The Origin and Services of the 3rd (Montreal)

sixteen miles taking from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was 25 degrees below zero, and thethe fields.road was so blocked with drifts that the Battery had to pass throughThen the Battery was handicapped by its equipment, the harness continuallybreaking. The guns were marked 1807, and the harness was a good deal olderthan that. The snow drifts were unusually high. One sub-division, having haltedto repair a broken strap, was hurrying to overtake the rest of the Battery, and ranwith such force into a drift that it was completely hidden from view. MajorStevenson, from his horse, could see neither horses, men nor gun. But the goingout was nothing to the return. The Batteryleft Chambly at five in the afternoon,and it was half past two the next morning when it passed Molson s Church onNotre Dame Street. To get their guns and waggons through bad places the driversoften had to hitch up seven horses tandem.This was about the gih of March. On the17th of the same month the Battery went to Lachine,and, as the thaw had come, had trouble again, butCAPTAIN"HKNKVof a different kind.In the year 1862 too, the Batterydid something which entitles the corps to the everlastinggratitude of all the citizens of Montreal. It provedthat the ascent of Mount Royal was possible forvehicles, and thus brought within the range ofpractical municipal politics, the scheme for acquiring the Mountain Park. Hitherto the project hadmet with only ridicule, the general belief beingthat horses could never be got to the summit.Before the Prince of Wales came to Canadain 1860, Colonel Ermatinger, then field officer forLower Canada, and Captain Stevenson had severalconversations about doing somethingout of theordinary as a compliment to His Royal Highness.Among other things it was suggested that CaptainStevenson should take the Battery up to the summit of Mount Royal and fire aOwingsalute as the Prince was returning from inaugurating the Victoria Bridge.to the rain interfering, two days ceremonies had to be thrown into one, and theBattery had not time to try the ascent of the Mountain. In1861 Captain Stevensonwas elected an alderman of the city of Montreal, and the following year made amotion in the city council that the Mountain should be acquired as a public park.The Mountain was divided at that time among some eighteen proprietors, and theproperty was lying practically idle. Cattle were grazed on the lower slopes, andfire wood was cut off the higher plateaus.Nearly everybody laughed at Alderman Stevenson s suggestion, and thought itan Utopian idea. He was not to be laughed out of it, however, but thoughtit over33