ill March, 1911.

But as soon as Dempster's patrol left Macpherson for Dawson, Somers, who
throughout acted with a thorough sense of what was necessary and
fitting, left Macpherson for Herschell Island, where he arrived in
April. The body of Selig, as above stated, was awaiting the expected
return of Inspector Fitzgerald. Instead of that Wissenden received now
the news of the death of the members of that patrol, and not only he but
the natives of the Island were greatly shocked and grieved. Then the
funeral of Selig was held, Somers bringing Mr. Fry, of the Church of
England Mission, from Escape Reef for the service. The mourners were the
two Policemen and every Esquimaux on the Island, all following behind
the dog sled which carried the coffin to the bleak burial ground.
"Sergeant Selig," said Superintendent Sanders in his report of the
district, "was one of the best N.C.O.'s in the Force." And Fitzgerald,
who knew men in that country at first hand, said in his previous year's
report: "Sergeant Selig, S.E.A., is a most efficient N.C.O., and has
done excellent work in the North. Since he has been in this country he
has been on every patrol, both summer and winter. He is a most capable
man for any kind of work in the Northern country." He, too, fell like a
good soldier, dying at his post, in the swift illness brought on by the
terrific exposure of years in the Arctic. The passing of Selig at
Herschell Island and in Dawson of Sergeant E. Smith, who had done
notable work in the Yukon, as well as the Fitzgerald patrol, showed a
heavy casualty list in 1911 as the price of holding the North and
protecting its inhabitants. In some other ways that 1910-11 period was
quite notable. The years were beginning to tell upon the Force, which
was always popularly considered as a corps of young men. But in reality
it had travelled through time for wellnigh two score of years, and men
who had joined up while scarcely out of their teens had given a long
day's work and were entitled to go on the pension list. Most prominent
of these was Assistant Commissioner John H. McIlree, who was one of the
original group. He joined up when organization was first mooted in the
autumn of 1873, coming West over the difficult mud-and-water Dawson
Route to the historic Lower Fort Garry, where these pioneers who were to
lay the foundation of a famous corps were sworn in by Lieut.-Colonel
Osborne Smith, as already related. McIlree was then Sergeant, but in th