follow the Trench route for a considerable distance on
the general line established in the survey mentioned.

On the subject of land transportation, it seems important
that an all-weather highway should be established from
Fort Nelson down the Liard River to reach the Mackenzie
River in the vicinity of Fort Simpson with an ultimate
extension to a terminus in the mineral-bearing fields north
of Great Slave Lake. Such a highway, aside from its
strategic value in linking the Alaska Highway with the
Mackenzie River system of water transportation, would
secure for the future development of the more sparsely
timbered Mackenzie Valley the rich and extensive timber
resources of the Liard Valley, and make available to the
Mackenzie District the agricultural potential of this, the
most equable of the far-northern valleys. Such an all
weather connection would, moreover, have the effect of
increasing the navigation period and hence the transporta-
tion value of the Mackenzie River by making possible
early and late sailings and arrivals at Fort Simpson. These
movements, lacking an alternative trafie connection, must
now depend on ice conditions in Great Slave Lake and in
the Slave and Athabaska Rivers.

The completion of the all-weather highway from Grim-
shaw, on the Northern Alberta Railways, to Hay River
will be a most welcome achievement. Apart from its
value as a new link in the northwest transportation system,
it may be expected to result in the extension of organized
agricultural development through the Hay River Valley
to the shores of Great Slave Lake.

- Practical consideration of a railway to Great Slave
Lake must await the progress of mining developments in
that area. Rail extensions in the Peace River country
will undoubtedly follow the further occupation of agri-
cultural lands, and a projected rail connection from Aggie,
on the Northern Alberta Railways, through the Smoky
River country to the main Canadian National Railways line
would open extensive agricultural and forest areas.

The potentialities of Prince Rupert as an ocean port to
the Orient and the imminence of important industrial and
port developments there indicate a considerable early-
expansion in population in that locality and suggest the
advantage of highway extensions into some of the good
agricultural valleys of its immediate hinterland, particularly
the Nass, Cranberry, Kitwanga, and Kispiox Valleys, and
possibly south from Lakelse Lake through the Kitimat
Valley to tidehead. While the agricultural land in these
valleys is limited, it has a high place utility in this country
of high mountains, dense forests, and rugged shores.

Besides its importance as an ocean port, Prince Rupert
is the natural continental gateway to Alaska. A glance at
the chart will show Alaska to be an economic island, with
its natural channels of land communication passing through
Canada. It is nevertheless dependent almost entirely on
water transportation from the northwestern ports of the
United States. While distance and topography have
contributed to Alaska’s isolation, the trade policies of the

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United States and Canada have been an even more potent
factor. It is hoped that early physical and legislative
means will be found to bring northwestern Canada and
Alaska into closer economic community.

Minerals

The future of the North Pacific as of all northern
Canada appears to be largely dependent upon the develop-
ment of its mineral wealth. Experience in other regions
has shown that, where conditions are favourable, mining
developments are followed by the establishment of other
primary industries, which, in turn, lead to the development
of various secondary operations.

The progress so far achieved in developing the mineral
resources of the Coastal section, Yukon, Great Bear Lake,
Norman Wells, Yellowknife, and Fort McMurray, has
been widely publicized. It would be an overstatement
to say that the surface has only been scratched; with the
exception of a few areas, the surface is largely unknown and
has not been prospected. What is known, however, is
that the region contains large areas in which the geological
conditions are as favourable as those in other areas on the
continent that have produced large quantities of mineral
wealth. Among the potential mineral areas in the North-
west are the borders of the CassiarOmineca batholith,
which is crossed by the Alaska Highway; the borders of
the Coast Range batholith in Yukon, which is skirted on

the southwest by the highway almo-t to the Alaska

boundary; the eastern or interior margin of the Coast
Range batholith in British Columbia; the placer fiel-s of
Yukon which, since the end of the recent war, have been
the scenes of much activity; the Mackenzie watershed,
where the structure indicates the presence of extensive
oilfields; and the large Precambrian area between Great.
Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, where discoveries of great
significance have given a stimulus to exploration and where
a great variety of metallic mineral occurrences has already
been found. In this Precambrian area on the east shore
of Great Bear Lake occur also the most important supplies
of radioactive minerals on the continent, and it is not
unreasonable to expect that other occurrences may be
developed as the country becomes more thoroughly pros-
pected. Certainly those investigating the uses of atomic

energy look, to this region as one of the most important
sources of pitchblende ore.

In the past, the relative inaccessibility of most of these
areas and the shortness of the exploration season have
seriously: handicapped the work of the geologist and the
prospector. The growing use of aircraft and the con-
struction of the Alaska Highway and other roads have
already made possible the expansion of prospecting activities
and an increase in the number and range of geological
surveys.

Mining development in the Northwest would be greatly
facilitated by a program of detailed mapping, developed