ARCTIC STUDY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30216, 22 August 1963, Page 5

ARCTIC STUDY

Exploration By Canada (By a Reuter Correspondent) MONTREAL. Canada’s last unknown frontier, the polar continental shelf, is undergoing a scientific scrutiny by an 80man expedition. Where the outermost Arctic islands shelve under the heavy rafts of polar pack ice, a team of physicists, geologists, oceanographers and geographers are spending their fifth March-to-Septem-ber field season exploring a desolate ..region of thousands of square miles. By ski-plane, motor toboggan, helicopter, tracked-truck and dog team, scientists are studying hydrography, submarine geology, geophysics, geodesy and other disciplines. From small, two-man parties in tents on the polar ice, 300 miles from land to safaris by convoys of speciall y-adapted trucks snaking along the frozen channels and offshore seas, Canada is obtaining vital data of economic and strategic importance. In keeping with its geographical position as a nation responsible for large arctic territories, Canada is assessing the region’s future and potential wealth. The northern Queen Elizabeth Islands and the adjacent shallows seas, long thought to be a rich deep-freeze of mineral wealth, are giving up their secrets under relentless investigation.