202 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



below one hundred for the last century. Of these the 

 greater numbers are of course in the Far North. When 

 the Hudson s Bay Company was fighting rivals, Nor 

 Westers from Montreal, Americans from St. Louis, it 

 must have employed as traders, packers, coureurs, ca 

 noe men, hunters, and guides, at least 5,000 men; for 

 its rival employed that number, and &quot; The Old Lady,&quot; 

 as the enemy called it, always held her own. Over this 

 wilderness army were from 250 to 300 officers, each 

 with the power of life and death in his hands. To the 

 honour of the company, be it said, this power was sel 

 dom abused.* Occasionally a brutal sea-captain might 

 use lash and triangle and branding along the northern 

 coast ; but officers defenceless among savage hordes must 

 of necessity have lived on terms of justice with their 

 men. 



The Canadian Government now exercises judicial 

 functions; but where less than 700 mounted police pa 

 trol a territory as large as Siberia, the company s fac 

 tor is still the chief representative of the law s power. 

 Times without number under the old regime has a Hud 

 son s Bay officer set out alone and tracked an Indian 

 murderer to hidden fastness, there to arrest him or 

 shoot him dead on the spot ; because if murder went un 

 punished that mysterious impulse to kill which is as 

 rife in the savage heart as in the wolf s would work its 

 havoc unchecked. 



Just as surely as &quot;the sun rises and the rivers 

 flow&quot; the savage knows when the hunt fails he will 

 receive help from the Hudson s Bay officer. But just 



* Governor Norton will, of course, be recalled as the most 

 conspicuous for his brutality. 



