Chapter XXXVIII: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Everyone has heard of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They constitute one of the most remarkable military forces in existence, with an amazing record for the capture and punishment of criminals in the frontier lands of the Dominion. I have met with the Mounted Police in all parts of Canada, have visited the headquarters in Ottawa and the training station at Regina, and have talked here at Dawson with the inspector in charge of the Yukon division. I find the service a gold mine of stories, and fully deserving its reputation for maintaining law and order on the fringes of civilization.

Our own “wild and woolly West” has disappeared, but Canada still has vast areas of undeveloped country into which white men are pushing their way under conditions similar to those in the United States a generation or two ago. But where our frontier was notorious for its lawlessness, that of the Dominion is equally noted for its few crimes. In the Canadian Northwest a “bad man” cannot long escape the strong arm of the law, and in nine cases out of ten he meets with punishment both swift and sure.

From the wheat lands adjoining our border to the gold rivers of the Yukon, from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, the settler, the prospector, or the trader can lie down to sleep at night with little fear for his safety. That this is so is chiefly due to this police force.

Detachments of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are now located all over Canada. They are to be found in the thickly populated centres as well as in the Far North. But it was as a frontier police that the organization was first created, and it was in the Northwest Territories that its reputation was made. It has its stations about Hudson Bay, along the Peace River, on the banks of the Mackenzie, and on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The latest posts established are those on the north coast of Baffin Island, opposite Greenland, and on Ellesmere Island, less than one thousand miles from the North Pole.

The duties of the Mounted Police are widely varied. They are especially charged with the enforcement of federal statutes, and are wholly responsible for law and order in the Northwest Territory, the Yukon, the national parks, and the Indian reservations. Elsewhere the organization coöperates with provincial authorities and the federal departments. It looks after such matters as violations of the customs, of excise regulations, the circulation of radical or revolutionary propaganda, the improper storing of explosives, and the debauching of the Indians. Special patrols are sometimes sent out to strengthen the hands of the Indian Department when unrest is reported among their charges. Some are detailed to see that the betting at the race tracks in the various provinces does not infringe upon the laws, and others to escort trainloads of harvest workers to their destinations and prevent disorders on the way. Patrols go for hundreds of miles by dog sled into the Far North to keep order and investigate crimes among the Eskimos.

The actual discharge of these duties leads to a variety of activities. The Mounted Police patrol the United States border to guard against smuggling of liquor, Chinese, and narcotics. They ride about the newly colonized districts, visiting the homes of the settlers and watching for cattle thieves. Any complaint of disorder or law breaking is promptly investigated, and a member of the force may spend months in the rôle of detective, seeking evidence or making a search for a suspected man.

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.

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.”

“But how can you keep track of the people in such a large territory?” I asked. “Your whole land is a wilderness, and for more than half the year it is all snow and ice.”

“Each hotel and road house is required to keep a daily record of all who stop there,” he replied, “and I may say that we know about where every man in the territory sleeps every night. We are informed of all the passengers who start up or down river, and get reports from every telegraph station they pass on the trip. When a steamer leaves White Horse for Dawson the purser hands in the names of his passengers and they are telegraphed here. If any one gets off on the way his name is wired to us, and we check up the list when the boat comes in. If three men set off in a canoe, the report on that canoe as it passes the next telegraph station will show us if one of them is missing. The patrols also send in reports of the names and business of all newcomers in their districts.”

“Give me some idea of the amount of crime committed in your territory.”

“Our record is fairly good,” replied the inspector of the Mounted Police. “Last year we investigated forty-two cases, only eight of which were under the criminal code. Out of this total of forty-two, we secured thirty-seven convictions. Remember that this is for an area as big as France, and for a population made up largely of frontiersmen, miners, Indians, and Eskimos. Most of the time we have so few bad characters in jail here that it is difficult to keep our barracks in order and the lawn properly mowed. Just now we have two women serving terms for picking the pockets of men who were drunk. They work in the jail laundry, so we are sure of help in our washing for the rest of the year.

“We have had but few murders in our territory,” the inspector continued. “The average was less than one a year for the first twenty years after the big rush to the Klondike, and in every case, without exception, the guilty were caught and executed. There are some interesting stories connected with crimes in this part of the world. Take, for instance, one that occurred in Alaska. The murdered man was a miner who had been killed by an Indian at the close of the season when the miners were about to leave for the winter. They had not time to follow the Indian, but they went to the chief of his tribe and told him that he must catch the murderer and have him ready for them when they returned in the spring. When the spring came they went to the chief and demanded the man. He replied:

“‘Me got him all right. You come see.’ He thereupon took them to the back of the camp and showed them a dead Indian frozen in a large block of ice. As they looked, the chief continued:

“‘We got him last fall. We know you kill him in spring, so we shoot him in fall. What use feed him all winter?’

