190 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



speak for Canada; and I must now admit that, during my thirty- 

 three years of contact with wilderness life, on one occasion 

 but on one only I found that there was justification for de- 

 scribing the men of the northern wilderness as carrying firearms 

 for protection. But does not the one exception prove the rule? 



It happened near Stewart, on the borderline of Alaska, 

 several years ago. I encountered a prospector who wanted to 

 cross Portland Canal from Alaska to Canada, and as I was 

 rowing over, I offered to take him across. When, however, he 

 turned to pick up his pack I caught sight of something that 

 fairly made me burst out laughing; for it was as funny a sight 

 as though I had witnessed it on Piccadilly or Broadway. At 

 first I thought he was a movie actor who, in some unaccount- 

 able way, had strayed from Los Angeles and become lost in 

 the northern wilderness before he had had time to remove his 

 ridiculous "make-up"; but a moment later he proved beyond 

 doubt that he was not an actor, for he blushed scarlet when he 

 observed that I was focussing a regular Mutt-and-Jeff dotted- 

 line stare at a revolver that hung from his belt, and he faltered: 



"But . . . Why the mirth?" 



"Well, old man," I laughed again, "for over twenty-five 

 years I have been roaming the Canadian wilderness from the 

 borderline of Maine right up here to Alaska, and in all that 

 time with the exception of the Constables of the North-West 

 Mounted Police you are the first man, woman, or child, I 

 have seen carrying a revolver. And I swear, old dear, that 

 that's the truth. So now, do you wonder that I laugh?" 



RECORD TRAVELLING 



But to return to the Hudson's Bay Company's packet sys- 

 tem, I asked Chief Factor Thompson: 



"Which is the more important, the summer or the winter 

 mail?" 



