The northern part of Canada is probably the most isolated, sparsely populated, and inaccessible land mass in the northern hemisphere. The Yukon and Northwest Territories comprise an area of 1½ million sq. miles and contain only 34,000 people, 8,300 of whom are Eskimo. Into this vast area only one navigable river penetrates, and the sea lanes around its perimeter are open for only three months in the year. This isolation and scarcity of people are reflected in the following comments of the Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects: “In the whole of the Northwest Territories…the military bases, mining camps, trading posts and administrative centres are hardly more than pin-pricks in the surrounding bush and muskeg and barrens. There will be important economic development in this area in the years to come. But it would take the ruthlessness of a Peter the Great to plant any large centres of population there.”

The Mackenzie River is the seventh longest river in the world and with its tributaries drains a million sq. miles of northern Canada. Its drainage basin includes almost all of that portion of the District of Mackenzie lying south of the so-called “tree line”, two large sections of Yukon Territory and portions of the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. When flying from Fort Smith, lat. 60° N., to Inuvik near the Arctic Ocean it seems to be an endless expanse of swamp and tundra with almost no possibilities for logging, either now or in the future. Closer inspection, however, shows that there are forested areas capable of supplying timbers suitable for lumber and heavy construction, as well as poles for piling and mining timbers. It is with these forests that this article is primarily concerned.

An icebreaker is beset. Motion is impossible because of lateral pressure and packing in the surrounding ice. During the long hours of patient waiting for the pressure to subside, discussion on board often turns to the use of explosives as a means to break the ship free.

Though the history of polar exploration stretches over many centuries, it is only in very recent (or one might say contemporary) times that a serious interest has been shown on the part of states in the advancement of territorial claims in these perpetually frozen regions of the earth. Reasons for this new development are not difficult to find, and may, very largely, be explained in terms of economic and strategic considerations. The rapidly growing population of the world;† the pressing desire everywhere for a higher standard of living; the technological advancement in transportation and communication; new geographic conceptions, and a modern strategy of military operations are all factors which help to clarify this phenomenon. As a result of these and many other recent developments, which we shall not attempt to catalogue here, it is not unreasonable to assume that the polar regions will in the future become more rather than less important in world affairs.

Beachcombers usually are associated with tropical islands, with hot sandy foreshores and coral reefs, backed by waving palms and jungle-clad slopes. They conjure up an atmosphere of dusky maidens and pearls and the other features of a lazy lotus land. But wherever ordered life frays out on the edges of civilization, the beachcomber makes his appearance. He likes comfort, but cheerfully accepts inconvenience provided only that he can escape a life of rules and ordered conventions: he seeks a measure of freedom far beyond the dreams of the noisy democrat. The untrammelled life that the unsocial beachcomber seeks is not impossible in Spitsbergen: true, conditions are not such as would attract lovers of warmth and comfort in every hour of existence, but a nomad's life in the Arctic has not all the discomforts that the inexperienced might believe.

Project “Ice Skate” was initiated in 1957 to establish and support the United States drifting research stations in the Arctic Ocean, “Alpha”, and “Bravo” and later the “Alpha” replacement, “Charlie”. The purpose of the project was to provide facilities for research in geophysical phenomena as prescribed in the Arctic Ocean Study Program formulated by the United States National Committee for the International Geophysical Year, and continued under the International Geophysical Co-operation Program.