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pounders stand in front of the barracks. The Americans use iron 
cannon, like the Swedes, and are very well satisfied with them. 
At another place on the same plain, we saw five six pounders, 
with which the cadets exercise. Three are French pieces, pre¬ 
sented to the Americans by Louis XVI. decorated with the French 
arms; and the motto, ultima ratio regum. The two other pieces 
are English, were taken during the revolution, and as an inscrip- i 
tion says, were given by congress to General Greene as a reward i 
for his conduct in the south of the United States during the war. 
His heirs have not yet reclaimed them, and they consequently 
remain here. A pyramid of white marble not far from these i 
pieces was, according to the inscription, erected by General 
Brown, to the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, a pupil of 
this school, who fell in 1814, at a sally of Fort Erie. 
In the evening we saw the cadets exercise; they form a small 
battalion of four divisions, and are, commanded by their officers, 
and the eldest cadets of the first class, who wear officer’s 
scarfs, and swords. The young men perform their exercises un¬ 
commonly well, and I was gratified at the good order which pre¬ 
vailed. A band of music, paid by the government, belongs ex¬ 
clusively to them, and is said to afford the best military music in 
the United States. Every one has his taste, but I must confess 
that even the celebrated music of the English guards, and the 
American music, are far behind that of the French, Netherlander, 
and Germans. 
In company with Colonel Thayer, we crossed the Hudson to 
visit an iron foundry which belongs to a society, whose director 
is Mr. Campbell, a friend of Colonel Thayer. Two high furnaces 
are in constant employment, as the foundry furnishes all the iron 
arms which government requires. One piece had just been cast, 
and we saw several other pieces cast from a new high furnace. 
Next to the foundry is a building for boring the guns, in which 
ten pieces may be bored at once; for this purpose they lie in a 
horizontal position, the machinery being turned by a large wheel. 
As, however, in hot and very dry summers, or in very cold win¬ 
ters, the water now and then fails, they contemplate substituting 
a steam-engine in place of water-power. 
Notwithstanding my injured side, I ascended the rocky moun¬ 
tain on which the ruins of Fort Putnam lie. My way led through 
a handsome forest of oak, beech, chesnut, and walnut trees. The 
fort occupied the summit of the mountain, was erected in an in¬ 
dented form, of strong granite, and is altogether inaccessible on 
the side next the enemy. It had but a single entrance, with very 
strong casemates, and two small powder-magazines. It was built 
during the revolution on private property; the owner of the 
ground claimed it, and government were obliged to restore it to 
