RACE FOR WEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 14, 9 May 1933, Page 7

RACE FOR WEALTH

CANADA'S NORTH-WEST

MINING ACTIVITIES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, March 30. To the vast north-west 'territories, Canada is now looking for new wealth and new development. At the moment it is the object of intensive activity by mining capitalists and engineers. The territories comprise 1,310,000 square miles, 35 per cent, of the area of Canada, and approximately 9 per cent, of tho British Empire, with a population of 12,318, divided as follows :-^Eskiinos, 7103; Indians, 4150; whites, and half-breeds, 1065. Samuel Hearrie's journey in 1770----72 from Churchill to.the mouth of the Coppermine was made in the hope' of discovering reported; copper deposits' as wel} as seeking the North-west Passage. Sir Alexander Mackenzie made his famous journey to the' Arctic coast in 1789. Sir John Franklin led two notable expeditions in 1819-22 and 1825-27. Thanks to these three men and to others who carried' On Franklin's surveys, the Far North became fairly well mapped nearly 100 years ago. In 1869, by agreement, Great Britain terminated the special privileges the Hudson's Bay Company enjoyed, and, 200 years after, the granting of the original charter in ,1670, transferred the whole of Rupert's Land and the "North-west Territory" to Canada. The company still retained its posts and certain specified lands, and continues to carry on an extensive fur trade and general merchandise business. , ' .; ...,'. ..-■'<' . CHIEF FEATURES. The chief topographical features are two mineral lakes; Great Bear and Great Slave, the Mackenzie River, the great interior plateau, and the mountains. Great Bear is considerably larger than Lake Superior. The Mackenzie, 2500 miles long, is the main highway for water-borno traffic, and provides for the future the natural water gradient route for railway construction "down north." Paralleling its course, to the west, are mountain ranges of the Rockies system. The great interior plateau, resting on the older prc-Cam-brian structure, is comparatively recently emerged from the last glacial ice-field. Baffin Island attains an elevation of 5000 ft, with occasional peaks 2000 ft higher. Ellesmero Island, *as large as England and Scotland, reaches to within 500 miles of the North Pole. Victoria Island, of 80,500 square miles, is known only on its western and southern shores. One-third of the total area of the north-west territories is without timber, x and is known as the Barren Lands. The climate of the Arctic is much milder than the Antarctic, becatfse the earth is nearer v.the sun during the northern winter than during the southern winter. It is further affected by the warm Japanese current, which, after crossing the Pacific, strikes tho coast of British Columbia, and makes the climate milder than similar latitudes in Eastern Canada. Owing to tho long summer day, crops ripen quickly. Astonishing as it may seem, the Dominion Experimental Farm at Good Hope, only 15 miles from the Arctic Crrcle, has secured a , wheat yield of 25 bushels to the acre of Garnet wheat, maturing in 93 days. Corresponding results were obtained with other cereal crops. . The law of this1 huge territory is administered from 25 detachments of the Nc-th-west Mounted Police, the personnel comprising three inspectors and 79 non-commissioned officers and men, or one member of the Force in every 16,000 gquare miles. From the inception of the Force in 1873 Canada owes much of the geographical knowledge of remote regions to its long patrols in the Arctic, ; '