XX THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the collection of proper returns from these questionnaires the Council 

 has received the active, energetic and sympathetic assistance of the 

 various Technical Societies of the Dominion, as well as of the Canadian 

 Manufacturers* Association. 



The Council has also enlisted the close co-operation of all the 

 Government Departments, both Federal and Provincial, for the pur- 

 pose of correlating and rendering more easily accessible the wealth 

 of information concerning the Natural Resources of the Dominion 

 which lie stored in the Government Archives and Reports. 



In addition to this broad and general work which looks toward the 

 establishment of a substantial basis for the further development of 

 the industries of the Dominion in the immediate future, the Council 

 has examined carefully a large number of specific projects which have 

 been submitted to it, and has approved of certain of these which appear 

 to give promise of valuable results. 



They have decided to recommend that two of these projects be 

 at once taken up and work be started upon them immediately. ^The 

 first has for its object the provision of an adequate supply of good 

 fuel for the Western Plains, more especially in the Provinces of Sas- 

 katchewan and Manitoba. There are in the former Province large 

 supplies of lignite. This is an inferior fuel possessing a relatively 

 low heating power and which, furthermore, will not stand shipment 

 and storage. It is, therefore, of comparatively little value for domestic 

 or manufacturing purposes. The Council, however, believes that by a 

 special treatment there may be produced from this lignite two grades 

 of high class briquetted fuel, one similar to anthracite or hard coal in 

 character, and the other resembling soft coal in general character, 

 and at the same time certain valuable by-products may be secured. 

 The Department of Mines and the Commission of Conservation have 

 already carried out a good deal of investigation in connection with this 

 problem, and the former Department is now making some further 

 studies for the Council. If they give satisfactory results the Council 

 will advise that a plant to turn out this high-grade fuel on a commercial 

 scale be erected, and the possibility of producing this fuel at a cost 

 considerably lower than that at which coal from the United States 

 is now laid down in Manitoba and Saskatchewan be demonstrated on a 

 large scale, the coal being actually placed on the market. With an 

 abundant supply of good cheap fuel the conditions of life on the great 

 plains in winter will be much improved. 



The other project has to do with the preservation of the forests 

 of eastern Canada. These, contrary to the opinion which prevails gen- 

 erally, are not inexhaustible. They have already been seriously 

 depleted and are rapidly deteriorating in character. In most of the 



