[cruikshank] FROM ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 43 



feet below, and formed a high wall around the huts to shelter them from 

 the cutting wind. The thermometer constantly stood at from 15 to 

 27 below zero and water was immediately frozen inside the huts 

 while the fires were burning. 



"On the fourth of March ," wrote an officer, "the cold was increas- 

 ing and an incessant snow storm filling our tracks rapidly. We had 

 to leave the M adawaska river owing to the rapids, and the thickness of 

 the brush and the forest made the inarch tedious. On the 5th, the 

 cold greatly augmented, and a heavy gale blowing in our faces hardly 

 left us power to breathe. About midday the company halted and 

 hastening forward I discovered that every man was more or less 

 frostbitten." 



Armstrong's company which had that day set out to cross Lake 

 Temiscouata was driven back by the fury of the storm and returned to 

 the huts they had left in the morning where Shore's company was due 

 to arrive before night. Their stock of provisions had been entirely 

 exhausted and they would have been obliged to march without food 

 all next day had not Lieutenant Charles Rainsford and Privates Gay 

 and Patrick nobly volunteered to make their way to the nearest 

 settlement and return with a supply. This they successfully accom- 

 plished, performing a wearisome journey of forty miles in a terrific 

 storm within twenty-four hours without sleep and with very little 

 rest, dragging their toboggans all the way. 



The entire detachment was inspected by the Governor General 

 at Quebec on March 25 and a few days later the flank companies were 

 ordered to proceed to Kingston where they arrived on April 12, having 

 travelled 760 miles in fifty-six days. 



While at Montreal Prévost had been supplied by Captain Gray 

 with a comparative statement of the opposing forces on the lakes upon 

 the opening of navigation compiled from the best information that was 

 obtainable, from which it appeared that if all the vessels under con- 

 struction on either side were launched and fully armed, equipped and 

 manned, the British squadron on Lake Ontario would be superior in 

 the apparent proportion of three to two, but the number of officers and 

 men expected from England would be barely sufficient to man them 

 and there would be no margin for the replacement of casualties or for 

 manning the squadron on Lake Erie where an equal preponderance in 

 ships and guns was confidently anticipated. He consequently urged 

 the Colonial Secretary in the strongest manner to increase the number 

 sufficiently to ensure a superiority on both lakes "so essentially 

 necessary for the defence of Upper Canada." 1 



1 Prévost to Bathurst, No. 50, Mch. 19. 



