At each portage, sergeant Clark himself carried the chronometers, and, after examining them, placed a sentry to watch them. He also measured the heights of the falls and took the difference of the levels. In shoal water, or in running the several rapids, the delicate instruments were invariably removed from the boats to save them from shocks by bumping against hidden rocks and impediments. The chronometers were wound up every morning at nine o’clock, and the results and comparative differences registered. Three times a day the indications of the barometers, the changes in the atmosphere, and the force and direction of the wind were registered, and these observations were recorded until the expedition quitted the settlement.
Sergeant Clark and private Robert Penton showed great zeal and intelligence in the manner they carried out their scientific duties on the route, and corporal Thomas R. Macpherson, who had charge of the party that accompanied the first brigade from York Factory, was commended for the notes he took of the route, and for the report he framed thereon.
At Lower Fort Garry, the troops, under the officers of engineers, with the sappers as overseers, made a trench round the fortress, and cleared away the wood contiguous to it for 300 yards in every direction. A varying party was detached with corporal Macpherson to Upper Fort Garry; and at both places, the sappers carried out all those services which the nature of the settlement and the weather made indispensable for the health and accommodation of the troops. While at work the detachment wore leather jackets and trousers.
In the second year of the station, corporal Macpherson with one sapper was sent to York Factory, and returned in charge of the magnetic and other instruments left there the year before. Although the intricacies of the passage were considerable, increased by the necessity of personally carrying the cases over the portages, he safely conveyed them to the fort without detriment or derangement. Some of the party were employed at intervals, in the survey of portions of the Assimboine, Saskatchewan and Red Rivers, and corporal Macpherson[[487]] and second-corporal Penton, under Captain Moody, examined and explored the country in the vicinity of the boundary line of the United States at Pambina.
On the 3rd of August, 1848, the sappers quitted Fort Garry under the command of Captain Blackwood Price, R.A.—Captain Moody having then returned to Canada—and after completing the arduous and fatiguing descent to York Factory, they embarked there on the 24th of August, and landed at Woolwich, 18th of October, 1848. Both Lieutenant-Colonel Crofton, and Major Griffiths, his successor in command, awarded an honourable meed of approbation to the detachment for its exemplary conduct and services; but sergeant Clark was particularly noticed by the former for his attainments and ready zeal. “His exertions,” adds the Colonel, “were never wanting, even in matters not in immediate connexion with the corps, and to him I owe the good arrangements made for the garrison library, in aid of which, his services as librarian were cheerfully given without gratuity.”[[488]] Sergeant Clark, corporal Macpherson and second-corporal Penton,[[489]] received promotion for their useful exertions on this expedition.
1846.
Exploration survey for a railway in North America—Services of the party employed on it—Personal services of sergeant A. Calder—Augmentation to the corps—Reinforcement to China—Recall of a company from Bermuda—Royal presents to the reading-room at Southampton—Inspection at Gibraltar by Sir Robert Wilson—Third company placed at the disposal of the Board of Works in Ireland—Sergeant J. Baston—Services of the company—Distinguished from the works controlled by the civilians—Gallantry of private G. Windsor—Coolness of private E. West—Intrepid and useful services of private William Baker—Survey of Southampton, and its incomparable map.
Sergeant Alexander Calder and seven rank and file of the survey companies embarked at Liverpool in the ‘Britannia’ steam-ship, and landed at Halifax, 2nd July. Subsequently, the party was increased by the arrival of four rank and file who had been employed on the boundary survey in the state of Maine. This detachment, with two pensioner non-commissioned officers of the corps, served under the direction of Captain Pipon,[[490]] and afterwards of Lieutenant E. Y. W. Henderson and Major Robinson, R.E., in surveying the country between Quebec and Halifax, to ascertain the best route for a railway to connect the provinces. The party was dressed in plain clothes, and for the service of the woods, fur caps, pea-coats, and over-boots were added.
Five different routes, the projects of rival interests, were surveyed, and the neighbouring forests and wilds, abounding with wood and water, explored. The forests were in their primeval state—dense and rugged. Pine trees were the chief growth, and the ground, encumbered with sharp-pointed branches thrown down by time or the violence of winds, formed a regular abattis, and with a thick undergrowth of shrubs and bushes rendered the woods almost impervious. Parties exploring, as soon as they left the rivers or beaten tracks, had to cut their way before them. The difficulties of carrying out the service were considerable. The hills being as much covered with the forest as the plains and valleys, views of the surrounding country could not easily be obtained. Generally this object was effected by climbing, in which some of the sappers became very expert, “and, assisted by creepers—a contrivance of iron spikes buckled to the feet—could climb well.”[[491]] To wander in the least degree from the path cut or marked was dangerous, as the chances of being benighted or lost in the prairie were very great.[[492]]
The detachment was divided into parties of two each as assistant-surveyors, with ten or twelve labourers, under a civil surveyor of the country. “Each party had a particular line to explore. The sappers carried either two or three barometers and detached thermometers with them; also a 5-inch theodolite, a measuring chain, pocket compasses, &c. As the lines were cut out by the axemen and labourers, the sappers measured them, and took the angles for direction, and also for elevation or depression. The barometers were registered at the summits of ridges and bottoms of valleys. Somewhere, at the most convenient spot, in the neighbourhood of the exploring parties, a sapper was stationed with a standard barometer, who did not move from his post until ordered to do so. His duty was to register his barometer and thermometers every hour during the day.”[[493]]