relatively small requirements of Dawson City. One
development has been made in the part of the Mackenzie
River and Arctic Drainage embraced in the North Pacific
Region. This is a 4,700-horsepower hydro-electric plant
on the Yellowknife River north of Great Slave Lake which
serves several gold-mining properties and the settlement of
Yellowknife. A second development comprising an instal-
lation of 8,000 horse-power is now being constructed on
the Snare River by the Dominion Government to augment

the power supply to mines and other users in the Yellow-
knife area.

Prospective Power Markets.—Until more is known of the
possibilities of economic development of the other natural
resources of the North Pacific Region, it is difficult to
envisage markets for power. In the Coastal area, where
ocean transportation costs are low, the plenitude of power
sites, both great and small; indicates the possibility of
establishing industries based on mineral and forest resources,
particularly electrochemical or electro-metallurgical indus-
tries which are dependent upon low-cost power and trans-
portation. In the interior of British Columbia, and in the
Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and northern Alberta,
the development of mineral resources would appear to
offer the most likely market for power.

Water and Power Investigations.—Investigations of the
power possibilities of the Coastal Drainage south of the
Nass River and of the Upper Fraser River Drainage have
been made in considerable detail by the Water Rights
Branch of the Department of Lands, British Columbia,
and by certain private interests, with the co-operation
of the Dominion Water and Power Bureau, Department of
Mines and Resources, in the matter of securing stream
flow records. These investigations permit the making of
a reasonably accurate estimate of the water-power resources
of this part of the Region. Similarly, in parts of the
Mackenzie and Yukon Drainages, preliminary power
investigations of a number of the principal rivers have
been made, over a period of years, by the Dominion Water
and Power Bureau.

In northern British Columbia, however, and in adjacent
parts of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, there is a
great area, hitherto most difficult of access,
information concerning water-power resources
wholly lacking or very meagre. This applies to the basins
of the Upper Peace, Liard, Upper Skeena, Stikine, and
Taku Rivers, and the upper tributaries of the Yukon River.
The construction of the Alaska Highway and the facilities
now offered by air transport have made this territory more
accessible and present Opportunities for the systematic
extension of water and power investigations.

Preliminary investigations of the Water-power resources
of this part of the Region involve the determination of two
governing factors (a) the amount of head possible of con-
centration at any site and (b) the flow available for develop-
ment. Associated with the latter is the m

in which
is either

atter of river-

flow regulation by the provision of storage in lakes or in
artificial reservoirs, both created by the construction of
dams. The determination of the amount of head possible
of concentration requires the establishment of river profiles,
topography of bed and banks, examination of foundation
conditions, ete. Once known, these conditions are fixed.
Flow conditions, however, vary from month to month,
from season to season, and from year to year. It is obvious,
therefore, that records of flow must be available for a period
of years before reliable estimates of power resources can
be made.

The first essential, then, is to establish a number of
key hydrometric stations on rivers throughout the region
so that flow records will be available for as long a period as
possible in advance of power development. With this in
view, an aerial reconnaissance was made during September,
1943, of territory in northern British Columbia and the
‘Yukon by officers of the Dominion Water and Power
Bureau, and certain locations were selected for the establish-
ment of key hydrometric stations. Subsequently, some
20 stations were established in 1944 and 1945 on rivers
crossing or adjacent to the Alaska Highway and on the
Yukon River and several of its tributaries. Stations also
were established during 1945 on the Lockhart, Snare, and
Emile Rivers in the Northwest Territories.

The matter of investigating the physical features of
the rivers in this northern region for water-power develop-
ment is a responsibility of the Governments of British
Columbia, Alberta, and the Dominion within their
respective jurisdictions. As has already been pointed out,
this physical information can be much more expeditiously
secured than that concerning flow, and it is suggested
that such investigations should not be attempted at this
time in any widespread program to cover the whole region,
but should be undertaken systematically as opportunity
offers, or in areas where natural resources are revealed

whose economic development would require adequate sup-
plies of power.

Weather Conditions

There has been some general misconception of weather
conditions in. northwestern Canada and Alaska. The
popular idea—particularly south of the United States
border—is that the weather is so severe over most of these
northern regions as scarcely to support life. This

1s
understandable from the fact that weather conditions in

some of the more northerly sections of the United Stat
no less than in more southerly sections of Canada are, on
occasion, about as severe as they would normally be in
the North, and it seems natural for people living in such

sections to assume that more northerly latitudes must be
progressively colder.

es,

The path of pressure areas con-
trolling the drift of polar air is from northwest to southeast,
so that published weather reports frequentl
cold snaps as caused by “masses of polar
from Canada.”

y explain local
air moving down