United 
States. 
44.0) EASTERN AND WESTERN VIEWS OF MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY. 
possessions, The expense would be very small a4 stations where there 
are government pack transport animals. 
During the present war the Mountain Artillery has rendered most 
distinguished services, notably at the taking of Port Arthur, where 
from the rough and hilly nature of the ground, it was only possible to 
bring the mountain guns into action ab the commencement of the 
assault, the heavier guns being unable to get into position. Tokio, 
Thrishimo, Nagoya, Basaka, Sendai, and Kumamoto are important 
Mountain Artillery depots. 
In America up to within the last twenty-five years the 12-pounder 
mountain howitzer was largely employed in the Indian Frontier 
Expedition. The 1:65" B.L. Hotchkiss—so-called—mountain gun of 
110 lbs., firmg a projectile of but little more than 2 lbs. weight, and 
without a time fuze was introduced some years ago in its stead. ‘I'he 
Indian had a wholesome dread of the former, but none of the latter 
gun, so Mountain Artillery has rarely been employed by American 
commanders in recent years. 
A very able paper (see foot-note p. 439) was published in the October 
number of the U.S. Artillery Journal, advocating the employment of 
an efficient mountain gun by the government for employment on their 
Indian and Mexican frontiers. The nature of the proposed equip- 
ments and its organization are laid down after very careful consider- 
ation of detail, and the paper is well worth reading by officers 
interested in Mountain Artillery matters in our own army. The 
author commences his paper by laying down as an axiom, that the 
question of mobility as applied to Mountain Artillery appears to be 
of as great importance as in any branch of the Field Artillery, and 
that in a consideration of the subject, two distinctions are met with, 
viz. :—On the one hand an organization suitable for rapid movements 
with cavalry over the most difficult country in which military opera- 
tions is practicable for this arm, the gunners being mounted as in 
Horse Artillery, but dismounted when the guns are to work with 
infantry. And on the other hand, an organization and material 
wherein mobility is in a measure sacrificed, in order to secure in- 
creased power ot fire for the guns, a maximum supply of ammunition 
with as few animals as possible, and the gunners always on foot, and 
therefore the battery incapable of serving with cavalry on long and 
rapid marches, it being held that cavalry can find no legitimate use in 
a field of operations necessitating resort to Mountain Artillery. In 
these extreme views, few European Mountain Artillery officers of 
experience would agree. Small bodies of Cavalry or Mounted Infantry 
as scouts, orderlies, etc., find even in mountainous country a suitable 
vole ; and where cavalry could act in large bodies and Horse Artillery 
could not keep up with them, must be a rare occasion indeed, and not 
at any rate in our service worth providing against. 
However, for the two conditions of service he lays down, the author 
says the result is two very distinct classes of guns with packs for the 
animals corresponding therewith, these latter for the more mobile 
batteries ranging from about 260 lbs. to 290 lbs. per pack, and in the 
other from about 290 Ibs. to 350 Ibs. This apparently small difference 
