The result of the surveys and investigations was an able report from Major Robinson, describing a range of country through which a railway could beneficially pass, extending in length to 635 miles, from Halifax to Quebec. The proposed route was determined with reference to the resources of the tract to be traversed, its accessibility, and facility of adaptation to the purpose, as well as its military and general advantages.
After completing the plans and sections of the lines explored, the party, in September, 1848, returned to England and rejoined the survey department.
The personal services of sergeant Calder on this duty are sufficiently interesting to receive notice in this place; and, with some little difference in points of duty and incident, may be taken as an average type of the individual adventures of the rest of the party. From Halifax to Folly Village, he surveyed a line of seventy-five miles with the barometer, and from thence, for twenty-five miles, measured the roads from the high-water mark of the Bay of Fundy, by taking the heights with the theodolite, using the angle of elevation and depression, and checking the same simultaneously[simultaneously], by barometrical observation. He afterwards traversed a varied country for about sixty miles to Amherst, from whence he carried on the survey, barometrically, to Mirimichi. The completion of another rough road of ten miles now took him fully into the wilderness, where he continued his work till the winter set in. During his labours in the woods he ran short of provisions. He was then in charge of twelve men, carrying with them 3 lbs. of pork, 1 lb. of oatmeal, and a small bag of ginger. Upon this scanty fare the party subsisted for three days; and, harassed as they were by hard travelling through a mountainous country, entangled with a tissue of bush and branches covered with deep snow, their fatigues and privations were considerably increased. Heavy loads also they carried, and so closely were the trees packed together, in the exuberant vegetation of the forest, that the adventurers not only had to tear themselves through the thicket, but were continually impeded by logs of fallen trees and tufts of stubborn underwood. On the evening of the third day the hunger of the men began to show its effects in emaciation and despondency. At this moment sergeant Calder found it necessary to relieve the party of the stores and abandon them in the woods. The theodolite and barometers he attached in a safe position to a tree. He then directed the men to use their utmost exertions in tracking a spot where provisions could be found. Scrambling down the banks of a large river they hurried onwards some six miles, when a newly-blazed tree was discovered, indicating the proximity of a lumbering camp. The blazed marks were followed further on for about five miles, and then, to the unbounded joy of the party, a light seen through the chinks of a log-hut on the opposite shore drew the men in the dark on a fallen tree across the stream to the desired camp, where their wants were appeased and their exhausted strength restored. Sergeant Calder acted with coolness and kindness throughout, and maintained the strictest discipline and order. He afterwards recovered the instruments and stores left in the woods, which his men, from weakness and want, had been unable to carry.
In the second season the sergeant returned to the Cobiquid Mountains, the scene of his former exertions. This range was the vertebræ of the country, and the hinging point of an important tract in the route of the proposed railway. Some doubts were entertained as to the practicability of accurately ascertaining the gradients of this dangerous and unknown district, and had they not been determined, the scheme must have proved abortive; but sergeant Calder undertook the service, and accomplished it by means of rods and the spirit-level, to the entire satisfaction of his officers, verifying at the same time the correctness of his former investigations in connexion with the survey of the hills. After this, travelling 200 miles to Cape Canso, he surveyed a branch line along a rugged coast and through an intricate wilderness, to within a few miles of Pictou. In conducting this work one of his labourers was seized with fever. Calder took especial care of the man’s comforts, which, however, from the necessity of crossing rivers and lakes of great breadth on catamarans, or rafts of logs, were unavoidably much restricted. As he proceeded, the trials of the sergeant and his men multiplied, both from the fatigue of travelling and the want of provisions. Wild berries were eaten to supply the cravings of hunger; but to assuage the more fastidious necessities of the sick man, the berries were taken by him with a little sugar. What was most distressing at this time was the absence of all shelter from the inclement weather, and both hale and sick were therefore forced to stretch their limbs under the snow-laden boughs of some dwarf trees, exposed to the keenness of the night frost. At last the party arrived at a district known as the “Garden of Paradise”—a rugged and inhospitable region, where the men were benevolently entertained by some wild Highland settlers. Soon afterwards the sergeant journeyed to Halifax, where he completed the plans and sections of his surveys, and returned to England after a service with the exploration expedition of two years and three months.[[494]]
A large increase to the army and artillery led to a proportionate increase to the royal sappers and miners. This was suggested by Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, to maintain a sufficient disposable force for employment in any military services rendered necessary by the exigencies of the times. Eight companies were ordered to be added to the corps, but their formation was spread over three or four years. The first addition gave, on the 1st April, 1846, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 second-corporal, and 8 privates to each of the 10 service companies; and a company numbered the 12th, of 100 non-commissioned officers and men, was formed at the same time. The corps was thus raised in establishment from 1,290 to 1,500, and on the 1st September it was further increased to 1,600, by the formation of the 15th company. The Corfu company remained at its original establishment of 62 sergeants and rank and file.
