Browse "Geographical features"

A lifeline of trade and commerce into the heart of North America, the first Welland Canal opened in 1829, an achievement attributed primarily to a St Catharines businessman, William Hamilton MERRITT.

White Pass, elevation 888 m, sits on the Alaska-BC boundary, approximately 125 km south of Whitehorse, YT. In 1887 the federal government sent William OGILVIE to survey the 141st meridian national boundary where it crosses the Yukon River; members of his party found the pass.

Williston Lake, 1761 km2, is the largest freshwater body in BC. Created in 1968 as the reservoir of the W.A.C.

Winisk River, 475 km long, rises in Wunnummin Lake in the Kenora District of northern Ontario.

Winnipeg River, 813 km long (to head of Firesteel River), issues from the north end of Lake of the Woods and flows northwest to Lake Winnipeg.

Wollaston Lake, 2681 km2, elev 398 m, lies in the wooded Shield country of NE Saskatchewan.

Wood Mountain, elev 1000 m, is located about 135 km southwest of Moose Jaw, Sask, near the Forty-Ninth Parallel.

Wrangel Island lies in the Arctic Ocean 200 km N of the coast of eastern Siberia. Discovered in 1849, it was named in 1867 after Baron Wrangel, the Russian governor of Alaska. Though uninhabited, it served for 6 months in 1914

Yellowhead Pass, elev 1133 m, crosses the continental divide between Alberta and BC, 25 km W of JASPER. The Miette R flows E from the pass to meet the Athabasca R at Jasper. Yellowhead Lk, on the W side, empties into the Fraser River.

At 3,185 km (1,149 km of which lie in Canada), the Yukon River is the fifth-longest river in North America.