Canada and Newfoundland

by Frank G. Carpenter

The Mounted Police have cut many of the trails of the Far North. When the big gold strikes were made in the Klondike, they built the first road through the wilds of the Yukon, and they have opened up parts of the Canadian Rockies to prospectors. Whenever a new gold district is discovered, or an oil find is reported, the Mounted Police are among the first on the scene, and every one knows that the law is at hand. That is why the Klondike was peaceable during gold rush days, while in Alaska, across the international boundary, notorious “bad men,” such as “Soapy Smith” and his gang, held almost undisputed sway for a time.

The Mounted Police sometimes erect shelters along the new trails, in which they place stores of food for use of prospectors in an emergency. They often bring relief to those in the wilds rendered helpless through injury, disease, or insanity. They settle on the spot minor disputes, especially among the Indians and Eskimos, sometimes perform marriages, and, as the Dawson inspector said to me to-day, do about everything any occasion may require except grant divorces. In extreme cases, a member of the force may arrest his man, try his case, sentence him to death, and, finally, act as clergyman, executioner, and coroner. It is the almost inviolate rule of the organization, however, that a prisoner must be brought in alive and given his chance at a fair trial.

“Bring in your man” is the law, stronger than any legislative enactment, of the Mounted Police. The reputation established by this unique force for never giving up is one of the reasons for its astonishing success.

With the increase of crime, especially murder, among the Eskimos of the Far North, the Mounted Police now have established several stations in the Arctic, including one on Ellesmere Island, in the Polar Sea.

All these activities are carried on by a body of only a little more than a thousand men, scattered from the Maritime Provinces to the Alaska boundary. Here in the Yukon there are but fifty-one men, for whom horses and dogs furnish a part of the transportation.

To get into the service a man must have a good character, a sound body, and some education. Most of the men speak both French and English. Recruits must be between the ages of twenty-two and forty, unmarried, and expert horsemen. The term of enlistment is three years, with reënlistments permitted. Many of the present force have been long in the service. In their training at Regina, much attention is paid to shooting with both rifle and pistol, and in the latter the Mounted Police now hold the championship of all Canada. Many of them are young Englishmen who have failed to make their fortunes and some are younger sons of the nobility. In the old days a son of Charles Dickens, the novelist, served beside a former circus clown and the brother of a baronet.

The inspector of this body at Dawson is the military ruler of a region bigger than Germany. It begins at the south, within thirty miles of the Pacific Ocean, and extends northward to Herschel Island, near where the Mackenzie River flows into the Arctic. It is about a thousand miles long and several hundred miles wide. The inspector tells me that his force is scattered all over this territory, from White Horse, at the end of the White Pass Railway, to Rampart House, on the Arctic Circle. When I asked him about the work of his force, he said:

“Each of our constables has one or two men with him, and sometimes an Indian or so. Together they patrol the whole country. They make long trips to the mines, and report what is going on among the prospectors. In out-of-the-way places they keep order among the Indians and the Eskimos. They also look after the poor and the insane. Recently we heard that a dangerous lunatic was at large over in the Donjek District. Our patrol went after him and brought him several hundred miles through the country to White Horse, whence he was later sent to an asylum. Last year our men penetrated to regions never visited before; they frequently make trips of hundreds of miles by dog sled.”