Among the latter I was rather surprised to hear the names of Pierre and George called, but was delighted, when my own and Tim’s, together with the rest of our mates, were included in those composing the main body. No sooner was the parade dismissed than we set about making preparations for the march, and it may be as well here to give you some idea of our armament and outfit. The Rangers were, at this time, armed with a breech-loading carbine of the most primitive pattern. It was loaded with a cartridge the powder of which was contained in a thin skin bag at the base of the bullet, and when loading in a hurry it was quite on the cards you burst the skin and spilt the powder. Then you had to fit on a cap, and after you had the weapon loaded you were more likely to miss a church two hundred yards distant than hit it. Heavy muzzle-loading revolvers, tomahawks and sheath knives completed our outfit of lethal weapons, and every man had to carry one hundred carbine cartridges and thirty revolver ones. Besides this, a man had to hump his swag (carry his pack), the amount and weight of each swag depending entirely on the strength and ability of the humper and the country over which it had to be humped. We had no transport of any kind nor knapsacks, so whatever we carried was wrapped up in our blankets, which were rolled, drum-shape, and suspended up and down our backs by straps over the shoulders, but not worn across the chest, this method giving free play to the arms; but it required a man to be square-shouldered and not shaped like a soda-water bottle. It must not be imagined there was any hard-and-fast rule or uniformity required as to how the Rangers carried their packs, or even if they carried any at all; in fact the only uniformity required was the blue jumper and carbine, all the rest was left to the man himself, who could go as he darned well pleased. Boots were not considered essential, nor was the pattern of shirt or shawl taken into consideration, very many men, like Pierre and George, never wearing boots nor carrying blankets during the summer months. It will therefore be thoroughly understood that the Rangers were not for show, and that the gilt and gorgeous panoply of war was as absent from their ranks as hymn-books.