I continued a long time in this 
library. I remarked here, also, a full-length portrait of the for¬ 
mer president, Jefferson, by Sully, of Philadelphia, and another 
of the engineer, General Williams, founder of the school. 
The institution possesses four principal buildings. The two 
largest serve as barracks for the cadetsy a third contains the mess- 
room and inn, and the fourth the church, chemical laboratory, 
library, and the hall for drawing, in which are some of the best 
drawings of the cadets. As a model of topographical drawing, 
they had taken the Montjoui of Gironna, designed according to 
the Atlas of Marshal G. St. Cyr. They have adopted the French 
