land in Saskatchewan, and nearly twenty thousand square miles in Alberta, and he credits explored parts of the last-named province with four hundred million tons of anthracite, forty-four thousand million tons of bituminous coal, and sixty thousand million tons of lignite.” “And the story of Canada’s wealth is still unfinished?” I asked. “The most impressive part,” replied Mr. Brock, “has still to come. We have now to consider the fifth geological province—the Cordilleran Belt. In Canada it has a length of 1,300 and a width of 400 miles, and it extends across the western States, through Mexico, and into South America. Its rocks range from the oldest to the youngest formations. Vulcanism and mountain-building processes have repeatedly been active in that province. The Cordilleran Belt is recognised as one of the greatest mining regions in the world, it being noted principally for its gold, silver, copper and lead. Of the well-nigh incalculable wealth of gold and other minerals in California and Mexico I need not remind you. And the riches of the Cordilleran Belt in the south afford a sure clue to its riches in the north. In Canada and Alaska the geological province is still for the most part unprospected. But here and there, as you know, the wealth has been tapped, and last year (1909) British Columbia alone yielded minerals to the value of nearly £5,000,000. So far the Yukon has practically produced nothing but placer gold, but it has produced about £25,000,000 worth of it. While partial development has taken place along the international boundary line, and while some of the main streams have been imperfectly prospected for placer gold, the greater part of the Canadian section of the Cordilleran Belt is as yet untouched. Probably not a fifth has been prospected at all, not a twentieth prospected in detail, and not one area, however small, completely tested. The Belt in Canada is not merely rich in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc, but it has enormous resources of excellent coal, varying from lignites to anthracite. Only the coal areas in the southern portion of British Columbia, and a few small areas on the Telkwa and Nass rivers, and on the Yukon, are at present known, but Mr. D. B. Dowling estimates that the prospected fields represent, in the Yukon, thirty-two million tons of anthracite, and the same quantity of bituminous coal, and, in British Columbia, twenty million tons of the former, and 38,642 million tons of the latter. Then, too, great unprospected areas are known to contain, in places, coal formations, and no doubt they will, when explored, add greatly to the reserves I have just mentioned. So far, production has not kept pace with discovery; but a largely increased output may be expected in the near future, for those regions supply the best steaming and coking coals anywhere to be obtained in the West, and new railways will facilitate distribution. Only about one-fifth of Alaska has been