The Royal North West Mounted Police (later merged with the Dominion Police to become the RCMP - Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are an interesting and often overlooked element of the western frontier. We Americans tend to only think about the Old West up to northern Montana and Idaho, but of course things were not that much different on the other side of the border in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and the other western provinces. Starting with their founding in 1873, law enforcement in western Canada was the domain of the RNWMP, and they used an interesting mixture of British Empire arms and American arms - Colts and Adams; Winchesters and Sniders.

"Arms and Accoutrements of the Mounted Police, 1873-1973" covers the whole range or arms and accessories used by the Mounties. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, swords, lances, and even artillery (yes, they had some artillery). This is a great book for any Canadian collector, and quite interesting for the rest of us as well - a window into a police agency we don't often think about.

The book is generally out of print, but as of this writing still in stock for $35 at JoeSalter.com.