National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research; Technical Report No. 5. February, 1950, 69 pages, illustrations, diagrams, 3 appendixes.
In 1948, by arrangement with the Swiss authorities, Dr. M. R. de Quervain went to North America as a guest member of the staff of the National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research. The main purpose of the visit was to examine the problems of snow and ice in relation to the Canadian economy. The report on his findings, submitted by Dr. de Quervain and published by the National Research Council, is a notable contribution to the advancement of snow and ice study in Canada and the U.S.A.
In a preface, Mr. R. F. Legget, Director of the Building Research Division, states that “possibly the most important result of Dr. de Quervain’s visit was the demonstration that the basic problems of the two countries (Switzerland and Canada) are fundamentally identical.” The difference, emphasized by the report, is the varying importance attached to those problems. Dr. de Quervain points out that “in Switzerland, avalanches are problem number one whereas ice jams on rivers are quite subordinate.” In Canada the reverse is the case.
To quote from the report, glaciers are “the least important from the practical standpoint. Their hydrological influence is rather local with regard to the vast dimensions of the country.” The rate of recession in Canadian glaciers kept under observation averages 50 to 100 feet a year and “the shrinkage has been speeded up in the years immediately passed.”
Based on his findings, Dr. de Quervain has made specific recommendations to the National Research Council. One suggestion in the report itself is “the idea of an ice-testing bomb for aircraft.”
In an appendix, D. C. Pearce summarizes his journey with Dr. de Quervain to visit snow and ice institutions in Canada and the U.S.A. Including an ice reconnaissance flight, “which revealed most strikingly the extent of the ice cover on Hudson Bay,” the party covered approximately 15,000 miles in two and a half months.
