2. Military Geography.
3. Principles of Strategy, illustrated by representations of some of the most instructive campaigns.
4. French Language and Literature.
5. Riding.
The students are occupied at the school about eight hours daily and their chief work is military drawing and topography. We went into the room where the students of both years were working together at drawings and plans under an artillery officer, said to be one of the best draughtsmen in the army. Some of the plans were modeled in soap, the hachures being marked very elaborately, so that the models and drawings might closely correspond. We also attended a lecture of the second class in military geography. A student traced out on the blackboard the line of the Western Alps, and was examined very closely on the smaller passes, the rivers, and the bases of operations for armies on both sides. The answers were very minute, and given with the greatest readiness; and we understood the question to be taken at random, and not to be a prepared one.[57]
The student officers attending the school are called upon to serve in those arms to which they do not belong. For this purpose they join the troops of the garrison of Vienna during June, July, August, and September, and if they belong to the infantry they go through all the exercises of the cavalry in one year, and of the artillery in another. If they belong to the cavalry, they go in the same manner through the exercises of infantry and artillery. After going through this practice, they have to take command of a battery, of a squadron of cavalry, and of a division of infantry.
The month of May is devoted in the first year to an expedition for practice in surveying the country, and in the second, for making reconnaissances, &c.
October is a vacation in the first year. In the second it is taken up with the final examination before leaving.
The officers acting as professors receive 600 florins, about 60l. annually, besides their pay.