“We had a case of a miner who inveigled two young men with money to go with him in a canoe two hundred miles down the Yukon. From there they were to make their way inland to a gold prospect the miner had located. As they camped, the miner had one of the men build a fire, while he took the other off to hunt game. Within a short time the man at the camp heard a shot and later the miner came in and said they had killed a bear about a mile away and wanted the man at the camp to go with him to bring in the meat. The two started off together, the miner walking behind. The stranger began to think that all was not right. He turned his head quickly and found that his companion had raised his rifle and was drawing a bead on him. He grappled with him and succeeded in getting the gun. He ran away and finally got to Dawson, where he notified us. We watched the river and within a few days the old miner came down in a boat. Our men arrested him and then went back to the camp and found the body of the man who started out to hunt bear. The murderer was tried in a month and hanged two months later.”

“Do you ever have any lynchings?” I asked.

“I do not believe there has ever been a lynching in all Canada,” said the inspector. “Certainly I never have heard of one in the Yukon. Neither do we have hold-ups such as are not uncommon, I am told, in the United States.”

The inspector’s reference to hold-ups reminded me of a story of a highwayman I heard at the Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa. A road agent held up a man and a woman who were riding through the hills. He covered them with his revolver and made the man dismount so he could go through his pockets. The woman was sitting on her horse, congratulating herself upon her escape, when the robber stepped up to her, saying, “Beg pardon. Just a moment, madam.” He thereupon gently raised her skirt to her knees, thrust his hand into her stocking, and took out her money. He seemed to know just where it was, and there was no waste effort.

“One of the classics of our service”--it is the inspector who is speaking once more--“is the King-Hayward case. Edward Hayward, a young Englishman, was killed in the wilds around Lesser Slave Lake. He had gone up there from Edmonton to hunt with Charles King, an American from Salt Lake City. Some weeks later an Indian notified one of our sergeants that two men had come into the country and one of them had disappeared. The officer got on the trail, went to the last camp fire, where the Indian reported seeing both men, and sifted the ashes. He found three hard lumps of flesh and a bit of skull bone. Near the camp fire was a little pond. In this Indian women were set to work to fish up with their toes any hard substance they might find in the ooze. They brought up a stick-pin of unusual design and a pocketbook. The pond was drained and on the bottom was a shoe with a broken needle sticking in it. The sergeant then examined the ashes of the fire with a microscope, which revealed the eye of the broken needle.

“King was tracked down and arrested, and Hayward’s brother was brought on from England to identify the trinkets of the murdered man. It took the sergeant eleven months to complete his case, and he had to bring forty Indian and half-breed witnesses from Lesser Slave Lake to Edmonton to testify at the trial. But King was finally convicted and hanged. All this cost the Canadian government more than thirty thousand dollars, yet it was not considered a waste of money.”

I inquired of the inspector the cause of most of the crime in his division. He replied:

“One of our troubles is with smuggled liquor. We try especially to keep it from the Indians, but nevertheless it gets in. In one instance bottles of whisky were shipped to the Yukon inside the carcasses of dressed hogs. In another a woman contrived a rubber sleeve, which she filled with whisky. All one had to do for a drink was to give her arm a hard squeeze.”

I asked how it was that the Mounted Police are so feared by bad characters that this whole territory can be controlled by a handful of them. The officer replied:

“Every man in frontier Canada knows that if he is wanted by the Mounted Police, they are sure to get him. A fugitive from justice could very easily kill one of our men sent after him, but he realizes that if he does so, another will follow, and as many more as are necessary until he is brought in. I have seen constables arrest men of twice their weight and strength, and have had one or two men round up a mob and bring them all to jail. This is true not only of our own bad men, but also of those who come across from Alaska. They may be dangerous on the other side of the border, but they are always gentle enough when they get here.

“The big thing that helps us,” concluded the head of the police, “is that the government supports us up to the limit. For example, it cost us two hundred thousand dollars to convict in one famous murder case, but it was done and the guilty man hanged. Ottawa always tells us that it is prepared to spend any amount of money rather than have a murderer go unpunished. It is that policy that enables us to keep order here.”

THE END

SEEING THE WORLD WITH FRANK G. CARPENTER

Doubleday, Page & Company, in response to the demand from Carpenter readers, are now publishing the complete story of CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS, of which this book is the tenth in the series. Those now available are:

1. “_The Holy Land and Syria_”

2. “_From Tangier to Tripoli_”
Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia, and Tripoli

3. “_Alaska, Our Northern Wonderland_”

4. “_The Tail of the Hemisphere_”
Chile and Argentina

5. “_From Cairo to Kisumu_”
Egypt, the Sudan,
and Kenya Colony

6. “_Java and the East Indies_”
Java, Sumatra,
the Moluccas, New Guinea,
Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula

7. “_France to Scandinavia_”
France, Belgium,
Holland, Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden

8. “_Mexico_”

9. “_Australia, New Zealand, and Some Islands of the South Seas_”
Australia, New Zealand,
New Guinea, the Samoas,
the Fijis, and the Tongas

10. “_Canada_”
and Newfoundland

Millions of Americans have already found Carpenter their ideal fellow traveller, and have enjoyed visiting with him all the corners of the globe. He tells his readers what they want to know, shows them what they want to see, and makes them feel that they are there.

CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS are the only works of their kind. These books are familiar talks about the countries and peoples of the earth, with the author on the spot and the reader in his home. No other one man has visited so much of the globe and written on the ground, in plain and simple language, the story of what he has found. CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS are not the casual record of incidents of the journey, but the painstaking study of a trained observer, devoting his life to the task of international reporting. Each book is complete in itself; together they form the most vivid, interesting, and understandable picture of our modern world ever published. They are the fruit of more than thirty years of unparalleled success in writing for the American people, and the capstone of distinguished services to the teaching of geography in our public schools, which have used some four million copies of the Carpenter Geographical Readers.

INDEX

Abitibi, large production of news-print at, 92.

Agriculture, in Newfoundland, 11;
in Quebec, 47, 48;
possibilities of Manitoba, 154.

Air plant, a polar orchid along the Yukon Trail, 236.

Airplanes, fail in attempt to reach Fort Norman, 205.

Alberta, coal deposits estimated to be one seventh of the world’s
total, 200;
extent of pure bred cattle and dairy industries, 208.

Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company, pioneer in Alberta
irrigationwork, 207.

Alfalfa, largely produced in southwestern Saskatchewan, 176.

American “branch plants” in Canada, 104.

American capital and investments in Canada, 105.

American owned pulp-mills and timber tracts in Canada, 96.

Americans, number of, in Canada, 2, 193.

Anderson, Charlie, his lucky strike in the Klondike, 275.

Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia’s apple-growing district, 34.

Anyox, British Columbia, copper mines at, 223.

Apples, largely grown in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, 34;
in the Okanagan Valley, 223.

Asbestos, most of world’s supply produced in Thetford district,
Quebec, 47.

Astrophysical Observatory at Victoria, British Columbia, 225.

“Athabaska Trail,” poem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 205.

Automobiles, American, in Canada, 104.

Banff, finest mountain resort of Canada, 215.

Bank of Montreal, one of the world’s great banks, 73.

Banks and the banking system of Canada, 69, _et seq._

Banting, Dr. F. G., discoverer of Insulin, 99.

Barley, production in the Winnipeg district, 149;
large crops at Edmonton, 200;
in Peace River Valley, 202.

Baseball, popular in Nova Scotia, 35;
in Toronto, 101.

Bassano, great irrigation dam at, 206.

Battleford, Saskatchewan, noted for its fur trade and lumber mills,
179.

Beach, Rex, in the Klondike, 278.

Bears, abundant in the Yukon, 234.

Beatty, E. W., first Canadian-born president of the Canadian Pacific,
165.

Beaver, the first fur exported by the Hudson’s Bay Company, 169;
abundant in the Yukon, 234.

Beck, Sir Adam, at the head of Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission, 110.

Bell Island, visit to the Wabana iron mines on, 26.

Belle Isle, Strait of, 4.

Big game of the Yukon region, 253.

Black, George, demonstrates to Ottawa Parliament possibility of
winter automobile travel in the Yukon, 239.

Bonsecours Market, at Montreal, 66.

Boyle, Joseph W., successful gold-dredging operations in the Yukon,
271;
the story of his career, 281.

Branch plants, American, in Canada, 104.

Bras d’Or Lake, an inland sea, 39.

Bright “Dickie,” a character of old-time Calgary, 211.

British American Nickel Company, operators of mines at Sudbury, 130.

British Columbia, timber resources of, 90;
production of silver in, 124;
agricultural and mineral resources, 220 _et seq._

Buffalo, last wild herd reported to be near Fort Vermilion, 202;
largest herd in America at Wainwright Park, Alberta, 217.

Cabbage, as raised at Dawson, Yukon, 265.

Cabot, Sebastian, reported that fish obstructed navigation on
Newfoundland coast, 13.

Cabot Tower, commemorating discovery of Newfoundland, 6.

Calgary, Alberta, huge irrigation works of the Canadian Pacific
Railway at, 206, 207;
the city and its industries, 209.

Camping and hunting in Ontario province, 139.

Canadian Bank of Commerce, established in the Klondike, 280.

Canadian Banking Act, provisions of, 72.

Canadian Banking Association, of semi-official status, 73.

Canadian Klondike Mining Company, established by Joe Boyle, 284.

