port which revealed that a man
cannot know the life and the needs of a country by making a trip through
it. Perhaps the best thing in his report was where he said: "Too much
value cannot be attached to the North-West Police, too much attention
cannot be paid to their efficiency." The men on the ground knew the
value of the Force and were taking good care that it would be efficient
to the last degree.

It was at the time of this tour that a fort projected by Colonel MacLeod
to be erected somewhere midway between Fort MacLeod and the Red Deer
River was built by "F" troop of the Mounted Police. It was erected near
the Bow River and for a time was known as Fort Brisebois, after the
officer commanding the division at the time. The name got into orders
once or twice but without authority, and Colonel MacLeod put an end to
any controversy over it by calling it Calgarry, after his birthplace in
Scotland. Our Western mania for shortening names and thereby sometimes
breaking with the historical past led to the cutting out of a letter and
leaving the name in its present form. But the present city of Calgary,
with its great buildings and its distinctive place within sight of the
Rockies, has a definite background of early police history which has
done much to shape her destiny.

In the seventies changes were taking place in the system of government
in the North-West Territories that had pronounced influence on the
future of the country in ways closely associated with police history.
Heretofore the vast territory over which the Police had oversight had
been governed from Manitoba by the Lieutenant-Governor of that Province,
assisted by a small body of men called the North-West Council. But
government at long range is not more successful than diplomacy of the
same variety, and it was becoming evident that some visibility should be
given to control in the North-West Territories that stretched from
Manitoba to the Mountains and from the boundary to the Pole.
Accordingly, in 1876 the Hon. David Laird was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor, with a small Council to assist him consisting of
Colonel MacLeod of the Police and Matthew Ryan and Hugh Richardson,
Stipendiary Magistrates. Ryan was a man of considerable literary power,
and Richardson became prominent as one of the trial judges in the cases
of Riel and the other rebel leaders some years later.

[Illustration: SITTING BULL. Famous Sioux Indian Chief.]

[Illustration: COLONEL JAMES WA