439 
EASTERN AND WESTERN VIEWS OF 
MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY. 
A IREWEW 2 
BY 
MAJOR, H. C. C. D. SIMPSON, R.A. 
Tau organization of the various Huropean Mountain Artilleries has 
been freely discussed in the pages of these Proceedings. The service 
of Mountain Artillery is not exclusively confined to these Powers, and 
in the two great Nations of the Hast and West, Japan and the United 
States of America, public attention has been recently drawn in the 
military journals of these countries, to the useful and more general 
employment of this efficient and economical branch of the Artillery 
Arm. 
The Mountain Artillery of Japan, prior to the commencement of the 
present war, would appear to have consisted of 1 Mountain Battery 
of the Guard, and 6 Line Artillery Divisions each of 2 Mountain 
Batteries. 
The establishment of a battery consists of 1 Ist Captain, 1 2nd 
Captain, 3 Lieutenants and Sub-Lieutenants, 1 Sergeant-Major, 6 
Sergeants, 1 Quarter-Master-Sergeant, 1] Armourer-Sergeant, 1 
Sergeant-Artificer, 12 Corporals, 6 Artificers, 148 Gunners and 
Drivers, 86 Riding and Pack-Horses, and 6 Guns. 
The guns are French piéces de 4 de Montagne of the Lahitte system, 
and a few batteries of Mondwell Mountain Guns. 
The officers and drivers carry cavalry swords, the gunners Spencer 
carbines and sword-bayonets. ‘The dominant colour of the European 
pattern uniform is blue, with brown leather long boots, and the 
German cap. 
The pack-animals are cobby ponies, height from 13 to 14 hands. 
The girths are put on with one girth in front and another in rear 
of the animal’s belly. Guns can also be put in draught. 
The men of the Iield Batteries are instructed in Mountain Artillery 
duties, so as to be available when required for this service. 
In the Insurrection in Kin-Sin in 1877 they were so employed on a 
large scale. It seems to me a pity that some training is not given to 
some of our Garrison Companies in the colonies on the same lines, in 
order to fit them for service with our small expeditionary columns, 
for which our regular Mountain Artillery is an insufficient source of 
supply, and which are of constant recurrence throughout our colonial 
1 Official reports on Mountain Artillery of Japan. The Pack-Mule and Mountain Artillery,” 
by Captain Schenck, Second Artillery, U.S.A. ; 
9. VOL. XXIT. 
Japan. 
