A report on the agricultural possibilities of the great Mackenzie Basin, prepared by a select committee of the Dominion Senate, was made public in the summer of 1909. "Basing their calculations upon the testimony of witnesses, the Committee calculate that some two million square miles between the northern limits of Saskatchewan and Alberta and the Arctic Circle can be used for pasturage and for the cultivation of wheat, barley, potatoes, and other vegetables. Until a few years ago not only the Mackenzie basin but the valley of Peace rivers were on account of their high latitudes considered to be unfit for cultivation. The comparatively mild climate, which, as the report shows, they in reality enjoy, is said to be due to the proximity of large bodies of water such as the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes and to the _chinook_ wind, the warm current of air that blows across the Rocky Mountains from the Pacific. The shortness of the sub-Arctic summer appears to be offset by the proportionate length of the days and by the clearness of the air. In regard to the future of the district with which it deals the report points out that in 1870 the representatives of the people of Eastern Canada were anxious to obtain in regard to what is now the prosperous province of Manitoba exactly the same information as the Committee has been engaged in collecting about Canada’s ‘newest west.’" CANADA: A. D. 1909. The opposition in Newfoundland to union with the Dominion. See (in this Volume) NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1909. CANADA: A. D. 1909 (January). The Waterways Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, concerning the waters between the former and Canada. Resulting from the labors of an International Waterways Commission, appointed four years before, a Waterways Treaty, having reference to the lakes and rivers that lie along the boundary between Canada and the United States, was concluded by Ambassador Bryce, on the part of the British Government, and Secretary of State Root, on the part of the United States, in January, 1909. The Treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United States in the closing hours of the Congressional session which ended March 4, but with a proviso, in the form of a resolution attached. The following is a summary of the provisions of the Treaty as it went to the Senate: "A preliminary article defines the Canadian and American boundary waters. "Article I. enacts that the navigation of these waters, including Lake Michigan and the canals connecting them, shall for ever continue free and open for the purposes of commerce to the inhabitants of both countries. Regulations affecting canals in the territory of either country shall apply equally to inhabitants of the other who may wish to make use thereof.