3-034-729 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Red River Expedition: crossing a portage, 1871. Episode during the military expedition to put down the Riel Rebellion at the Red River Settlement in modern-day Manitoba. Engraving of a sketch by Captain Huyshe, depicting '...the toilsome job of a "portage," where the boats must be hauled upon log rollers, over a road cut through the woods, from one lake or river to another. There were forty-seven such portages between Lake Shebandowan and Fort Garry...The guns weighed 200 lb. each, the barrels of pork each 2 cwt, the flour barrels 1201b., the biscuit barrels 100 lb.; and these heavy burdens were carried on the backs of the men...The men endured their great fatigues and continual exposure to the wet in the most praiseworthy manner; none of them complained, and none suffered in health. They had not a drop of alcoholic or fermented liquor all the way; tea or coffee, with sugar, was the only stimulant allowed. Their daily rations were, of biscuits, 1 lb. ; of salt pork, 1 lb. ; and one third of a pint of beans, or ¼ lb. of potatoes...They were "constantly wet through, wet sometimes for days together." Yet, we are told, "they looked as healthy and cheery as possible, and there was not a sick man among them".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.