AT THE FRONTIER 



do not wait for action until an outbreak has occurred ; 

 they are always in action. They constitute a most val- 

 uable peace-assuring corps, and I wish we had one like it. 

 Although Edmonton has but a few hundred population, 

 it is doubly honored by an electric-light plant which 

 illuminates the town when not otherwise engaged, and 

 by a patience-trying railway company that sends two 

 trains a week to Calgary and gives them twelve hours in 

 which to make two hundred miles. But no one, except 

 luckless travellers, at Edmonton cares a rap about inter- 

 mittent electric lights, or railroads that run passengers 

 on a freight schedule, so long as they do not affect the 

 fur trade. Fur was originally the reason of Edmonton's 

 existence, and continues the prin- 

 cipal excuse for its being. In the 

 last three years the settlement of 

 a strip of land south and of one 

 to the north has created a farm- 

 ing or ranching contingent, but to 

 date of my visit canned goods ap- 

 peared to remain the chief article 

 of sustenance, as furs were cer- 

 tainly the main topic of conversa- 

 tion. Edmonton may in my time 

 develop the oasis upon which it is 

 built, between the arid plains im- 

 mediately to the south and the 

 great lone land to the north, into 

 something notably agricultural ; 

 but for many years the town will 

 be, as it is to-day, the gateway of 

 the wellnigh boundless fur-produc- 

 ing country to the north, and the outlet for the number- 

 less" packs "gathered by the great Hudson's Bay Company. 



SARCEE I5ELLE 



