the extent and commercial value of these re- 

 sources have not been investigated in detail. 

 It is known that deposits suitable for the manu- 

 facture of various kinds of ceramic products are 

 widely distributed throughout the Province 

 east of the Rocky Mountain escarpment. The 

 value of the production of clay products manu- 

 factured increased annually until 1912, when 

 the annual production had a value of one and 

 a half million dollars. The output decreased 

 rapidly after that year, due to the fact that 

 construction for the most part ceased during 

 the period of war. 



Coal. Alberta contains seventeen per cent, 

 of the coal resources of the world and about 

 eighty per cent, of the coal reserves of Canada. 

 Nearly the whole south half of the Province is 

 underlain by one or more coal bearing forma- 

 tions. It has been estimated that Alberta con- 

 tains an actual reserve of over 386,360 million 

 tons and a probable reserve of about 673,550 

 millions tons. This makes a total reserve of 

 1,059,910 million tons within the Province. 

 The production of the year 1920 was 6,908,923 

 tons. 



Copper. Small pockets and irregular lenses 

 of chalcopyrite are known to occur within the 

 Rocky Mountains along the Bow Valley. It 

 also occurs north of Hudson's Hope on the 

 Peace River. Specimens of bornite, chalcocite, 

 and cuprite have been obtained in the area 

 north of Athabasca and Slave Lakes. Natural 

 copper occurs in the lower part of the Copper- 

 mine River which is tributary to Coronation 

 Gulf. Exploration has revealed the fact 

 that in Bathurst Inlet area there are more than 

 6,000,000,000 tons of rock carrying 1-100 to 1-4 

 of one per cent, of disseminated native copper. 



Gold. Gold occurs in the gravels along most 

 of the rivers which drain the east slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The North Saskatchewan, 

 the Peace and possibly the Liard Rivers contain 

 most important placer gold. 



Gypsum. Gypsum is widely distributed 

 throughout the plains and the MacKenzie Basin 

 north of the Province. Calcium sulphate is 

 also a common constituent of several of the 

 mineral springs of the Province. Gypsum inter- 

 bedded with clay or limestone has been found 

 along the banks of the Athabasca. Deposits 

 of pure gypsum outcrop along the Peace River. 



Iron. Iron occurs in several forms and at 

 many localities but up to the present time no 

 deposits have been found of such size and 

 quality as to warrant development. There are 

 yet, however, large unprospected areas in North- 

 ern Alberta in which iron ores of commercial 

 values may be discovered. 



Lead. Stringers of galena have been noticed 

 in the Rocky Mountains west of Banff but the 

 quantity of this mineral is insignificant. 



Natural Gas. Natural gas is widely dis- 

 tributed. There is an extensive productive 

 area in the South-east of the Province of 

 which the cities of Medicine Hat and Bow 

 Island are the centre. In the Medicine 

 Hat field there are seventy producing wells. 

 The production of the Bow Island field is twenty- 

 nine million cubic feet per day. In 1918 Al- 

 berta produced 6,318,389 thousand cubic feet 

 from seventy-four wells, with a value of S 1,358,- 

 638. This represented about thirty-two per 

 cent, of the total production of natural gas in 

 Canada. 



Petroleum. Widespread attention is being 

 given Alberta as a possible source of future pe- 

 troleum supply. Prospecting has been carried 

 on extensively and vigorously with some suc- 

 cess. Petroleum was struck in the Okotoks 

 field in 1914 and the approximate production 

 of the Province's petroleum from this field in 

 1918 was 13,040 barrels valued at 100,004. 

 The attention of the world at the present time 

 is centered on Fort Norman in the Mackenzie 

 River basin, where oil has been struck and large 

 developments are expected. (Oil prospects and 

 the new field are the subjects of pamphlets 

 issued by the department). 



Salt. Saline springs, some nearly saturated 

 with common salt, occur in the Proyince. De- 

 velopment is progressing on some of these. 



Talc. Talc is known to occur in the vicinity 

 of Banff in the Rockies, but the extent of the 

 deposit has not yet been determined. The 

 mineral is rather high in lime to be of first-class 

 quality. 



Zinc. Pockets, irregular lenses, and narrow 

 veins of zinc sulphide occur at a few points 

 within the Rocky Mountains. One has been 

 opened near Banff. The quality of the ore is 

 satisfactory but the extent of the deposit has 

 not yet been proven. Other small occurrences 

 are known in the Rocky Mountains to the 

 North-West. 



Turning a Liability into an Asset 



With most expansive fishing grounds, Can- 

 ada possesses in her prolific waters some six 

 hundred different varieties of edible fish of which 

 only about one hundred and fifty are known 

 and less than twenty are really important fac- 

 tors on the market. Canada has also in her 

 waters certain creatures of the ocean which are 

 not only non-edible, and from this point of 

 view of no commercial account, but have in 

 addition, to be placed on the debit side of the 

 Dominion's banking account as taking a serious 

 toll of the valuable species, being a continual 

 menace to the fish breeding grounds and con- 

 stituting themselves general nuisances to fisher- 

 men. Such are the mudshark, the dogfish, the 

 hair seal and the sea lion. 



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