Canada: THE DOMINION: Know Thyself

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Of Canada's 3,695,000 square miles, only 5% have ever been mapped in detail on an inch-per-mile scale. There are still enormous areas in the north and west where rivers, lakes and topographical contours are uncharted, or marked only by dotted lines—the cartographer's indication of uncertainty.

This week, in the interest of self-knowledge and with an approving nod from the Department of National Defense, Canada set out to look more closely at itself—particularly at the relatively unknown north. From Ottawa's Rockcliffe Airport, a Lancaster bomber, carrying cameras, thousands of feet of film and a crew of seven, took off for Churchill, in northern Manitoba. Other Royal Canadian Air Force detachments have been assigned to photograph Canada's uncharted wildernesses from the eastern slopes of the Rockies to the tundra wastes of the Northwest Territories.

By summer's end an estimated 700,000 square miles of Canada will have been photographed—the biggest picture job in the country's history.