Canadian National Railways, eastern terminus at Halifax, 31;
extent of, 158;
work abroad to induce immigration, 190;
transcontinental route from Prince Rupert to Halifax, 229.

Canadian Northern Railway, growth of, 162.

Canadian Pacific Railway, eastern terminus at St. John, N. B., 41;
extent of its railroad and steamship service, 158, 160;
work abroad to induce immigration, 190;
begins huge irrigation project near Calgary, 206, 207;
leads in exploiting Canada’s scenic wonders, 218.

Canadian relations with the United States, 85.

Canso, Strait of, railroad trains ferried across, 39.

Cantilever bridge, world’s longest at Quebec, 45.

Cape Breton Island, port of province of Nova Scotia, 38.

Cape Race, chief signal station of the North Atlantic, 3.

Cape Spear, most easterly point of North America, 6.

“Card money,” circulation of, 74.

Caribou, abundant in Newfoundland, 11;
in northern Ontario, 140;
in the Yukon, 234, 253;
meat sold at butcher shops in Dawson, 253.

Carmack, George, discoverer of gold in the Klondike, 274.

Carrots, a successful crop at Dawson, Yukon, 261.

Cartier, Jacques, early explorations of, 45.

Catholicism, Quebec the American capital of French, 57.

Cattalo, cross between buffalo and cattle, raised in large numbers at
Wainwright Park, 218.

Cattle, pure bred, in Alberta, 208;
transportation of, on the Yukon River, 242.

Cattle ranches being supplanted by farms in Alberta, 206.

Château Laurier, government railroad hotel at Ottawa, 81.

Chaudière Falls, source of power for Ottawa manufactures, 80.

Chicken Billy and his ten-thousand-dollar potato patch, 259.

Chinese labourers, not admitted to Canada, 190.

Chippewa, immense hydro-electric development at, 113.

Chisana, abandoned town on the Yukon River, 244.

“Circle tour,” the Canadian Rockies, Yellowstone Park, and Grand
Canyon motor route, 215.

Clay Belt, the Great, agricultural possibilities in, 139.

Clergue steel plant, at Sault Ste. Marie, 135.

Climate, at Edmonton, 200;
at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, 228;
at Dawson, Yukon, 256.

Coaker, Sir William, organizer of Newfoundland Fishermen’s Protective
Union, 21.

Coal, great importance of the Sydney mines, 39;
amount saved by development of Canada’s water-power, 108;
Alberta’s deposits, the greatest in the Dominion, 200;
immense deposits, near Crow’s Nest Pass, 221.

Cobalt, Ontario, world’s richest silver deposits at, 119.

Cobalt, immense production of the mineral at Cobalt, Ontario, 125.

Cochrane, “Billy,” breeder of “wild” cattle at Calgary, 210.

Cochrane, Senator, owner of large cattle ranch in Alberta, 207.

Cod fisheries, of Newfoundland, 13;
of Nova Scotia, 36.

Coffee, George T., lucky miner in the Yukon, 266.

Coke ovens, at the coal deposits near Crow’s Nest Pass, 221.

Columbia River, source of, in the Kootenays, 220.

Conservation of forests in Canada, 89.

Copper, rich deposits in Newfoundland, 12;
in the Kootenay country, 221, 222.

Copper sulphate, by-product of Sudbury mines, 130.

Cornwallis, Lord, city of Halifax, founded by, 32.

“Country banks” of coal, the settler’s recourse, 201.

Creighton Nickel Mine, largest producer in the world, 127.

“Cremation of Sam McGee,” poem by Robert Service, 257.

Crow’s Nest Pass, railway line through, 217, 220;
immense coal deposits near, 221.

Cucumbers, a hot-house crop, at Dawson, Yukon, 261.

Curling, a popular game in Canada, 68.

Dairy cattle and products of Alberta, 208.

Dawson, the capital of the Yukon, 250 _et seq._

Deer, plentiful in Nova Scotia, 57.

Divorce, no laws for, in Newfoundland, 9.

Domestic servants, scarcity of, 192.

Dominion Agricultural Department, originates improved wheat
varieties, 183.

Douglas fir, principal timber of British Columbia, 91.

Doukhobors, fanatical colonists from Russia, 194.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, poem, “The Athabasca Trail,” 205.

Dredging for gold in the Yukon, 267, 269.

Dunsmore, Lord, as a pioneer names town of Moose Jaw, 179.

Edmonton, Alberta, the gateway to the northwest, 197 _et seq._

Electric current, low cost of in southern Ontario, 106, 108, 111.

Electrically heated water for winter mining in the Klondike, 285.

Elevators, how conducted in the Canadian wheat belt, 186.

Farm labour, how obtained for the Canadian wheat fields, 184.

Farmers, American, movement to the Canadian wheat belt, 193.

Farmhouses, well built in Nova Scotia, 38.

