The Oologists Record, September j, 1922. 71 



',' village supposed to be too far north ever to become anything but 

 " what it was, a fur-trading post ; to-day it is a city of 60,000 

 " inhabitants. The oil-fields of the lower Mackenzie, where the 

 " Standard Oil Company has extensive operations, and the copper 

 " district, north of Great Bear Lake, already hold a definite promise 

 " as commercial centres. 



" It may be of little beyond academic interest this year that the 

 " air route from the northern railway terminus on the Athabasca 

 " River north of Edmonton to Archangel, in northern Russia, is 

 " only 3,946 miles ; but as the railway continues to push its way 

 " northward through Canada this route between railheads on oppo- 

 " site continents will gain in importance as it becomes short, and as 

 " the communities that depend upon it grow. 



" Steamers have been running to the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 " for several decades already. The journey from the present 

 " railhead to the mouth of the Mackenzie can even now be made in 

 " fifteen days. It is significant, therefore, that from the mouth 

 " of the Mackenzie the air route by which one may penetrate the 

 " interior of north-eastern Siberia through the great rivers of the 

 " Kolyma system is only 1,541 miles by way of Point Barrow and 

 " Wrangel Island, and that the longest hop, from Point Barrow 

 " to Wrangel Island, is only 450 miles. 



" By branching off at Wrangel, you can reach the mouth of 

 " the Lena, one of the world's greatest rivers, in a total distance 

 " from the Mackenzie's mouth of 2,208 miles, and with the longest 

 " single hop, from Wrangel Island to Holy Cape, of about 750 

 " miles. 



After discussing the advantages of other routes, the writer 

 continues : "To get a greater benefit from the perpetual daylight 

 " of the Arctic summer, a route might be laid from Scotland to 

 " the east tip of Iceland ; thence by way of Jan Mayen Island, 

 " the summer hotel already established in Spitzbergen ; then 

 " Franz Josef Land, Emperor Nicholas II Land, or Cape Chelyus- 

 " kin, and thence overland to Japan. 



" This route is only a few hours' flying longer than the shortest 

 " possible route." 



" As the centres of population continue to move north in Canada 

 " and Siberia, the importance of the transpolar air routes will 

 " correspondingly increase. 



