I74 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 
     
    
   
   
    
     Ball-practice with the 4o-pr. and 64~pr. guns was then 
     
     proceeded with, which was also satisfactory to the Island team. 
     
     The amount of prize money taken was $140 during the day. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The payment of teams'while engaged on such expeditions 
     
     are regulated by the rank each man holds in his respective 
     
     corps, from the gunner to that of the commanding officer. 
     
     Traveling and other expenses are also disbursed by the 
     
     Dominion Treasury. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The local militia was encamped this year at Hunter River, 
     
     receiving their twelve days’ training, under the inspection of 
     
     Colonel Beer, commanding the 82nd Battalion. 
     
    
   
   
    
     At half-past nine o’clock on the morning of the 29th January, 
     
     1885, three boats, commanded respectively by Newton Muttart, 
     
     Muncy Irving, and Hanford Allan, having a crew of four 
     
     oarsmen to each boat, left Cape Traverse with mails and 
     
     passengers for the opposite shore. The passengers were : Dr. 
     
     Peter A. McIntyre, M. P., Souris; James A. Morrison, Hali- 
     
     fax; T. S. McLean, Halifax; James A. Fraser, Summerside; 
     
     Philip Farrell, Sturgeon; Aaron Wilson, Summerside; Albert 
     
     Glyddon, Tignish; numbering twenty—two men all told. As 
     
     they proceeded on their way a snow storm prevailed, which 
     
     increased in violence, and before the next morning the ther- 
     
     mometer fell to sixteen degrees below zero. Meantime when 
     
     about midway the men became exhausted and could not 
     
     proceed further towards Cape Tormentine. Thus mid’st the 
     
     darkness of the gulf, the pelting down of bail and sleet, of 
     
     hunger and wretchedness, one consolation presented itself-— 
     
     the ice upon which they were then situated was apparently 
     
     firm, they therefore resolved to shelter themselves for the night 
     
     as best they could. Accordingly two of the boats were placed 
     
     together on their gunwales with baggage to windward, forming 
     
     as it were a kind of cabin. Here a fire was made with boat 
     
     oars, etc., and when consumed one of the boats was broken to 
     
     pieCes and utilized in like manner,—-but the fire was too feeble 
     
     to warm bodies famished with hunger and thirst, chilled with 
     
     exposure and freezing. 
     
    
   
   
    
     During the while the ice with the boats and men had drifted 
     
     towards Crapaud, but the snow drifted and the cold was intense ; 
     
     when at length the drift cleared away, DeSable Kirk was sighted 
     
     some five miles distant. With renewed hopes the men made a