whether that makes sense or whether it doesn't.”

Wanted to Join Foreign Legion

He went to England as a step on his journey to other parts. At the back of his mind was the idea that he might join the French Foreign Legion. The homebound ship stopped at Mar- seilles, and he called at the Legion recruiting depot. There he was told

car down to the boat bound for Canada. Only a few of his fellow- passengers in the steerage spoke Eng- lish. Most of them were immigrants from Czvecho-Slovakia, Italy and elsewhere. When he landed he had $35 in his pocket, and he just squeezed into the country, because he was supposed to have $50. His chief aim was to join the

Assistant Commisstoner C. E. Rivett-Carnac

he would have to wait 24 hours before reporting back. But the ship was sail- ing the same day, and if he kept his appointment with the Legion he would miss seeing England again. So he traveled on.

Although the job in India had been well enough paid, he had lived up to his income, because a man was almost obliged to do so. He landed in Eng- land broke, and had to sell his auto- matic to pay the fare from Tilbury to London.

He went to stay with some friends for a time, then took that ride in their

IWENTY-FOURTH EDITION

R.C.M.P., but he was also prepared to go logging. “I didn’t care,” he says. “T was young. When you're 23, you'll do anything.”

Joins the R.C.M.P.

First of all he took a job shovelling rock into a cement mixer at 35 cents an hour for a 12-hour day at Montreal docks. ‘Times were not prosperous. That job came to a sudden end when someone dropped a plank on his head from the top of an elevator, and he was moved to Montreal General Hospital covered with wet cement and blood. After his release he stayed for

a while at a very cheap hotel, then applied to join the R.C.M.P. with his head still in a bandage. They accepted him, and he went to Ottawa to train.

He was sent to a lonely detachment on the Mackenzie River in the far North. For a man who wanted a rugged life, the posting was all that could be desired. There were long patrols on snowshoes with dog teams through temperatures ranging down to 60 below zero. Detachments of two men every 150 or 200 miles policed the country, carried the mail, visited lonely trappers to see that they were safe, tended the sick and gave help wherever it was needed.

There were no radios or airplanes.

The nearest doctor was 700 miles away by dog team. One dog team arrived every winter, and two boats

every sumer.

He spent three and one-half years in the Mackenzie River country, then came to B.C. for a year in 1927. In the following year he went to Regina as division orderly with the rank of corporal, then to the Yukon for three years.

Life in North Was Tough

Life in the North was tough, but so were the men there. They prided themselves on it. “In the 1920’s in the Far North the only respect anybody had for you was based on how far you could travel—how tough you were.” Dead tired or not, travelers pressed on. The policeman covered a minimum of 35 miles a day on snow- shoes. Once, Mr. Rivett-Carnac re- members, he trudged 169 miles in three days.

On one weary trek with a half- breed who had lived in the North all his life, Mr. Rivett-Carnac had to leave his companion behind and keep traveling. The half-breed “played out” and arrived several hours behind, but the policeman forced himself to get there. “It was good for the prestige of the organization,” he says simply.

Another time he had to sleep out for several days without a tent in 60- below weather. They would dig a hole in the snow and lie down on top of spruce boughs in a_ sleeping bag. Once he rolled into the fire and set himself alight.

The traveler had to plod along the river on an ice overflow, leaning at a 45-degree angle, holding steady on a dog-line so that the dogs and _ their 500-pound load wouldn’t roll away and be jammed in the rough ice at the bottom. The toughest trip was with a sick trapper along the White River. Breaking trail, he nearly fell through the undercut ice into the river several times.

His dogs “played out” on one Yukon patrol. He and his companion had to take their sleeping bags and the food that was left, and try to reach

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