elay, or the early
Canadian winter would close in upon them. The little army was divided
into four divisions. On September 25, Daniel Morgan and his riflemen
led the advance, with orders to go with all speed to what was called
the Twelve Mile carrying place. The second division, under the
command of Colonel Greene, started the next day. Then came the third
division, under Major Meigs, while Colonel Enos brought up the rear.
There were fourteen companies, each provided with sixteen bateaux.

These boats were heavy and clumsy. When loaded, four men could hardly
haul or push them through the shallow channels, or row them against
the strong current of the river. It was hard and rough work. And
those dreadful carrying places! Before they reached Lake Megantic,
they dragged these boats, or what was left of them, round the rapids
twenty-four times. At each carrying place, kegs of powder and of
bullets, barrels of {23} flour and of pork, iron kettles, and all
manner of camp baggage had to be unpacked from the boats, carried
round on the men's backs, and reloaded again. Sometimes the "carry"
was only a matter of a few rods, and again it was two miles long.

[Illustration: A Map of Arnold's Route to Quebec]

From the day the army left Norridgewock, the last outpost of
civilization, troubles came thick and fast. Water from the leaky
boats spoiled the dried codfish and most of the flour. The salt beef
was found unfit for use. There was now nothing left to eat but flour
and pork. The all-day exposure in water, the chilling river fogs at
night, and the sleeping in uniforms which were frozen stiff even in
front of the camp fires, all began to thin the ranks of these sturdy
backwoodsmen.

On October 12, Colonel Enos and the rear guard reached the Twelve
Mile carrying place. The army that had set out from Fort Western with
nearly twelve hundred men could now muster only nine hundred and
fifty well men. And yet they were only beginning the most perilous
stage of their journey. All about them stood the dark and silent
wilderness, through which they were to make their way for sixteen
miles, to reach the Dead River. In this dreaded route there were four
carrying places. The last was three miles long, a third of which was
a miry spruce and cedar swamp. It took {24} five days of hardest toil
to cut their way through the unbroken wilderness. Fortunately, the
hunters shot four moose and caught plenty of salmon trout.

Now began the snail-