probability exploration and development will take place 

 during the summer. The Premier Mine in Northern B.C. 

 is giving Hollinger a run for first place as Canada's biggest 

 gold producer. 



Coal and Oil in Alberta 



In Alberta, the province that has wrested the leader- 

 ship of the Dominion as a coal producer, indications are 

 for a substantially increased output, last winter's produc- 

 tion materially surpassing that of the previous winter 

 despite strikes and other troubles. The search for gold has 

 enlisted a greater interest than has ever previously been 

 directed to it in this province. A suction dredge is being 

 placed on the Peace River, where miners, working on the 

 river bars, are reported to have made as much as $20 a 

 day last year. 



Oil prospecting and drilling is being vigorously pro- 

 secuted, actual drilling taking place on the Canadian side, 

 from just north of the newly discovered" Montana well at 

 Kelvin, Montana, to Fort Norman in the North, a distance 

 of more than a thousand miles. The Imperial Oil Co. 

 has encountered a heavy flow of gas (late in June) at 

 1,870 feet in their well at Fabyan, north of Hardisty, 

 Central Alberta. Only a slight showing of heavy black oil, 

 similar to that encountered in the wells drilled in the 

 Viking district, is yet noticeable, sufficiently encouraging, 

 however, to decide a continuance of drilling. The recent 

 bringing into production of the two wells in Northern 

 Montana, the Kelvin and the Sunburst, the latter only 

 twelve miles from the Canadian boundary, gives additional 

 hopes of prospects in the Southern and Central Alberta 

 fields. It is the opinion of the geologists that the structure 

 on which the Montana wells are located dips under 

 Alberta. 



Incorporation of Additional Oil Companies 



The past months have seen the incorporation of addi- 

 tional companies to engage in oil drilling in various sections 

 of the province. Investigations into the commercial 

 treatment of the bituminous sands of the Athabasca 

 region are being ceaselessly carried on by the Council for 

 Scientific and Industrial Research as well as by private 

 enterprise. Several carloads of the raw material have 

 been shipped to England for experimentation by certain 

 interests who claim to have perfected a system of separa- 

 tion and will spend a large sum in the initial work this 

 summer. 



In Northern Manitoba, general prospecting and 

 diamond drilling in the mineralized regions of '1 he Pas is 

 being carried on steadily with the prospect of considerably 

 developing the area as a producing field. Activity here is 

 extensive, and never before in the history of the district 

 have so many prominent mining companies interested 

 themselves in it. Faith in its potentialities is wide-spread, 

 and in addition to American and Canadian interest, 

 English development companies have been floated and 

 much capital subscribed to existing companies. During 

 the spring, 240 claims were recorded at The Pas, making 

 the total number of claims staked in the fiscal year, 813. 



Activity in Ontario and Quebec 



In Northern Ontario conditions could hardly be 

 brighter and the gold mines are steadily producing at a 

 rate which will probably create a record for the region by 

 the end of the year. Attention has recently been directed 

 to newly discovered gold areas along the main line of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway's Lake Superior District, which 

 has resulted in a general staking of claims, and further 

 developments will be watched with interest. The nickel 

 and silver mining districts are facing somewhat brighter 

 prospects this year. 



The mineral areas of Northern Quebec are experiencing 

 a large amount of prospecting this summer. A number of 

 claims have been staked in the region east of the Larder 

 Lake district and a Montreal company is reported to be 

 undertaking gold prospecting there. The mineralized 

 region of Chibougaman Lake, 165 miles north of Lake St. 



John, is attracting attention, and a syndicate is spending 

 a large sum this year in prospecting there. There is 

 evidence of renewed interest in Canada's molybdenite 

 areas. A party under a British mining expert has gone 

 prospecting in Ungava. 



Affairs in Nova Scotia 



In spite of the turmoil and disturbance that seem to 

 engulf mining affairs in Nova Scotia, there are beams of 

 light in the darkness, evidencing the prospects of summer 

 development in certain lines of mining activity. Optimistic 

 reports are heard in regard to Malagash salt deposits. 

 Prospecting is also being continued for other salt possi- 

 bilities, and, so far, nine natural brine springs have been 

 located. A prospectors' syndicate has been formed by 

 people in Sydney to prospect in Cape Breton. 



Very recently an important coal discovery has been 

 made near Kennebunk on the Dominion Atlantic Railway, 

 where indications of a ten-foot seam of high grade bitumi- 

 nous have been proved by the diamond drill. Drilling in 

 this new field is being vigorously continued. 



Mining prospects in Canada are possibly brighter than 

 the early summer's prospect has held for years in spite of 

 the various dark clouds which have enshrouded the indus- 

 try since the beginning of the year. This comes as most 

 gratifying after 192 1's record of declining output, and is an 

 indication of a resumption of normal mining activity which 

 the aftermath of the war so rudely interrupted. The 

 year 1922 should show a healthy production of practically 

 all Canadian minerals. 



Canada's Tree Seed for Britain 



By F. C. C. Lynch, Supt. Natural Resources Intelligence 

 Branch, Dept. of Interior, Ottawa. 



Thousands of great sacks to be exact, about 

 7,000 of the cones of the Douglas fir, Sitka 

 spruce, hemlock and other species of trees were 

 last autumn brought in by rail, by steamer and 

 by farmer's wagon and dumped down on the 

 big floors of a three-storey building in New 

 Westminster, the seed extraction plant of the 

 Forestry Branch of the Department of the 

 Interior. It was erected specially for this 

 purpose and is one of the most modern plants 

 of the kind. 



Here the cones were dried and threshed and 

 the tree seed cleaned and bagged for shipment. 

 From the 7,000 sacks of cones somewhat over 

 12,000 pounds of tree seed was extracted. As 

 tree seed runs from fifty thousand to four 

 hundred thousand kernels to the pound, with 

 an average, perhaps, of two hundred thousand, 

 i t is evident that, if all these germinate, a good 

 sized forest will result. 



The largest purchaser of this seed was the 

 Forestry Commission of Great Britain, which 

 took over 7,000 pounds, the last of the order 

 being shipped early this spring. The seed is to 

 reforest the areas cut over during the war and to 

 plant up such other areas as a survey of the 

 British Isles has shown can be more profitably 

 devoted to trees than to any other crop. 



Tests have shown that a number of Canadian 

 trees, especially Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, do 

 well in Great Britain, which is the reason for 

 the request from the British Forestry Com- 

 mission to the Dominion Forestry Branch to 

 secure for them a large quantity of seed annually. 



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