Ringed Seal. Enormous numbers of this and other 

 species congregate each spring on the ice off these 

 coasts to give birth and then breed again. 



A famous pinnacle, known as 

 Mother Burke's Rock, near La 

 Scie, V^hite Bay, on the rugged 

 coast of 'Newfoundland. 



■2^s:!=:^.. 



of research, and the discovery of the vast Chubb Crater has 

 played a not inconsiderable part in the formulation of this over- 

 all picture. After much debate, and in the face of several dia- 

 metrically opposed theories, it now seems to have been at least 

 temporarily decided that the so-called craters that all of us can 

 see on our satellite, the Moon, were made by meteors. This was 

 thought to be rather odd in that the whole surface of that as- 

 tronomical object was pock-marked with such, while our much 

 bigger planet was not. We are now slowly changing our opinion 

 about this. 



On June 20, 1943, an immense circular hole filled with water 

 was spotted from the air by a U. S. Air Force plane at the south- 

 eastern edge of the Ungava district. This had the usual impact 

 ridge of shattered surface rocks piled up all around it, and it lay 

 in an area where there was no sign of volcanic activity such as 

 might possibly have promoted a vast crater. On being reported, 

 its existence was doubted, but the Royal Canadian Air Force 

 mapped it from the air in 1948, and their findings were pub- 

 lished in 1950. An experienced prospector — Frederick W. Chubb — 

 brought these to the attention of Dr. V. Ben Meen, director of 

 the Royal Ontario Museum of Geology and Mineralogy, and these 

 two then first flew over and later went overland (1951) to inves- 

 tigate the discovery. It proved to be the largest meteor crater so 

 far discovered on earth. The Canadian authorities then initiated 

 a detailed reappraisal and examination of the aerial surveys of 

 their country and came up with the astonishing fact that many 

 other objects that could be meteor craters were scattered all 

 across the continent within their boundaries. These varied greatly 



in apparent age, in that some were just as bold and fresh-look- 

 ing as this Chubb Crater, while others looked what might be 

 called "fossilized." These latter no longer appeared as raised 

 rings on the surface of the land and were noticeable only by 

 their circularity as disclosed in photographs because of different 

 forms of vegetation that grew where their ridges had once been. 

 Some contained circular lakes or parts of such lakes. Detailed 

 studies by drilling, and the use of modern electronic equipment, 

 further proved that these were indeed meteor craters, showing 

 all the typical features of smashed and pulverized surface rocks 

 down to considerable depths under the crater itself, warped and 

 broken rock around its rim, and even the presence of meteoric 

 iron scattered within and all around. How many more craters 

 remain to be revealed, not only in Canada but throughout the 

 world in areas clothed in blankets of forest, has yet to be ascer- 

 tained. 



It is becoming increasingly obvious that the earth was pep- 

 pered by a much greater number of meteors big enough to break 

 through our atmosphere without burning up than had previously 

 been supposed. Meteorites, in fact, form a prominent feature 

 of what we call generally "natural history." Instead of being 

 mere oddities, they take their place as something that even the 

 amateur may "collect." Let me therefore offer a few of the more 

 remarkable facts that have been discovered about these cosmic 

 visitors. 



The meteorite that caused this Chubb Crater must have been 

 of truly monumental proportions, considering that the hole it 

 left is some 320 times the size of that left by the famous Arizona 



