fidence of the Government and the communities which they served, and have been the principal agents by which our fortifications, our magnificent works of internal improvement, our railroads, our canals, our public buildings, and our lighthouses and harbor works have been brought into existence.

"In the ranks, too, of our legislators, our jurists, our agriculturists, our merchants, our ministers of the Gospel, even, they have been found, and have ever acquitted themselves with honor, and commanded their full share of respect from their fellow-men.'

*General J. G. Barnard.

CHAPTER XVI.

WEST POINT IN 1863.-SCENERY.-PRINCIPAL OBJECTS OF INTEREST. -FORT CLINTON.-Kosciuszko's MONUMENT.-DADE'S MONUMENT. --NARRATIVE OF THE SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE.-CHAIN BATTERY WALK.-LIBRARY AND OBSERVATORY.-CHAPEL.-TROPHIES ON THE WALLS.--ACADEMIC BUILDING.-MUSEUM.-PICTURE GALLERY. SCULPTURE GALLERY.-ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL DE PARTMENTS.--CADETS' BARRACK.-MESS-HALL.-HOSPITAL.—RIDING-HALL.-SCENERY FROM FORT PUTNAM.-THE CEMETERY.MEXICAN TROPHIES. THE GREAT CHAIN. THE ENCAMPMENT.— AUTUMNAL LANDSCAPE AT WEST POINT.

"The moon looks down on old Cro'nest,

She mellows the shades on his shaggy breast,
And seems his huge gray form to throw,

In a silver cone on the wave below;

His sides are broken by spots of shade,

By the walnut bough and the cedar made,

And through their clustering branches dark,
Glimmers and dies the fire-fly's spark-

Like starry twinkles that momently break

Through the rifts of the gathering tempest's rack."

[THE CULPRIT FAY.]

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WEST POINT, situated within three hours' ride by the railway and steamboat from the great commercial emporium of the United States, and accessible by those conveyances many times during each day, presents, like Niagara, attractions to the tourist which excite the most pleasurable and permanent impressions. The unrivalled Rhine-like landscape, viewed by the light of an evening sunset, in the month of June, with the ear charmed by the delicious strains of the Band at parade, fills the

mind of the traveller with novelty, satisfaction, and con

tentment.

Thirty years ago, the arrival of a stranger at West Point, to witness the signs of promise and development of one united by the ties of kindred or friendship, was in itself a novelty; but now, the increased facilities for travelling, and the existence of two fashionable hotels, bring, or carry away daily, a hundred votaries of pleasure from this once secluded spot.

To satisfy these, there are no medicinal waters, no cataracts, or surf-bathing; but there are walks, and talks, and drives, and hops, with two hundred chosen of Columbia's youth, whose gallant bearing and courteous attentions are sometimes remembered with a sigh, and sometimes borne along with a matron's affection through the voyage of life.

The visitor at the West Point Hotel may direct his view up the river northward to Newburg, nine miles distant, and note the Shawangunk Mountains in the extreme distance; and if the atmosphere be unusually clear, the Catskill Mountains, while the intervening distance is dotted with steamers and vessels, significant of the wealth of the West and the enterprise of the East.

To the left, and this side of Newburg, is the "Storm King" Mountain, otherwise called Butter Hill, behind which nestle the villages of Cornwall and New Windsor; and, nearer yet, the Crow Nest, fifteen hundred feet above the waters of the Hudson, with its overhanging cliffs and precipices. To the right, and opposite to the "Storm King," is Break Neck Mountain, tunnelled by the Hudson river railroad; and nearer yet, Bull Hill, the villages of Cold Spring and Phillipstown, opposite