Farming, on the edge of the Arctic, Fisheries, of Newfoundland, 13;
of Nova Scotia, 36.

Fisheries of British Columbia, extent of, 230.

Fishermen, Newfoundland, their hard lives and small incomes, 20.

Fishermen’s Protective Union, activities of, 21.

Flax seed, production in the Winnipeg district, 149.

Fleming, Peter, plans harbour development of Montreal, 62.

Floating dry dock, at Prince Rupert, 229.

Flour industry, location of principal mills, 186.

Football, popular in Toronto, 101.

Forest fires and protective measures, 89.

Forest reserves, set aside by government of Ontario, 139.

Forests, denudation of Canadian, 88.

Fort Garry, present site of Winnipeg, 151.

Fort McMurray, on the route to the new oil fields, 203.

Fort Norman, trading post for the new oil region, 203.

Fort Smith, capital of the Northwest Territories, 203.

Fort Vermillion, last herd of wild wood buffalo reported near, 202.

Fort William, the great wheat centre, 135, 141.

Fox, Black, price of fur declining since advent of fur farming, 173.

Fox farms on Prince Edward Island, 40;
near Indian Lorette, Quebec, 44.

Fraser River, gold discoveries on, the first in British Columbia, 223.

Freighters, Lake Superior, 146.

French, dispute British claims to Newfoundland fisheries, 14;
attempts to hold Nova Scotia, 15;
driven from Cape Breton Island, 39.

French, the language of Quebec, 49.

French Canada--Quebec, 42.

French Catholicism, Quebec the American capital of, 57.

Fruit growing in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, 224.

Fundy, Bay of, the forty-foot tides of, 38.

Fur, and the great organizations concerned in its marketing, 166 _et
seq._

Gas, natural, at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 180;
at Medicine Hat and near Edmonton, 201.

Gates, Swift-Water Bill, his great strike in the Klondike, 277;
partnership with Jack London, 278;
partnership with Joe Boyle, 282.

Glace Bay, first transatlantic cable landed at, 39.

Gold, but little found in Labrador, 11;
production of, in the Porcupine district, 125;
in the Kootenay country, 221;
first discovery in British Columbia, on the Fraser River, 223;
supply being exhausted in the Klondike, 250;
the wonders of the Yukon, 266.

Gouin reservoir, immense water-power development in Quebec, 47.

Government ownership of railroads, how brought about, 162.

Governor-General, the, his position in the Canadian government, 84.

Grain-carrying ships, of the Great Lakes, 146.

Grain elevators, at Port Arthur and Fort William, 141 _et seq._

Grain sacks, manufacture of, a leading industry of Montreal, 63.

Granby Company, miners and smelters of copper in British Columbia,
222.

Grand Banks, the cod fishing grounds, 4, 19.

Grand Forks, British Columbia, smelter closed down after a record
production, 222.

Grand Trunk railway, growth of, in Canada, 162.

Grande Prairie, largest town in the Peace River Valley, 202.

Great Divide, crossing the, 213.

Great Slave Lake, on the route to the new oil fields, 204.

Grenfell, Dr., sailors’ mission of, at St. John’s, 8.

Gulf Stream, its influence on Newfoundland, 4, 5.

Halibut, large production of the British Columbia fisheries, 230.

Halifax, chief city and capital of Nova Scotia, 31.

Halifax explosion, one of the greatest ever known, 33.

Hamilton, Ontario, prosperity due to cheap electric power from
Niagara, 117.

Hayward, Edward, his murder near Lesser Slave Lake, and the running
down of his murderer, 295.

Hematite ore, in the Kootenay country, 221.

Hidden Creek copper mines, largest in British Columbia, 223.

Hill, James J., prediction of Canada’s future population, 189.

Hockey, the great game of Canada, 68.

Hogs, raised at Dawson, Yukon, 260, 262.

Hollinger Mine, largest gold mine in North America, 125.

Holt, Renfrew and Company, great furriers at Quebec, 171.

Homesteads in the Yukon, 265.

Horse raising, in Alberta, 209.

Hot-houses for cucumbers and tomatoes at Dawson, Yukon, 261.

Hudson Bay, railways projected to, 155.

Hudson’s Bay Company, history of, 166 _et seq._

Hudson Strait, chief difficulty in navigation of Hudson Bay Route,
156.

Hull, wet suburb of dry Ottawa, 80.

Hunting, in Newfoundland, 11.

Hunting and camping in Ontario province, 139.

Hydraulic mining, in the Yukon, 267.

Hydro-electric Commission, work of, in Ontario, 102, 103, 106, 107.

Hydro-electric development in Quebec, 46;
of Niagara Falls, 106;
of Welland River at Niagara Falls, 113;
at Sault St. Marie, 134.

