h flow from deep bores. Another
fine city of which we may well be proud is Electropolis, on Lake
Athabaska. Electropolis can boast of 100,000 inhabitants, and
most enterprising citizens they are. Their great idea is to work
everything by electricity, and to them belongs the credit of all
the latest discoveries in electrical science. Their beautiful
city is a great centre of attraction for scientific men, and many
European electricians make a practice of coming over every Saturday
to stay till Monday. Here are the colossal thermo-electric
batteries which work throughout the year by there being stored up
in immense solid blocks of aluminium the heat of summer and the
cold of winter. The hot blocks, which are protected in winter, are
exposed to the sun in summer, and are heated nearly to red heat by
the rays concentrated upon them by a series of large mirrors. The
cold blocks are simply exposed to the intensest cold of winter and
protected from the heat of summer. Thus two permanent extremes of
temperature are provided during the whole year, and the batteries
only require to be placed in suitable positions with regard to the
blocks to work continuously.

While speaking of cities in the far north, that of Bearville, on
the shores of Great Bear Lake, in latitude 65 degrees, must not
be passed over. Bearville is the metropolis of one of the finest
mineral districts in the world, but had it not been for the
inexhaustible deposits of all the useful metals in its vicinity,
it is probable a city would never have sprung up in such an
inhospitable region. Between the Coppermine and Mackenzie Rivers
gold and silver are abundant. Platinum and iridium are also common,
and are exported from here to all parts of the world; they are in
great demand by chemists and electricians. A rough population from
all quarters has been attracted to the district, of which Bearville
is the centre, and it would astonish people who seldom come to
the North to see how the ingenuity of man has made life not only
tolerable, but enjoyable, in the neighborhood of the Arctic Circle.
Coal seams crop up above the ground in many places, and wherever
this is the case, large frame conservatories are built which are
lighted, not from the roof, but by wide double windows reaching
from the eaves to the ground, and heated by numerous stoves into
which the coal just taken from the ground is thrown. Electric
lights, magnesium lights and lime lights help to make the lon