They stretched across a little
level space, enclosed by a gently sloping ridge of horseshoe shape.
The ridge, in fact, proved to be of that shape when we examined it
later. The row of sixteen cabins stretched across the curve, and
looked out of the opening towards the eastern side of the valley.
Fifty yards in front of the cabins, running across the horseshoe from
heel to heel, flowed a crystal stream of water twenty feet wide and
two feet deep, which rose from forty-two springs near the northern end
of the valley. The ridge enclosing the encampment was nowhere more
than twenty-five feet above the level parade.
The cabins were built of pine logs laid up horizontally, flanked on
the north by the kitchen and stable, and on the south by a storehouse.
Behind the cabins, at the centre of the horseshoe curve, two-thirds
the way up the slope of the ridge, and overlooking the encampment from
its rear, stood the guard-house, in front of which paced a sentinel.
Resuming our march, a brisk step soon brought us to the encampment. At
the brook before the parade I was met by the volunteer officers, who
did not disguise their joy at the prospect of leaving what they
considered a life of unbearable exile.
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