Browse "Geographical features"

Ranching became important in the area after the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived at MAPLE CREEK in 1883. Beginning in 1906, part of the Cypress Hills was protected as a federal forest reserve. RESOURCE RIGHTS were transferred to the provinces in 1930.

Dark Harbour, located on the west side of GRAND MANAN ISLAND, New Brunswick, is the only suitable haven for fishing craft along the island's western shore, which is dominated by high cliffs. It is relatively isolated from the communities on the more hospitable eastern side facing the Bay of Fundy.

The Dartmouth Lakes are 25 separate lakes located within the city of Dartmouth, NS, across the harbour from Halifax. Formed by Pleistocene glaciation about 15 000 years ago, they range in area from 1 to 140 ha.

Some of the greatest depths in the eastern Arctic are reached here (3660 m) in the southern end of the strait. The surface waters are strongly affected by counterclockwise-flowing currents.

Dean River, 241 km long, world-famous steelhead- and salmon-fishing stream, rises in the Fraser Plateau of west-central BC, flows northwest and west through the COAST MOUNTAINS and empties near the head of Dean Channel.

Deer Island abuts the border with the US at the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay on the south coast of New Brunswick. Long in dispute with the US, sovereignty over the island passed to NB in 1817. The name is probably descriptive. Fishing is the most important economic activity.

Della Falls is Canada's highest Waterfall.

​A delta is a deposit of sediment at the mouth of a river that accumulates as the river flows into a standing body of water such as a lake or ocean. Because sediment tends to be rich in nutrients, deltas become fertile wetlands inhabited by diverse wildlife. Among the largest deltas in Canada are those of the Mackenzie and Saskatchewan rivers, as well as the Peace-Athabasca Delta (where the Peace, Athabasca and Birch rivers meet). Certain deltas offer advantageous access to natural resources and maritime transportation, but development projects are often controversial due to the ecological importance of these environments.

The paucity of precipitation in deserts is due to one or a combination of causes.

The Detroit River, 52 km long, flows south from Lake ST CLAIR to the west end of Lake ERIE, forming part of the boundary between Ontario and Michigan. Detroit, Michigan, and WINDSOR, Ontario, dominate its shores. Part of the ST LAWRENCE SEAWAY, it is heavily used by commercial traffic.

The Truelove Lowland area of the island has diverse vegetation and wildlife, an abundance of soil water in the summer owing to blocked drainage, and greater precipitation and higher summer temperatures (4° to 8°C), with more clear days than other parts of the island.

 FOSSIL bones were first discovered in 1978 in the rocks formed in the now vanished Haughton Lake.

Dixon Entrance is a strait between Haida Gwaii on the north coast of British Columbia and Prince of Wales and Dall islands in Alaska.

A drainage basin is an area of land that contributes the water it receives as precipitation to a river or network of rivers.

Prairie farmers, as they cope with continuing drought, might wonder just whose brilliant idea it was to farm the area. Recurrent droughts are the largest source of risk, uncertainty and hardship in the Western Canadian economy.

Dubawnt Lake, 3833 km2, elevation 236 m, is situated in the southern part of mainland Nunavut, 350 km south of the Arctic Circle. Within the Precambrian SHIELD, the lake has irregular shorelines and numerous islands.

Dubawnt River, 842 km long, rises from a web of lakes in the Northwest Territories, 120 km northeast of Lake Athabasca

Eagle Pass, elevation about 550 m, provides a corridor through the Gold Range in the Monashee Mountains between Shuswap Lake and the ​Columbia River, 12 km southwest of ​Revelstoke, British Columbia.

Eastmain (or East Main) refers to the east shore of Hudson Bay, although in the 1680s the term was restricted to the vicinity of the Eastmain River. The corresponding reference to the west shore of Hudson Bay is the Westmain (West Main).

Ellef Ringnes Island, 11 295 km2, is part of the SVERDRUP group that borders the Arctic Ocean. Most of the island consists of great thicknesses of sedimentary rock, except for an occurrence of the arctic coastal plain in the northwest corner.