Pocock's 1885 scrapbook contains approximately 70 pages, with entries (many dated) in a very legible hand, numerous tipped-in and loosely inserted original drawings, autograph letters, illustrations, and clippings. A few leaves have clippings pasted over manuscript entries.
It is bound in quarter maroon leather and marbled boards, with paper label on the cover (labeled "1885"). A bookplate states "Be Traist" ("Be Faithful", the crest of the Innes Clan).
Entries record important events, which were either personally experienced or gathered first-hand from those directly involved. Shortly after his entry into the N.W.M.P., Pocock was immersed in the official response to the uprisings now known as the North-West Resistance of 1885. His 1885 scrapbook conveys the activities related to the military operations, as he had access to direct information. He also records valuable observations of his life as a N.W.M.P. officer. He compiled a list of duty-related statistics (kit prices, N.W.M.P. personnel statistics, expenses, deaths, distance, and important dates with incidents noted), and transcriptions from other sources, including Riel's personal diary. The scrapbook is illustrated with his own pencil and ink sketches and drawings. Included are letters written to his family telling of his experiences with the N.W.M.P. and events of the North-West Resistance, some illustrated with drawings and maps, apparently retrieved for inclusion in the diary books which were to become the source for his planned autobiography. Interspersed throughout the scrapbooks are short stories, poems, and other jottings. Notably this scrapbook contains an early and very faded photograph of Big Bear.
