Moose Lake, by Lieuts. Merritt and Fleming and a few troopers of the Body Guard. At Battleford, after the raiding of some thirty supply waggons by the Battle River Indians, Poundmaker thought it discreet to feign penitence and give himself up a prisoner. Now came the disposition of the forces in the endeavour to capture Big Bear.

On the last day of May three steamers were loaded at Battleford for Fort Pitt.* There General Middleton wished to effect a junction with the 3rd Division, North-West Field Force, and together to move upon the marauding Indians who, under Big Bear, Wandering Spirit, and other types of the noble savage, had betaken themselves to their native wilds and defied the majesty of the law. The undertaking was full of difficulty, for the country was of the roughest, and almost impenetrable to an armed force. The hot season added to the difficulty of pursuit, in a realm of dense scrub and muskeg, made further repellent by myriads of mosquitoes and black flies. The pursuit occupied most of the month of June, the Bear leading the troops a fine dance through his all but impassable country. The whole district north of Fort Pitt, beyond the Moose Hills, beyond the Beaver River, and stretching as far as Cold Lake and Lac des Iles, south of the Athabasca River, was covered in the operations. But the chase was fruitless, save to intimidate the Indians, and lead them to release their prisoners, and finally to surrender themselves. As a fighting force, it was of course possible to beat them, even without the convincing rhetoric of the Gatling; but as a host of cunning fugitives, it was all but impossible to secure their

*The following are the corps that took part in this Expedition: The Midland Batt. (250 men); the 90th (275), the Grenadiers (250), with part of "A" and "B" Batteries, and two Gatlings. The following went by the south trail from Battleford to Fort Pitt: Dennis's Scouts (60), Boulton's Scouts (C0), Mounted Police (50), Brittlebank's (late French's) Scouts (50).

defeat. The only hope was to hunt them down or to starve them out. For weeks the pursuit was kept up with hot ardour by forces under Generals Strange and Middleton. The aid of Colonels Irvine from Prince Albert, and Otter from Battleford, was also called into requisition. The former, with the Mounted Police, moved to the neighbourhood of Green Lake; while the latter, with the Queen's Own, the Ottawa Sharpshooters, and C. Company School of Infantry, pushed on to Jack Fish Lake, thence to Turtle Lake and the region about. Twice General Strange's command came upon the fugitives, and at Frenchman's Butte and at Loon Lake made it hot for the enemy. General Middleton, with his column of horse and the Gatlings, pressed the enemy hard along the Beaver River, and as far north as Cold Lake. But the Bear eluded all efforts to entrap him; so, spent with the toil of march, the bulk of the troops returned to Fort Pitt.

But hunger did what the troops were unable to do. At last it brought submission and a reasonable degree of penitence. First the Chippewyans surrendered, then some lodges of Little Poplar's band, and, finally, Wandering Spirit became a prisoner, followed, a few days afterwards, by Big Bear. The latter was taken near Carlton, whither, it is said, the outlawed Chief was proceeding to surrender himself. His following vanished into thin air; or, more prosaically, broke up into fragments, and took advantage of wild nature's concealment. The scouting parties were now all called in, and the campaign came to a close. After the trying marches were over, and the dangers and difficulties of the Indian pursuit were passed, the troops congregated at Fort Pitt, and were only too glad to have done with the campaign and get back to their homes. Well might the country now release them from their arduous and honourable service!

UCK Lake, Cut Knife Hill, Fish Creek, and Batoche, these are the engagements memorable in the history of the military operations against the now defeated insurgents in the North-West. But for the fact that these battles were fought in the course of a civil war, the names of at least three of them might fitly be blazoned on the country's banners. This is the one drop of bitterness in the cup we would quaff over the success of our arms. Only for the circumstance we mention, the engagements might take their place in the nation's history alongside Chateauguay, Chrysler's Farm, and Lundy's Lane. In no other particular are they less worthy of being held in perpetual honour, for the achievements of those who took part in them were characterised by an old-time valour.

But do we say there is only one drop of bitterness in the cup of joy? Ah, that that might be! Alas! there are those whose hearts have been torn by the conflict, and who, in the

now joyous tumult of the returning troops, look with strained eyes and yearning souls for those who come not back.

"O mothers, sisters, daughters, spare the tears ye fain would shed;
Who seem to die in such a cause, ye cannot call them dead."

The total casualties in the four engagements amounted to 40 killed and 110 wounded. Besides these, over twenty lives fell a sacrifice to Indian bloodthirstiness, and almost as many more received injuries at various periods of the campaign. This calamitous loss of life and limb is the price the people have paid to suppress sedition and to secure returning peace to the country. The immediate and entailed cost, in treasure, though far from inconsiderable, is as nothing to this loss of life, for which Riel and his unprincipled confederates are primarily responsible. The pecuniary burdens of the campaign, however, are no light ones; and the sum of them will long remain an oppressive memory-to the country's rulers we hope an admonitory memory-of the conflict. Could those be coerced into settling the bill who use loose language in regard to the freedom of sections of the community, at will, to resort to rebellion, or who have in any way incited the wicked movement, it would be some satisfaction in contemplating the financial legacy of the strife.

But the cost in blood there is nothing to repay. No treasure can replace a single life; though the individual and the national loss may bring its compensations and be fraught with good. The insurrection has its lesson for the nation; and what it ha cost the country may do more than any remonstrance, rationa or irrational, could possibly effect. Not only will the ear of Government, henceforth, be more acute, and the official mind, we trust, be more alert, but, for a time at least, the public conscience will be quickened and the national heart become less

apathetic. In the cause of humanity everyone must desire to see greater regard paid to the claims and the interests of the settlers in the North-West. In another direction we may also look for national gains as the result of the conflict. All sections of the country have participated in the common duty of suppressing the rebellion, or in limiting the area over which it has spread. In this national service the volunteers have been thrown together with beneficent results, for they have nobly emulated each other in acts of stirring heroism and self-sacrificing devotion to duty. Together they have shared the common danger, and, together, it is theirs to reap the common glory and the common reward. In a journal in one of the Maritime Provinces, the Halifax Herald, we find the following patriotic observations on the progress of Canada since the era of Confederation, and the welding influences which have come of closer intercourse in the nation's commercial and military life.

"Eighteen years," says the writer, "is but a brief period in the life of any nation; but looking over the history of Canada since the first day of July, 1867, we seem to have achieved more in that time than many nations with whose history we are familiar. From being four disconnected Provinces, bounded westwardly by Lake Superior, we have assumed continental proportions, and now stretch one-fourth of the way around the globe, having three oceans for our boundaries. And we have not only grown big, but we have grown together. Eighteen years ago, few Nova Scotians had ever seen the St. Lawrence, and fewer yet had ever heard the name of the Red River of the North, of the Assiniboine, or of the Saskatchewan. To attend Parliament it was necessary for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick members to travel through a foreign country, and to take about a week in the journey. While for any Haligonian on the 1st of July, 1867, to have proposed to have crossed the continent of North America on Canadian (or rather British) soil, would have seemed about equal to a journey across Africa. But on the 1st July, 1885, what do we find? Continuous railway connection on Canadian soil from Halifax to the Selkirk