CHAPTER III
THE CANOE ON THE YUKON.
With the opening of the Yukon, the men of B Division, Royal North-west Mounted Police, threw themselves into the work of checking up boats from above, and rendering assistance or relief to the many who had ventured into the land of gold, ignorant and ill-equipped for their battle with the raw. Up and down the river from Dawson the police flag waved above tiny far-flung outpost stations where one or two of the guardians of the wilds stood ready at a moment’s notice to rip a man from the jaws of ungentle death, or maintain the order that has made the vast Canadian North-west conspicuous as the only great frontier the world has ever seen upon which respect for law is the rule rather than the exception.
“Boat ahead!” cried Special Constable Connie Morgan, as the fast little speed boat Aurora chugged around a bold headland of the great
32
