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Mapping Canada by Air
(A recent "Canadian Chronicle’ report by Ralph Marven)
When a surveyor or mining prospector in Canada’s Northwest wants to
know what lies beyond that range of mountains, he can climb over it to see
for himself, or he can spare himself the trouble by studying an aerial photo-
graph. From this, he may learn that beyond the mountain is only muskeg.
This year, the Royal Canadian Air Force is continuing its 20-year-old
camera coverage of Canada with a program intended to record photograph-
ically an additional 700,000 square miles. Ten air detachments will do this
job, photographing areas from Labrador to British Columbia and from the
Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean. In some northern areas, bad weather will
limit the photographic season to two weeks. Skies must be free of clouds,
the land of snow and ice.
I know three men each of whom uses the RCAF photographs for a different
purpose. One is the soils expert who knows more about the agricultural
possibilities of the Northwest than any other man. In his soil reconnaissance,
he is spared many weary miles of climbing mountains and slipping into swamps
by first conning the land from photographs. From them he can also predict
soil possibilities, seeing on the photographs soil erosion channels not readily
discernible by the eye at earth level.
Another chap I know uses aerial photographs for speeding up and reducing
the cost of ground survey work on the prairies. In planning dams for irriga-
tion, he now knows in advance what land will be inundated when the reservoir
is built. The photos also help him to locate gravel beds useful for constructing
dams and dugouts.
A third appreciative user of aerial photographs is an economist who tries
to find out the extent of land under cultivation. A farmer may tell him:
“Well, I think I’ve so many acres in wheat and I guess I’ve about so many
acres in barley and maybe there’s so much bush and a certain amount of
pastureland.” But too often these estimates are only guesses, and the eco-
nomist is looking for facts so that he can advise the government on prospective
crops and future possibilities. He can get these facts from photographs.
But there are all sorts of uses for these photographs, which the RCAF
obtains often under great discomfort. Relying on native game for their meat
and—in the Northwest—living under canvas where they try to fend off attacks
by mosquitoes said to be as big as footballs, these detachments still succeed
in continuing to map Canada from the air.
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