ARCTIC RESOURCES 225 



multiplication of the known resources we shall doubtless go farther 

 wrong than if we make the simple assumption that thorough exploita- 

 tion will probably develop about as many and valuable minerals in 

 the Arctic as the terrestrial average for areas of similar size. 



Coal and Oil 



There used to be theories against the probability of Arctic min- 

 erals, but they are weakening year by year. For instance, it was 

 formerly believed that coal would be less likely to be found the farther 

 north you went. But now it is well known that Spitsbergen coal is 

 both abundant and good, some of it 800 miles north of the Arctic 

 Circle. It was supposed that oil would not be found far north, but 

 there are now flowing wells hard by the Arctic Circle on the Macken- 

 zie in Canada, and -the United States Government has set aside an 

 oil reserve in Alaska, with the northern tip of the reserve at Point 

 Barrow, the northernmost cape of the territory. Indeed, the general 

 prospect on which the reservation was based is a "pitch lake" about 

 300 miles north of the circle, back of Cape Simpson near Point Barrow, 

 that had been frequently reported even before I first heard of it in 

 1906 and first visited Cape Simpson in 1908. In Melville Island we 

 have oil in association with coal at Cape Grassy, more than 600 miles 

 north of the Arctic Circle. Coal has been found on more than two- 

 thirds of the Canadian islands, irrespective of latitude, and there is 

 no known reason to think that if other lands should be discovered 

 there would not be coal and oil upon them. 



But coal and oil are the only important minerals that have ever 

 been supposed to be limited by latitude. That appears to leave the 

 field clear (pending careful exploration) for the law of chances as the 

 best determinant of the probable Arctic mineral wealth. 



Special Conditions of Exploitation 



But even if the minerals be there, they may be less valuable be- 

 cause more difficult to work. That is undoubtedly the case for the 

 moment, since most Arctic localities are at present far removed from 

 population centers. Settlements are, however, crowding north in 

 Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, making smaller and smaller the unin- 

 habited Arctic patch that lies towards the center of the inhabited 

 world. 



It is said that the earliest discoveries of coal in the mountains of 

 what is now West Virginia were considered only of academic interest 

 by the Virginians of the time, their view being that coal mines so 

 located were too remote ever to be of value. Similar opinions were 

 later expressed about copper in Montana and, indeed, are constantly 



