Cadet Life at West Point

by Hugh T. Reed

4.	{ A Description of a Building.
	{ A Character-Sketch of a Dog.
	{ A Narrative of an Interesting Journey.
	{ Reasons for Liking a Favorite Book.
	{ How to Make a Squirrel-Trap (or a Kite, or an Ice-Boat, etc.)

B. 1. What author wrote The Ancient Mariner? Comus? The Marble Faun? Rasselas? Barbara Frietchie?

2. Name two works of each of the following authors: Goldsmith, Emerson, Burke, Macaulay.

3. Give the names of two principal works of a great American novelist; a great English Puritan poet of the seventeenth century; an English woman novelist of the last century; a living American novelist.

GEOGRAPHY.—Candidates will be required to pass a satisfactory examination in descriptive geography and the elements of physical geography. A preponderance of weight is attached to a knowledge of the geography of the United States.

In descriptive geography of the United States, candidates should be thoroughly informed as to its general features and boundaries; adjacent oceans, seas, bays, gulfs, sounds, straits, and islands; lakes, the location and extent of mountain ranges; the sources, directions, and terminations of the important rivers, the names of their principal tributaries, and at what points, if any, these rivers break through highlands on their way to the ocean; the water routes of communication from one part of the country to another; the location and termination of important railroad lines; the boundaries of the several states and territories and their order along the coasts, frontiers and principal rivers; the locations and boundaries of the island possessions; and the names and locations of the capitals and other important cities of the several states, territories and island possessions.

In short, the knowledge should be so complete that a clear mental picture of the whole of the United States is impressed on the mind of the candidate.

In descriptive geography of other countries, candidates should be familiar with the continental areas and grand divisions of water; the earth’s surface; the large bodies of water which in part or wholly surround the grand divisions of the land; the capes, from what parts they project and into what waters, the principal peninsulas, location, and by what waters embraced; the parts connected by an isthmus; the principal islands, location and surrounding waters; the seas, gulfs, and bays, the coasts they indent, and the waters to which they are subordinate; the straits, the lands they separate, and the waters they connect; the location of the principal lakes: the locations, boundaries, capitals and principal cities of the political divisions of the world.

In physical geography, candidates should be familiar with the relief of the earth’s surface; the principal mountain systems, the river systems and watersheds; the coastal and lake plains, and the influence of climate, soil, mineral deposits and other physical features on the resources, industries, commercial relations and development of a country and its people, especially of the United States.