On the 22nd July, eighteen rank and file embarked for China, and landed at Hong Kong on the 26th December. This was the third reinforcement to that command. When relieved in November, 1852, the party had dwindled away to 8 men: 7 had died, 2 deserted, and 1 was invalided. The total deaths in the three parties, whose united strength was 67, amounted to 27 men.
The abandonment of the execution of some extensive works in Bermuda permitted the recall to England of the eighth company, which arrived at Woolwich on the 5th August, 1846. The strength of the company on landing at Bermuda was seventy-nine of all ranks. Of this number eight were invalided, thirty-eight had died, one was drowned, one killed, and one transported for desertion. Only thirty-one men, therefore, regained our shores.
A reading-room was established for the corps at Southampton in the summer, which obtained much attention from distinguished visitors. The Marquis of Anglesey—then Master-General—presented an engraving of himself to the room, and the Queen also patronized it by presenting an engraving of his Royal Highness, Prince Albert.[[495]] In placing the gift in the room, Colonel Colby thus recorded the fact in a general order to the companies under his command;—“The valuable services of this distinguished corps, having been brought under Her Most Gracious Majesty’s notice by the ordnance surveys of Great Britain and Ireland, the demarcation of the boundary line between the British dominions and those of the United States in America, and more especially by the survey of the royal domains at Windsor and the duchy of Lancaster, Her Majesty has condescended to mark her gracious approval of these services, by ordering the presentation of a portrait of the Prince Albert to be placed in the reading-room.”
Twice this year the second and eleventh companies were inspected by General Sir Robert Wilson, the Governor of Gibraltar—on the 16th May and 17th October. On both occasions they presented a very creditable appearance under arms. “The progress of the new work,” observes his Excellency, “attests their skill and indefatigable diligence, and their merits become the reputation of the service to which they belong.”
The third company of three sergeants and forty-five rank and file, under Captain Wynne, R.E., received orders at ten o’clock at night on the 21st September, and in seven hours after was on route viâ Liverpool for Dublin, where it arrived on the 24th. Placed at the disposal of the Irish Board of Works to oversee the poor during the continuance of the famine, which, from the failure of the potato crop was now the scourge of Ireland, the company was instantly removed in small parties to Limerick, Castlebar, Roscommon, Newcastle, Boyle, and Castlerea, retaining at Dublin as storekeeper and accountant for the Board sergeant John Baston.[[496]] From these several stations the men were again dispersed over districts of wild country, where the poor, clamorous for subsistence and life, were in a state of revolt. Numbers of these turbulent but starving people were employed on the construction of public roads, &c.; and the sappers, appointed their overseers, not only laid out their work, but instructed them in its performance. To this general duty several of them united the office of steward and inspecting check clerk; and besides controlling the check clerks, superintended and examined the measurements of tasks, and had a general supervision of all arrangements in the field. More than six months they continued on this duty, and returned to Woolwich on the 8th April, 1847, with a high character.