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Melville Island

Melville Island, 42 149 km 2 , is the fourth-largest of the QUEEN ELIZABETH ISLANDS . The Northwest Territories-Nunavut boundary splits the island in half. Its western half, which is in the Northwest Territories, is hilly,

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Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, stretching 1,375 km. It begins on the western side of the Rocky Mountains at Mount Robson Provincial Park, and ends in the Strait of Georgia at Vancouver. Named for explorer Simon Fraser, the river was a transportation route and source of food for the Indigenous people of the region long before Fraser travelled its waters. In 1858, gold was discovered on sandbars south of Yale, setting off the Fraser River Gold rush.

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Cape Sable Island

Cape Sable Island is a flat, wooded island off the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia. Connected to the mainland by a causeway on the north side, it shelters the waters of Barrington Bay to the east. The MIKMAQ hunted seals off Cape Sable Island.

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Columbia River

The Columbia River runs from the southeast corner of British Columbia through Washington and Oregon states to the Pacific Ocean.

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Victoria Island

GeologyVictoria Island is largely composed of sedimentary rock. There is a belt of Precambrian rock on the west coast and another on the south coast, veined with copper formerly used by the COPPER INUIT.

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New Caledonia

 New Caledonia ("New Scotland"), was a name given in 1806 to the central and highland plateau area of BRITISH COLUMBIA by Simon FRASER, a partner, trader and explorer in the NORTH WEST CO.

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Tundra

Tundra, which comes from a Sami word meaning “barren land,” refers to a treeless arctic region characterized by permafrost. Canada’s tundra is known for its freezing temperatures, lack of trees, low-growing vegetation and abundant rock outcrops. The southern boundary of tundra in Canada extends from the Mackenzie River delta to the southern reaches of Hudson Bay and northeast to the Labrador Peninsula. The term “alpine tundra” is often used to describe any area above the treeline in mountainous areas. But “alpine tundra” and “arctic tundra” are not interchangeable. (While the two regions share some similarities, the differences are significant.)

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Partridge Island

Partridge Island is located in the Bay of Fundy, about 1 km from the shoreline and the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. The island was set aside as a quarantine station in 1785 and operated as such between 1830 and 1941. Many immigrants arriving to Canada by ship, including thousands of  Irish in 1847, were isolated on the island before being allowed to enter the country. This was done in an effort to prevent the spread of infectious diseases common on overcrowded vessels. In 1974, the Partridge Island quarantine station was designated a national historic site. Other important events are associated with the island, including the installation of the world’s first steam-operated fog alarm in 1859 (see also Robert Foulis).

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Meteors, Meteorites and Impact Craters

The solar system contains many objects smaller than the planets (or their satellites) travelling in individual orbits about the SUN; space between the planets also contains myriad dust grains in the micron size range. Near Earth, dust concentrations are only a few hundred particles per cubic kilometre, but 35 000 to 100 000 t of extraterrestrial material enters the atmosphere annually, swept up by our planet from debris that is in its path or crosses its path.

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Niagara River

The Niagara River, 58 km long, issues from Lake Erie and flows north over Niagara Falls to Lake Ontario. The river’s drainage area is about 684,000 km2, and its average flow at Queenston is 5,885 m3/s. The Niagara River forms part of the border between Canada and the United States.

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Quill Lakes

The Quill Lakes are three connected saline lakes in southeastern Saskatchewan. They are located 150 km north of Regina and 152 km east of Saskatoon. From west to east the lakes are named Big Quill, Middle Quill (also known as Mud Lake) and Little Quill. Despite its name, at 181 km2 Little Quill is the second largest of the three lakes. Big Quill is the largest at 307 km2. The Quill Lakes’ elevation is 516 m.

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Fraser River Lowland

The Fraser River Lowland is a triangular area in southwestern British Columbia. The eastern apex of the triangle is at Hope, about 160 km inland from the Strait of Georgia. From here, the lowland broadens to the west to a width of about 50 km. The international boundary between British Columbia and Washington State crosses the southwestern part of the lowland. The Coast Mountains form the northern boundary of the delta-lowland. The Fraser River Lowland is the largest area of level land with suitable agricultural soils in coastal British Columbia.

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Trails and Greenways in Canada

Canada was founded along the many waterways utilized by Indigenous peoples, early explorers, fur traders and pioneers. As Canada became a more developed nation, the automobile and roads began to dominate the landscape. Trails were almost forgotten, except in parks and other protected areas. Today, however, Canadians are using trails in increasing numbers. Trails are either managed by organizations such as parks, municipalities and First Nations, or unmanaged. As of 2010, there were 278,576 km of managed trails in Canada. This distance is roughly the equivalent of traversing the country, from Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, to the Yukon-Alaska border, 50 times. The province with the largest managed trail network is Quebec. Just over 27 per cent of all managed Canadian trails (77,030 km) are found there.

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Ellesmere Island

Ellesmere Island, at 196,236 km2, is the third-largest island in Canada, the 10th-largest island in the world and the most northerly island in the Arctic Archipelago. It is located in Nunavut and is separated from Greenland by Kane Basin and Kennedy Channel, and from Devon Island to the south by Jones Sound. Cape Columbia (83°06´ 41" N lat) is Canada's most northerly point of land.

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Athabasca River

The Athabasca River is the longest river in Alberta (1,538 km). The first 168 km (located in Jasper National Park) are designated as a Canadian Heritage River. As a tributary to the Mackenzie River, water flowing on the Athabasca River eventually drains into the Arctic Ocean. River flow is highest during the summer and lowest during winter, and it is ice-covered from mid-November to mid-April.

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Bay d'Espoir

Bay d'Espoir is a fjord-like arm of Hermitage Bay on Newfoundland’s south coast. More than 50 km from mouth to head, Bay d'Espoir — French for “hope” — is ice-free, with sheer cliffs and steep-sided hills rising 180 to 300 m. The bay divides into two principal arms to the north and northeast of Bois Island. Because of the tremendous watershed from a surrounding glacial plateau, the area is the site of a hydroelectric generating plant. Opened in 1967, today the plant has a generating capacity of more than 600 MW.