Hydro-electric development and the paper and pulp industry, 96.

Hydro-electric plant, supplying St. John’s, 15.

Hydro-electric project at Ogdensburg proposed for furnishing power to
United States and Canada, 100.

Ibex Range, as seen from the Yukon trail, 236.

Ice Palace, formerly erected each winter at Montreal, 68.

Icelanders, a colony of, near Winnipeg, 152.

Immigration, Canada’s desire for, 188 _et seq._

Indian Head, government forestry experiments at, 178.

Insulin, specific for treatment of diabetes, discovered at University
of Toronto, 99.

International Joint Commission, approves project for improvement of
St. Lawrence waterway, 100.

International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., owners of rich Sudbury
mines, 127.

Iron, one of the world’s largest deposits in Newfoundland, 12;
the wonderful Wabana mines, 24;
in the Kootenay country, 221.

Irrigation in Alberta, 206;
in the Okanagan Valley, 224.

Japanese labourers, not admitted to Canada, 190.

Jasper Park, greatest of Canada’s western game and forest reserve,
217.

Keeley Mine, rich silver veins of, at Cobalt, 124.

Keno Hill, new silver district in the Yukon, 124.

Kicking Horse Pass, where the railway crosses the Great Divide, 216.

King, Charles, his capture and conviction of murder by the Mounted
Police, 295.

King Solomon’s Dome, in the centre of the Klondike gold region, 274.

Kirkland Lake gold district, production of, 125.

Klondike, the supply of gold being exhausted, 250;
romances of the, 274.

Kootenay country, resources of, 220, 221.

Kootenay Lake, steamer trip through, 221.

Labrador, cod fisheries of, 19.

Labour, how obtained for the Canadian wheat fields, 184.

Lac Beauvert, a mountain resort of the Canadian National Railways,
217.

La Chine Rapids, so-named by Cartier, 61.

Lachine Canal, near Montreal, 64.

Lacrosse, one of the most popular Canadian games, 67.

Lake of the Woods, a beautiful camping and hunting district, 139.

La Rose, discoverer of silver at Cobalt, 122.

Land grants to the Canadian Pacific Railway, 190.

Laurentian Mountains, oldest rock formation of the continent, 48.

Le Roi Copper Mine at Rossland, British Columbia, 222.

Leacock, Stephen, at McGill University, Montreal, 63.

Lead, in the Kootenay country, 221.

Left-hand driving, the custom in Newfoundland, 25.

Life insurance, amount held by Canadians, 78.

Lignite coal, in Saskatchewan, 180.

Live stock, transportation of on the Yukon River, 242.

Live stock production in Newfoundland, 11.

London, Jack, in the Klondike, 278.

London, Ontario, greatly increased consumption of electricity due to
low price, 112.

Louise, Lake, in the Canadian Rockies, 216.

Lumber, production at Sault Ste. Marie, 135;
production of the Saskatchewan province, 176, 179;
immense quantities shipped from Vancouver, 225.

Lumber industry of Canada, the, 88 _et seq._

Manitoba, extent of the province, its topography and resources, 154.

Maritime Provinces, of Canada, the, 31.

Marquette, Father, establishes first Jesuit mission in the new world
at Sault Ste. Marie, 135.

Marquis, valuable variety of wheat originated by Dominion
Agricultural Department, 183.

Matches, manufacture of, at Ottawa, 80, 88.

Medicine Hat, natural gas wells at, 201.

Mennonites, at Winnipeg, 153;
colonies of, from Russia, 194, 195.

McGill University, Montreal, 63.

Miller, Joaquin, in the Klondike, 278.

Mine props, cut in Newfoundland for use in English and Welsh mines,
11.

Mining wonders of the far North, 266.

Mond Nickel Company, operators of mines at Sudbury, 130.

Monel metal, how produced, 129.

Montreal, Canada’s largest city and financial centre, 60 _et seq._

Moose, plentiful in Nova Scotia, 37;
in Ontario province, 140;
in the Yukon, 234, 253;
meat sold at butcher shops at Dawson, 253.

Moose Jaw, an important commercial centre of Saskatchewan, 179.

Mosses, along the Yukon trail, 236.

Mother’s pension, in Ontario, 103.

Motor tourists, welcomed in Quebec, 50.

Mountain goats, abundant in the Yukon, 253.

Mountain sheep, abundant in the Yukon, 253.

Mount Robson, highest peak in Canada, 217.

Mount Royal, from which Montreal is named, 61.

Municipal ownership in Port Arthur and Fort William, 143.

Muskrat, a valuable fur when dyed and prepared, 172.

Names, fanciful, in Newfoundland geography, 12.

National debt of Canada, greatly increased during the World War, 188.

Natural gas, at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 180;
at Medicine Hat, and near Edmonton, 201.

Nelson, British Columbia, in the heart of the mining country, 221.

