C URRENT LITERATURE.
THE ART OF MARCHING.
The Art of Marching. By Colonel George Armand Purse, C.B. (William Clowes and Sons.)—The title of this work suggests a concise scientific treatise, in which the factors which contribute generally to good marching are set down in a clear and exact form, together with a comparative analysis of the best marches on record, the conditions which tend to produce extraordinary marching power being carefully pointed out and explained. A book with such a subject ought not to be a big one; most soldiers, indeed, would sum up the whole art of marching in some such formula as "Soap your socks, and go till you drop "; and probably they would not be far wrong. Instead, we have here a volume of nearly six hundred pages qaarto, of which the greater, and the more interesting, part consists of long extracts from the military historians of Marlborough, Wellington, Stonewall Jackson, the German War of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These extracts, of varying intrinsic interest, throw, however, little light on the art of marching. They are frequently graphic records of marches, but that is a different matter. The author passes by unnoticed some of the most vital questions that affect marching. Chief among these is that of the proper sort of boot for soldiers. The ammunition-boot possesses, in our opinion, most of the defects which any boot can have ; it is heavy, thick, and unyielding. A man's leg is a pendulum, and the heavier the weight attached to the pen- dulum the greater the motive power required. Why waste energy in moving boots ? But it is urged against light boots that they wear out easily, and are thus very costly. Both of these charges are to some extent true, but they apply in an enhanced degree to heavy boots. The thinnest upper leathers, if well sewn, will last indefinitely. A thin sole can be sewn more strongly than a thick one ; it cannot take heavy nails, but heavy nails are worse than useless. They are not wanted over any sort of ground, and they destroy the boot. The nails gradually work out; the leverage required to eject them loosens the layers of the sole, and they flake off wholesale. No hillmen dream of wearing heavy nailed boots, and on fiat soft ground they are a fortiori unnecessary. Thin boots require their wearer to accustom himself to them, but in a very short time the sole of the foot becomes as hard as the boot, and the sharpest rocks lose their power to terrify. Heavy boots, hard as iron after e wetting, are the most prolific cause of blisters and sore feet Thin boots, be they never so soaked, never lose their pliancy is the drying.
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