Great Adventure: How the Mounties Conquered the West

Despite its grandiloquent subtitle, this account of the Great March of 1874, the first campaign by the North West Mounted Police, later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, makes for fine reading. The authors of North of the Line draw a memorable portrait of the Great Lone Land, which at one time encompassed Manitoba and the North West Territory as well as the Dakota and Montana Territories, that is completely unlike the image created by spinners of legends in fiction and on film. Populated by ex-Civil War soldiers from both sides who were violent alcoholics and sociopaths, interested in cheating or killing Indians and Canadians, the area badly needed the presence of honest law enforcement. Thus the Mounties were established and were sent west with the avowed purpose of ending the liquor traffic. Fortunately for the authors, there was an artist in the company and many of the men kept journals and sent letters home, while the commander, though totally inept, filed numerous reports back in Ottawa. As a result of these personal accounts, many of the men leap to life on these pages, such as the 15-year-old bugler (who had read too much Fenimore Cooper), the brilliant half-breed who joined the Mounties and the remarkable sub-commandant who salvaged what he could from the expeditions. Any lover of adventure tales will regret missing this exciting work. (May)