tK refer] presidential ADDRESS 7 



At Sault Ste. Marie, a water power canal fed from Lake Superior 

 supplies the largest pulp mill yet erected in Ontario, and a similar work 

 at the Lake of the Woods (which lake is 1,000 feet above tide) gives 

 power to the largest, flour mill in the Dominion. The waters of the 

 "Winnipeg river (the outlet of the Lake of the Woods) descend about 300 

 feet, unused, into Winnipeg Lake, adjoining Lake Manitoba, from 

 whence the water system extends to the Saskatchewan, and thence via 

 Athabasca, the Great Slave and the Great Bear Lakes, to the Arctic circle. 



No reference has been made to the long established water power in 

 the older districts, on the Saguenay, or those between Montreal and 

 Quebec, and upon the Ottawa, nor to the more recent and extensive pulp 

 and paper establishments; — it being the object of this paper to draw 

 attention to the continuity and broad distribution of water power across 

 the continent, on Canadian territory, and to the unnumbered natural 

 reservoirs of water at elevations which impart to them latent powers for 

 the future development of this country. 



British Columbia has not been included in this field, because its oc- 

 cupied portion is separated by our great prairie region from the lake 

 system of Eastern Canada, which system is deflected toward the north- 

 west at the Lake of the Woods. This province is by no means deficient 

 in water power, although it has been little used as yet where mines are on 

 high levels, and because steam could be more readily applied. On the 

 other hand, it is the only province in which hydraulic mining is in 

 operation; and where gold is found in quantity sufficient to warrant the 

 great outlay of capital necessary in connection with that system. 



In the Kootenay, water wheels, with or without electrical transmis- 

 sion, are necessary for water power, in order to mine, pump, and crush 

 the gold bearing rocks; but in the Cariboo district, water power is ap- 

 plied in the simplest form, without wheels or wires, by direct pressure 

 from a nozzle, as is done in Ottawa from a fire hydrant. 



While the mountains south of the Canadian Pacific Eailway are rich 

 in metallic veins, the region north of this railway extendino; into the 

 Arctic Circle, appears to be a veritable land of Havilah, a continuous 

 *' Placer " gold field, in which much of the precious metal is to be obtain- 

 ed by hydraulic mining, wherever that is practicable. 



This gold field, over a thousand miles in extent between the Fraser 

 and Yukon Rivers, and of unascertained width, has been exploited at 

 Cariboo, (from whence fifty million dollars has been taken), at Cassiar 

 and Omenica, and recently at Atlin, all in British Columbia; — as well 

 as in the far famed Klondike, in the Yukon district, said to be the 

 richest gold field in the world. 



Water, in whatever way it is used, is necessary to the recovery of this 

 gold, but in many places water power alone will profitably unearth it 



