We now come naturally to the duties of our military engineer, and here I may remark that these duties are so varied and so numerous that a detailed recital of them would suggest Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village:” 

      ...  “And still the wonder grew
      That one small head could carry all he ought to know”

[Never lose sight of fact for the sake of rhyme.]

In general terms, his duties consist of: 

    1.  Military surveys and explorations.

    2.  Boundary surveys.

    3.  Geodetic and hydrographic survey of the great lakes.

    4.  Building fortifications—­both permanent works and temporary
    or field works.

    5.  Constructing military roads.

    6.  Pontoniering or building military bridges, both with the
    regular bridge trains and with improved materials.

    7.  The planning and directing of siege operations, either
    offensive or defensive; sapping, mining, etc.

    8.  Providing, testing and planting torpedoes for harbor
    defense when operating from shore stations.

    9.  Staff duty with general officers.

    10.  Improving rivers and harbors.

    11.  The building and repairing of lighthouses.

12.  Various special duties as commissioner of District of Columbia, superintendent military academy, commandant engineer school, instructors at both of these schools, attaches to several foreign legations, for the collection of military information, etc.

It would, of course, exceed the proper limits of a single lecture to go into the details of these many duties, but we may take only a passing glance at most of them, and give more special attention to a few that may involve some points of interest.  Perhaps the most interesting branch of the subject would be that of permanent fortifications, or what amounts to almost the same thing in this country, sea coast defenses.  And here our trouble begins, for, while civil engineers have constant experience to guide them, their roads, bridges, and other structures being in constant use, the military engineer has only now and then, at long intervals, a war or a siege of sufficient extent to furnish data upon which he can safely plan or build his structures.  Imagine a civil engineer designing a bridge, road, or a dam to meet some possible future demand, without having seen such a structure used for twenty years or more, and you can form some estimate of the delightful uncertainties that surround the military engineer when called upon to design a modern fort.  The proving ground shows him that radical improvements are necessary, but actual service conditions are almost entirely wanting, and such as we have contradict many of the proving ground theories.  Thus we have the records of shot going through 25 inches of iron or 25 feet of concrete on the proving