New Brunswick, its resources and industries, 40.

New Caledonia, nickel production of, 127.

Newfoundland, size and strategic importance, 4;
population, 7;
education and church activities, 7;
political relation to British Empire, 8;
system of government, 9.

Newspapers in the early Klondike days, 280.

News-print, production of the Sault Ste. Marie mills, 134.

Niagara Falls, hydro-electric development of, 106, 113.

Niagara Falls Railway Arch Bridge, cost of lighting American half
more than double Canadian, 108.

Nickel, largest production in the world at Sudbury, Ontario, 127;
the different uses of the metal, 131.

Nickel-steel, the many uses of, 131.

Nipissing silver mine at Cobalt, 122.

Northcliffe, Lord, built plant in Newfoundland for supply of pulp
wood paper, 11.

Northwest Company, opponent of the Hudson’s Bay Company, finally
absorbed, 170.

Notre Dame, Church of, at Montreal, 65.

Nova Scotia, travels, in, 31 _et seq._

Oats, production in the Winnipeg district, 149;
large crops at Edmonton, 200;
in Peace River Valley, 202.

Oats hay, a farm crop at Dawson, Yukon, 261.

Ogdensburg, N. Y., site of proposed hydro-electric plant for
supplying Canada and the United States, 100.

Oil fields, the new operations along the MacKenzie, 203 _et seq._

Okanagan Valley, famous as fruit-growing region, 223.

Ontario, Province of, richest in mineral and agricultural wealth and
industrial development, 103;
the frontier of the province, 137.

Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission, work of, in Ontario, 102, 103,
106, 107.

Ottawa, capital of the Dominion, 79 _et seq._

Paper, Quebec leading producer of, 46;
greatly increased production of, in Canada, 92;
process of manufacture, 93.

Paper mills, at Ottawa, 80, 88.

Parliament buildings, at Ottawa, 82.

Peace River, the town of, 202.

Peace River Valley, agricultural possibilities in, 202.

Petroleum, in Alberta, 201;
the new field along the Mackenzie, 203.

Petty Harbour, typical Newfoundland “outport,” 16.

Phoenix, British Columbia, copper mines at, 222.

Pilgrimages to Ste. Anne de Beaupré, 52.

Porcupine gold district, production of, 125.

Port Arthur, the great wheat centre, 135, 141.

Port Nelson, projected terminus of the Hudson Bay Route, and port
for wheat shipment, 155.

Portage la Prairie, a prosperous farming section, 175.

Potatoes, success with in Dawson, Yukon, 259.

Poultry raising in the Arctic, 260.

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, noted for its fur trade and lumber
mills, 179.

Prince Edward Island, smallest but richest province in the Dominion,
40.

Prince Rupert, northern terminus of Canadian National Railways and
nearest port to the Orient, 226 _et seq._

Public ownership, in Toronto, 101 _et seq._;
success of the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission, 107.

Pulp wood, chief product of forests in Newfoundland, 11;
great production of Quebec, 46;
Canada’s resources in, of great importance to the United States,
91, 96.

Pulp mills, at Ottawa, 88;
great increase in numbers of, in Canada, 92;
at Sault Ste. Marie, 134.

Quebec, and its history, 42;
population, 46.

Queenston Chippewa hydro-electric plant below Niagara Falls, 113.

Radio, fisheries of Nova Scotia controlled by, 36.

Rabbits, destruction of trees by, 234.

Railways, in Newfoundland, 10;
transcontinental, of Canada, 157;
government-owned in Canada, 162.

Rainfall, excessive, at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, 229.

Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, 177.

Religious denominations in Newfoundland, 7.

Remittance men, in Calgary, 210.

Revillon Frères, chief competitor to the Hudson’s Bay Company, 170.

Rideau Canal, at Ottawa, 80, 81.

Rideau Hall, residence of the Governor-General, at Ottawa, 84.

Rockies, Canadian, beauty of the, 213.

Rocky Mountain Park, finest mountain resort of Canada, 215.

Royal Bank of Canada, connections abroad, 77.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, training camp at Regina, 177;
district headquarters at Dawson, 251;
the story of the service, 288 _et seq._

Russian church, at Winnipeg, 153.

Rye, production in the Winnipeg district, 149.

St. Boniface, old French-Canadian settlement near Winnipeg, 152.

St. Helene Island, once owned by Champlain, 64.

St. James, Cathedral of, at Montreal, 65.

St. John, chief city of New Brunswick, 41.

St. John’s, capital and chief port of Newfoundland, 3, 5;
around about the city, 8.

St. Lawrence River, International plans for improvement of, 99.

St. Mary’s River, hydro-electric development of, 134.

St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, first English house of worship in
Canada, 35.

St. Pierre Island, headquarters of bootleggers, 15.

