for his service kit. But
'extras' were always acceptable. The price-list of these
'extras' reads strangely to modern ears. But, under the
circumstances, it was not exorbitant, and it was slightly
tempered by being reckoned in Halifax currency of four
dollars to the pound instead of five. The British Tommy
Atkins of that and many a later day thought Canada a
wonderful country for making money go a long way when he
could buy a pot of beer for twopence and get back thirteen
pence Halifax currency as change for his English shilling.
Beef and ham ran from ninepence to a shilling a pound.
Mutton was a little dearer. Salt butter was eightpence
to one-and-threepence. Cheese was tenpence; potatoes from
five to ten shillings a bushel. 'A reasonable loaf of
good soft Bread' cost sixpence. Soap was a shilling a
pound. Tea was prohibitive for all but the officers.
'Plain Green Tea and very Badd' was fifteen shillings,
'Couchon' twenty shillings, 'Hyson' thirty. Leaf tobacco
was tenpence a pound, roll one-and-tenpence, snuff
two-and-threepence. Sugar was a shilling to eighteen
pence. Lemons were sixpence apiece. The non-intoxicating
'Bad Sproos Beer' was only twopence a quart and helped
to keep off scurvy. Real beer, like wine and spirits,
was more expensive. 'Bristol Beer' was eighteen shillings
a dozen, 'Bad malt Drink from Hellifax' ninepence a quart.
Rum and claret were eight shillings a gallon each, port
and Madeira ten and twelve respectively. The term 'Bad'
did not then mean noxious, but only inferior. It stood
against every low-grade article in the price-list. No
goods were over-classified while Carleton was
quartermaster-general.

The engineers were under-staffed, under-manned, and
overworked. There were no Royal Engineers as a permanent
and comprehensive corps till the time of Wellington.
Wolfe complained bitterly and often of the lack of men
and materials for scientific siege work. But he 'relied
on Carleton' to good purpose in this respect as well as
in many others. In his celebrated dispatch to Pitt he
mentions Carleton twice. It was Carleton whom he sent to
seize the west end of the island of Orleans, so as to
command the basin of Quebec, and Carleton whom he sent to
take prisoners and gather information at Pointe-aux-Trembles,
twenty miles above the city. Whether or not he revealed
the whole of his final plan to Carleton is probably more
than we shall ever know, since Carleton's papers were
destroyed. But we d