The sun., 1919-08-05

| formation there is not such as to max,
any considerable oil supplies likely.
great deal has been expected Of tn,
Peace River oil field, but this particular
section Of u. at any rate. seams due foi
disappointment
There are better prospects up river. II
tho sricinity of Hudson's Hope, according
to geoiogists. for the rocks are Devonias
there. and the usual oil bed formation Il
party has moved over in that Director
and will work down from Hudson's Hop,
to meet the foothill parties.
But 1t is In the still further north thai
the best prospects are now believed e
lie. ION the north shore OF Great Slave
Lake, which is well into the wilderness
country, there are numerous ana con
tupicuous seepages. and a preliminary IN.
vestigation that Dr.. BoswoSth made In
1914 Is now being followed up to q
definite conclusion. The lay Of the land
In said to be just about right for oil and
the rocks are nicely dipped.
The northernnost OF tho Imperial com.
pany's searching parties Is down the
Mackenzie River. in the neighborhocd OF
Port Norman. There. too. the indica-
lions are favorable. and the anticlinef
are Of the sort that oil men like.
Two drilling rigs for these Far North
fields are now en- route. The one for
Great Slave Lake at least viii be set
UP this season, and some drilling will
be done. Its mate at Fort Norman will
be 500 miles further north than an oil
rig has ever gone before. and the crew
viii remain there through the winter
In readiness for another years work
Far North . Hopeful Source.
DR.. Bosworth Il disposed to look upon
the Far North as one of the most hopeful
sources OF new oil supply In the Cana
dian West. The cretaceous rock for
nation in the south and east of Alberta
IL regarded as at best somewhat doubt
fui. but all signs point to the Great
Slave Lake and Mackenzie River fields
being fairly and even richly productive.
1t may therefore be that the next great
oil rush will be up toward the top of the
map.
Manifestly the most serious difficulty
In the way of developing n Far North
oil field will be the matter of transporta-
ton. How to get oil out from so remote
country will be something Of a prob
lem. but for the time being the search
ing parties ana the company behind
them are not concerning themselves with
transportation worries. When the time
comes to move the oil out there will be
way to do II.
OIL barges on the Mackenzie would,
of course. be the easiest way to market
Unfortunately. however. there Is a
stretch OF bad water at Fort Smith, and
n long portage would be necessary. An
extension OF the present Peace River
Railroad would be a better route. but
such an undertaking would naturally be
feasible only II the expected oil strikes
In thu North proved really rich. As to
pipe lines, that is q phase Of the ques-
ton that is hardly ripe for even thinking
about yet a while.
A Dominion charter has been given to
a steamship and railway enterprise to
be known as the Northwest Route
which proposes to link up chain OF
lakes and rivers between Chesterfield
Inlet on Hudson Bay. and Great Slave
Lake. from which connection VIII be pos
sible with the Mackenzie River Eng
lish capital 10 interested in this project.
and II Is understood that the route Is
actually to be opened up in the near
future. II II SO materializes, and II the
northern oil fields prove as good as the
signs now indicate. some OF the oil will
be movable by way of Hudson Bay,
especially in case of the export output
for Great Britain. But there will still
be the western home trade to serve.