Sainte Anne de Beaupré, the Shrine and its miraculous cures, 52.

Salmon fishing, in Newfoundland, 11.

Salmon fisheries of British Columbia, 231.

Sanderson, John, first homesteader at Portage la Prairie, 175.

Saskatchewan, greatest wheat province of the Dominion, 175 _et seq._,
181 _et seq._

Saskatoon, second largest city of Saskatchewan, 179.

Sault Ste. Marie, hydro-electric development of, 134;
one of the oldest settlements in Canada, 135.

Sealing industry, of Newfoundland, 21.

Selkirk, Lord, his colony in Manitoba the first wheat farmers, 182.

Service, Robert, the poet of the Yukon, 249, 257, 279.

Settlers, Canada’s inducements to, 191.

Shawinigan Falls, hydro-electric development of, 46.

Shaughnessy, Lord, an American boy who became president of the
Canadian Pacific, 165.

Sheep, in southern Alberta, 208.

Silver in the Kootenay country, 221.

Silver mines of northern Ontario, 119.

Slavin, Frank, in the Klondike, 278;
partnership with Joe Boyle, 282.

“Soo” Canal, the waterway and its traffic, 136.

Sports, Canadian, 67;
outdoor games promoted by municipal athletic commission at Toronto,
101.

Spruce, predominant standing timber of Canada, 91.

Steam thawing of the ground in Yukon mining, 266, 271.

Steel industries developed in Sydney district, Nova Scotia, 39.

Stock raising in southwestern Saskatchewan, 176.

Sudbury, rich nickel deposits at, 126, 127.

Sunlight, hours of, at Dawson, Yukon, 264.

Superior, Lake, the grain-carrying trade through, 141 _et seq._

Swift Current, an important commercial centre of Saskatchewan, 179.

Sydney coal mines, of immense importance, 39.

Tahkeena River, crossing of, on the Yukon trail, 235.

The Pas, an undeveloped mineral region, 154.

Thomas, C. A., demonstrates possibility of winter automobile travel
in the Yukon, 239.

Thornton, Sir Henry, in charge of the Canadian national railways, 164.

Three Rivers, Quebec, largest production of paper in the world, at,
47, 92.

Threshing, methods in the Canadian wheat belt, 185.

Tides, forty feet high in Bay of Fundy, 38.

Timber, valuable tracts in Newfoundland, 11.

Timothy hay, large crops at Edmonton, 200.

Tomatoes, a hot-house crop at Dawson, Yukon, 261.

Toronto, the city of public ownership, 97 _et seq._

Toronto University, largest in the British Empire, 98.

Transcontinental railway systems of Canada, 157.

Trappists, at Winnipeg, 153.

Truro, Nova Scotia, 38.

Turnips, as a crop, at Dawson, Yukon, 264.

University of Saskatchewan, efforts in behalf of agriculture and
ceramics, 179.

Valley of the Ten Peaks, in the Canadian Rockies, 216.

Vancouver, chief city of British Columbia and Canada’s most important
Pacific port, 224.

Vancouver Island, copper workings on, 223.

Van Horne, Wm., strenuous railroad builder, 165.

Veneer, manufacture of, at Sault Ste. Marie, 135.

Victoria, capital of British Columbia, 225.

Wabana iron mines rich under-sea deposits, 24.

Wainwright Park, Alberta, containing largest herd of buffalo extant,
217.

Waterfalls that work for the people, 106 _et seq._

Water-power, great developments in Quebec, 46;
its relation to the paper and pulp industry, 96.

Welland Canal, building of deeper and larger locks, 99.

Welland River, hydro-electric development of, 113.

Wheat, the great movement through Port Arthur and Fort William, 141
_et seq._;
production of the Winnipeg district, 149;
on the Saskatchewan prairies, 175, 181;
methods of planting and harvesting in the Canadian wheat belt, 183;
large crops at Edmonton, 200;
in Peace River Valley, 202;
importance of Vancouver as a shipping point, 225.

Wheat belt, Canada’s, its immense extent and great production, 181.

White Horse, beginning of the trail to Dawson, 232.

White pine timber becoming exhausted in Canada, 91.

Wild flowers, abundant in the Yukon, 235.

Williams-Taylor, Sir Frederick, interview with, on Canadian banking,
73.

Winnipeg, a fast-growing city, 148 _et seq._;
its importance in the fur trade, 166.

Winter sports in Quebec, 50.

Wireless telegraph, fisheries of Nova Scotia controlled by, 36.

Wolfe, General, captures Quebec from the French, 43.

Women, opportunities for, in Canada, 192.

Yellowhead Pass, railway line through, 217.

Yukon Gold Company, dividends paid by, 269.

Yukon River, a trip on the, 241.

Yukon Territory, by motor car through the, 232.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.

The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.