nd hardy a body of men as ever crossed the plains. Most of them were
young men from the Eastern Provinces, who had no experience in the life
of the prairies, and hardly any conception of the difficulties to be met
and overcome, but they faced situations as they arose, and with the same
initiative, resource and courage that have characterized Canadians on
other fields of service, they persevered and won.

Broadly speaking, the aim of the Police expedition was to strike at the
lawlessness which was specially defiant and open in the foothills of the
Rockies, where the proximity of the international boundary line made it
easy for outlaws of all types to evade the consequences of their crimes
and depredations on both sides in turn. Besides that it was proposed, by
a sort of triangular distribution of the 300 Police, to cover the whole
North-Western territory, and in that way give visibility to authority in
all localities. To fulfil these aims and reach these objectives, the
main body of the Police was to be sent on this march out to the Bow and
Belly Rivers, near the Cypress Hills, made infamous by the massacre
already described, and countless other criminalities. Another
detachment, separating from the main body, was to go northward to
Edmonton, by way of forts Ellice and Carlton, while a third, under the
charge of the Commissioner, was to return to the proposed headquarters
at Fort Pelly or Swan River, on the north-west boundary of Manitoba.
These objectives were all reached after many serious hardships, the only
modification in the places being in regard to the Swan River. On
returning to that point in the beginning of winter, Colonel French found
that the barracks were not ready for occupation, some wiseacre having
started to build them amid granite boulders on a hill. Moreover,
prairie fires had burned the hay intended for the Police, and the
Hudson's Bay Company, having lost their supply also, could not assist.
Consequently the Commissioner left only one division there, under that
very competent officer, Inspector Carvell, and with the rest he pushed
on to Winnipeg and the original starting-point at Dufferin, where he
arrived in 30 degrees below zero, November weather, after a total march
for his contingent of nearly 2,000 miles. We shall look at these three
movements of the Force briefly.

The whole column kept together as far as La Roche Percee, or the pierced
rock, on the banks of the Souris, a distance of nearly 30