resulted in the commencement of an exodus of 

 French-Canadian families back to their old 

 homes, which may reach a more appreciable size. 



On all sides this awakening of interest is 

 evident. It is a new faith borne on the crest of 

 the wave of brighter prospects, the dawn of a 

 fuller realization, in the continued inability of 

 many other countries to emerge from the 

 economic slough into which the war plunged 

 them, of the desirability of Canada as country 

 more rapidly throwing off its post-bellum 

 depression, and its great place in the world 's 

 immediate future. 



New Legislation Effecting Oil Leases 



In the widespread interest directed towards oil explor- 

 ation in the Canadian North-West, where actual drilling 

 is taking place this summer from Bear Island, near Fort 

 Norman, in the North-West Territories, to the Sweet Grass 

 Hills, just north of the Montana border, a stretch of 

 something like a thousand miles, interest attaches to 

 amendments to existing regulations affecting leases and 

 drilling operations, and companies contemplating entering 

 the field should make themselves acquainted with new 

 legislation which has been promulgated at Ottawa. 



Legislation enacted in February 1921 to cover oil and 

 gas permits in the North-West Territories provided for a 

 rental of fifty cents an acre for the first year of the term 

 of the permit and one dollar per acre per annum for 

 subsequent years. Should oil in commercial quantities be 

 discovered on the location to the satisfaction of the govern- 

 ment, the permit terminated and the permittee became 

 entitled to receive a lease of one-fourth of the area described 

 in his permit, selected in a square block. 'Ihe permittee 

 was required within two years from the date of the 

 permit to have a substantial and adequate drilling out- 

 fit on his location. In the failure of erecting such, his 

 permit expired upon notification. 



Changes of a Drastic Nature 



As a result of representations made to the government 

 of various hardships and injustices effected under certain 

 circumstances in the conditions prevailing in the North- 

 West, changes of a drastic nature have been brought about. 

 The term of the permit is extended from four to six 

 years. The rental for the first year of the location applied 

 for shall accompany the application filed in the office of 

 the mining recorder. The span within which it is required 

 to have a drilling outfit erected is extended from two to 

 four years. The rental for the second, third and fourth 

 years is at the rate of a dollar per acre per annum, but 

 provision is made that if satisfactory evidence is furnished 

 that drilling operations have been commenced in any year 

 before the termination of the fourth year, the amount 

 expended in such boring operations, exclusive of the cost 

 of machinery and casing, may be deducted from the rental 

 due that year. 



At the termination of the fifth year the permittee shall 

 furnish the mining recorder with evidence that he has 

 drilled one or more wells to a depth of at least five hundred 

 feet each or has expended in actual drilling operations the 

 sum of not less than $5,000 exclusive of the cost of mach- 

 inery and casing. If oil in commercial quantity has not 

 been discovered the permittee shall, during the sixth year, 

 continue his operations and shall drill one or more wells to 

 an aggregate depth of not less than two thousand feet. If 

 at the conclusion of the sixth year oil has not been dis- 

 covered, the permit shall absolutely lapse without any 

 declaration of cancellation or forfeiture on the part of the 

 crown. 



If oil in commercial quantity is discovered the permit 

 shall terminate and the permittee shall be entitled to 

 receive a lease. To do this he shall stake out a rectangular 

 block the length of which shall not exceed twice the 

 breadth, containing not more than one-half of the are 

 described in the permit. It is further provided that in 

 view of the remoteness of the Territories and the limited 

 character of transportation facilities available, the maxi- 

 mum area which may be included in a group is increas 

 to 20,000 acres. 



Applications for leases will be dealt with under th 

 regulations which were in force at the time such appli- 

 cations were made. 



Under certain conditions it is provided that an extension 

 of lease not exceeding four years will be granted when 

 the lessee can prove that he has incurred substantia 

 expenditures in an effort to comply with the regulations 



Oil Exploration in Western Canada 



By A. M. McQueen, Vice-President 

 Imperial Ou Co. 



When your Chairman, to whom it is difficult to refuse 

 anything, proposed that a description of the recent 

 exploration for oil in Canada might be of interest to this 

 gathering I gladly acquiesced, and nominated the chief of 

 our Engineering Department, who I ventured to think 

 might prepare a paper of such scientific and technical 

 value as would be worthy of the time that you would 

 devote to it. Your Chairman, however, rather terrified 

 me by declaring that what was wanted was the reverse of a 

 scientific and technical treatise, and to prove that he 

 meant what he said he insisted that I make whatever 

 address was to be made, and that I endeavor to portray 

 as faithfully as possible the processes of an exploration 

 campaign after the reports of the geologists have been jaid 

 upon the directors' table in the office of an oil corporation. 



In making an attempt to obey these instructions I may 

 seem to over-emphasize our own operations, and I may 

 perhaps explain to those not familiar with the Canadian 

 situation that the company with which I am connected- 

 Imperial Oil, Limited is making the first comprehensive 

 test of the oil resources of Canada and is, of the world 

 companies, the only one carrying on operations here. 

 Therefore, these operations may be said to be representa- 

 tive of all the conditions existing; but to say this is to 

 belittle neither the courage nor the accomplishments of 

 many small companies which have assisted in the pioneer 

 work, and which, it is my earnest hope, will some day 

 participate in the favorable result, and favorable result 

 I confidently believe there will be. 



Work of Geological Survey 



The best geological information which could be pre- 

 viously obtained upon the petroleum possibilities of 

 Western Canada was, to say the least, non-committal. 

 It is no deprecation of the Dominion Geological Survey to 

 state that, while the results of the researches of this branch 

 of the government were thorough as to the localities to 

 which they applied, they were, in the bulk, most frag- 

 mentary. One small corner of any one of the four great 

 western provinces would have been sufficient to keep the 

 entire government force busy for a decade, and then the 

 knowledge gained would not have been complete, so that 

 it was upon, to some extent, virgin territory that the 

 reconnaissance of the geological department of Imperial 

 Oil, Limited, was undertaken between 1916 and 1919. 



There were, except in the far north and the extreme 

 west, but few exposures from which to work, so that a 

 great deal of the deduction must necessarily be hypotheti- 

 cal. There had been, it is true, effervescences of enthus- 

 iasm which manifested themselves in the form of oil booms, 

 and with these some drilling; but most of the work has 

 been but indifferently performed, and more than indiff- 

 erently guided, and the records were of small value. Out- 

 side the excellent basis for geological examination provided 

 by Dr. D. B. Dowling and other officers of the Geological 

 Survey, it was in many respects a new field. 



134 





