to the Biological Survey' s waterfowl-refuge program in the North Central 

 States and to water impoundments and similar developments by other agen- 

 cies in both countries. Since April 1935, when the Canadian Parliament 

 passed the act, the following appropriations are known to have been made: 

 #1,250,000 in the fisoal year 1935; $1,184,420 in 1936; and $2,000,000 in 

 1937. By July 1939, the Dominion had completed a total of 5,538 "dugouts," 

 2,388 stock-watering dams, and 568 irrigation projects. More than 200 

 larger, municipal -community, projects had been completed, 148 in Saskatch- 

 ewan, 50 in Alberta, and 6 in Manitoba* In some instances at least, these 

 restored water areas were immediately adopted for use by waterfowl and 

 their value will increase as time goes on and as food and cover plants be- 

 come better established* 



As has been stated before, the vast breeding grounds "north of the 

 bush" have not been altered by human activity and are today as satisfactory 

 for nesting waterfowl as they were when the white man first found them* 

 The problem is to send back a sufficient number of birds to stock them* 

 Reporting upon his work in that region in 1939, Gillham wrote » "In 1935 

 the writer felt that many species of ducks oould not be brought back, that 

 many varieties were doomed to pass on into oblivion* The great change man- 

 ifest in the abundanoe of practically all speoies here this year does not 

 bear this out. * * . There seems little doubt but that the drastic regula- 

 tions, including curtailing baiting and using live deooys, have borne fruit 

 and that the waterfowl population is on an upward swing in its abundance*" 

 In some districts, notably in the vicinity of Lake Athabaska, water levels 

 were unusually low, but this condition had relatively little signifioanoe 

 in a country where the normal area of water is almost the same as that of 

 the land* Gillham f s observations were supported by those of Indians and 

 others who claimed that the number of birds was greater than at any time 

 in the past 15 years* 



This was Gillham's fifth oonsecutive trip to northern Canada and the 

 following quotation from his report will be of interest as illustrative 

 of the conditions under which these investigators work: 



"With a fish net and a seal harpoon it is possible to visit the great 

 nesting grounds of the North and learn much of them* The comforts are few 

 and far between, clouds of mosquitoes are first encountered, to be later 

 supplanted by the even more poisonous black flies* Twenty hours daily of 

 sunshine overshadowed by severe coastal rainstorms and wind of almost gale 

 proportions does not add to the oomfort of field work* The constant day- 

 light discourages restful sleep after severe daily activities, and poor 

 native food often leaves one in a funk, especially when he has acted as 

 host to several thousand insects daily* 



"Large lakes, frozen solid, surround the mud flats where waterfowl 

 are nesting* Heavy fogs rise from the ioepaok only 2 miles offshore on 

 the Arctio Ocean. The chilled and saturated air makes the wearing of 

 native caribou parkas and skin pants a necessity* 



