The winding road from the fort to the plain is quite steep much of the way, but is so well wrought that carriages may safely traverse it ; and the tourist is led by it to one of the loveliest of river and mountain views northward from the Point, in front of the residences of Mr. Weir, the eminent artist, and other professors employed in the Military Academy. Passing along the shaded walk in front of these mansions, on the margin of a high bank, a white marble obelisk is seen upon a grassy knoll on the left, shooting up from a cluster of dark evergreen trees. It was erected by Major-Gcncral Jacob Brown, of the United States ai'my, in memory of

LOLONLL -WOODS, MOMMLNJ

his youthful and v\-ell beloved companion-in-arms, Lieutenant-Colonel E. D. Wood, of the corps of Engineers, who fell while heading a charge, at the sortie of Fort Erie, in Ui^per Canada, on the 17th of September, 1814. He had been a pupil of the Military Academy at West Point. "He was," says one of the inscriptions, "exemplary as a Christian, and distinguished as a soldier."

Passing a little farther on, a gravelled walk diverges riverward, and leads down to the Siege Battery of six guns, erected by the cadets while in the performance of their practical exercises in engineering. The

THE HUDSON.

cannon were housed, and no gunners were near, yet the works appeared formidable. They were composed of gabions, covered with turf, soft and even as fine velvet. The battery commands one of the most pleasing views from the Point, comprising Constitution Island, Mount Taurus, and Break Neck on the right ; Cro' Nest and the Storm King on the left ; and ten miles of the river, with PoUopell's Island and the shores above Newburgh in the centre.