October 8, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



( OCT 14 195 



complicated interrelations between the various 

 uses — e. g., for power, irrigation, navigation, 

 fisheries, domestic supplies, etc. — drawing on 

 the experience of the United States as well as 

 that of Canada, and showing the need for com- 

 mon organization and communal supervision 

 of the various users. A second chapter deals 

 with " Water Power Data," and under this 

 head are given facts showing the recent tend- 

 ency, particularly marked in the United States, 

 for the control of water-power to heeome con- 

 centrated in the hands of a few great and re- 

 lated groups of financial interests. Succeeding 

 chapters describe the history and present posi- 

 tion of legislative control, and most of the 

 remaining part of the volume is devoted to the 

 present utilization and the possibilities of 

 water-power in the Province, and the physical 

 conditions which determine them, viz., relief 

 (including storage facilities) and climate. In 

 this connection a detailed description of the 

 physical geography of each of the river sys- 

 tems is given, and numerous tables of stream- 

 fiow, precipitation, and temperature. The 

 scope of the volume is therefore wider than its 

 title would suggest. It may be noted that the 

 surveyed sites give a total of about 3,000,000 

 H.P., but although this is an advance on 

 earlier estimates, it does not take into account 

 the fact that very large and important areas 

 have been only superficially surveyed or are 

 virtually unknown, nor does it allow for stor- 

 age improvements. 



Another publication of the commission deals 

 with " Power in Alberta — water, coal and nat- 

 ural gas." It first enumerates the water-pow- 

 ers ,of the Province, which are mainly on the 

 Bow River above Calgary and on the Atha- 

 basca River about 150 miles above Lake Atha- 

 basca, and then discusses the relative costs and 

 advantages of water-power and steam-power. 

 This leads to a consideration of the coal re- 

 sources of Alberta. These are enormous, and 

 the report states that they form 87 per cent, 

 of the coal of Canada, and to show what that 

 means one may add that, according to Memoir 

 59 of the Geological Survey of Canada, the 

 total supply of the Dominion is 1,234,000 mil- 

 lion tons, while that of the British Isles is only 



190,000 million tons. Allowance has to be 

 made for the facts that of the Canadian total 

 about throe quarters consists of sub-bituminous 

 coal or lignite, and that three fifths of the Al- 

 berta supply belongs to this group. Making 

 allowance for this, it still remains true that 

 the fuel resources of Alberta are very much 

 greater than those of Britain. Natural gas is 

 at present locally important, but it has an un- 

 certain future. The report ends with a note 

 comparing various methods for the fixation of 

 nitrogen by electricity, a matter which will be 

 of importance when the prairie lands need 

 cheap artificial manures. 



FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS 



The regular sealing operations at the 

 Pribilof Islands closed for the season on 

 August 10. The Bureau of Fisheries reports 

 that telegraphic information is to the effect 

 that in the current calendar year through 

 August 10 there were taken on St. Paul 

 Island 21,936 pelts, and on St. George Island, 

 4,042, a total of 25,978. Of the skins taken, 

 721 were from seals 7 years of age or older. 

 The figures given are subject to slight cor- 

 rection when final reports are made. The fall 

 killings, made ehiefiy to supply food for the 

 natives, will add somewhat to the year's total. 



The by-products plant which was operated 

 in connection with the sealing operations on 

 St. Paul Island produced approximately 1,800 

 gallons of oil and 29,000 pounds of meat or 

 fertilizer. The operations of the plant were 

 curtailed because of inability to secure a suffi- 

 cient number of laborers from the Aleutian 

 Islands. 



During the present sealing season the 

 bureau has utilized on St. Paul Island a 

 number of native workmen from St. George 

 Island. This was done without curtailing the 

 proper take of sealskins on St. George. The 

 transfer of the men from St. George to St. 

 Paul was effected by the Coast Guard cutter 

 Bear and the bureau's vessel Eider. 



The Bureau of Fisheries further states that 

 misrepresentations have recently gained cur- 

 rency to the effect that pelagic sealing opera- 

 tions are to be permitted shortly in the Iforth 



