Just yesterday, I took the plunge and made a "long-distance" purchase of a new baby brother for the Snider-Enfield three-band Infantry rifle I already have: a Canadian-marked .577 Snider-Enfield two-band "Short Rifle", like this:
In British (and colonial) land service, this pattern of rifle was almost exclusively issued to "Rifle Regiments" (as opposed to regular line infantry, who got the longer 3-band rifle), though the Short Rifle was also issued to Sergeants in all foot units.
In browsing through my reference material, looking for information/pictures relevant to this new toy, I again came across this image - a studio pose depicting members of the Canadian "School of Mounted Infantry" in winter kit - which has always fascinated me. So I thought I'd scan it and post it here, for your enjoyment and comments ...
Although I'd have to dig deeper for more information, the School of Mounted Infantry was apparently established in 1885, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as one of the small units comprising the "Permanent Active Militia", which had recently come into existence (through an 1883 amendment to the
Militia Act) as Canada's only "full time/professional" military force - with a mandated maximum strength of 750 men, in total!
In addition to the interesting garb for Canadian winters (they'd definitely be able to keep their heads and hands warm), I note that the kneeling infantryman and standing Sergeant are both equipped with a British Pattern 1882 Mounted Infantry bandolier, though they would be using it for their .577 Snider cartridges, of course, rather than the longer bottlenecked .577-450 Martini-Henry rounds it was designed for. (As I have mentioned in the past, Canada acquired less than 7500 Martini-Henry rifles, in total, and the great majority of those were never issued. Rather, our Militia were armed almost exclusively with the Snider-Enfield until adoption of the Magazine Lee-Enfield in 1896-97. Since I have one of the currently available reproductions of this bandolier pattern, and had already noted that it does accomodate Snider cartridges - albeit without any of the bullet nose being exposed - I'm very pleased to have photographic evidence of period use of this bit of kit by Canadians.)
I am presuming, from this photograph, that the Mounted Infantry School Corps was armed enitirely with 2-band rifles, though they were not technically a "Rifle" unit. The Sergeant's rifle, clearly visible, would be appropriate to his rank regardless of unit, of course. However, although it is not really possible to make out what type of rifle the kneeling infantryman is holding, I note that he is equipped with the sword bayonet which presumably would have been issued
only with the short rifle - as opposed to the triangular-blade socket bayonet used with the Infantry rifle. Indeed, one would think that mounted infantry units, which were only then emerging as a distinct type I believe, would likely have been armed with the short rifle in preference to the 3-band.
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