A.P. Low (1861-1942)

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Stewart, Hugh
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1986
• Subjects: Biographies; Expeditions; Explorers; Geological exploration; Geological Survey of Canada; History; Iron; Low; Albert Peter; 1861-1942; Mapping; Ore deposits; Sovereignty; Travels; Hudson Bay; Hudson Bay region; James Bay region; Labrador; Schefferville region; Québec; Ungava; Baie d'; region; Rupert; Rivière de; Arctic; Canada; Eastmain; Hudson; Indian; Pivot; Selwyn; Tyrrell; Arctic Archipelago; Ice Sheet; Labrador region; James Bay
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65140

A.P. Low's written reports of 23 seasons in northern Canada constitute one of the most significant substantiated achievements in Canadian exploration. . Albert Peter Low was born in Montreal in 1861 into a loyalist family that had left the United States in 1783. Immediately after graduating in applied science from McGill University in 1882, Low began his association with the Geological Survey of Canada. The last two decades of the 19th century were an exciting and heady time for the G.S.C. Although Canada's political boundaries were known, detailed knowledge of the actual topography, geological and forest resources, flora and fauna was, in many areas, nonexistent. It fell to Selwyn, Dawson, McConnell, McGinnis, Tyrrell, Bell, Low, and others of the Geological Survey to fill in much of the map of Canada. On his first trip into the Quebec-Labrador region in 1884-1885, at the age of 24, Low became a central figure in "the Lake Mistassini incident." The expedition, a joint effort of the G.S.C., the Quebec government, and the Quebec Geographic Society, was led by John Bignell, a veteran surveyor aged 67. Travelling northward from St. Lawrence, the party eventually set up a winter base at the Hudson's Bay Company post on Lake Mistassini after several days of extremely cold travel on minimal rations. Disagreement with Bignell had apparently been festering for some time, and Low took action toward a resolution. He left Mistassini on February 2, travelling by snowshoe and dog team to Quebec City and thence by train westward, arriving in Ottawa on March 2. Here he was given command of the expedition, and by April 29 he was back at Mistassini - a phenomenal feat illustrating the initiative and physical strength that was to sustain Low through many more seasons on the trail. In spring, Low finished the work on Lake Mistassini, determining it to be about 160 km long and 24 km wide, not the immense interior sea that Indian tales had suggested. The party left the region via the Rupert River in the fall of 1885. The next few seasons Low continued work in the Hudson Bay, then known as Eastmain. . The travels of the succeeding four years were chronicled in Low's "Report on Exploration in the Labrador Peninsula along the Eastmain, Koksoak, Hamilton, Manicuagan and portions of other Rivers in 1892-93-94-95." . the 1893-1894 trip, during which the party wintered over at Northwest River, Low covered over 8700 km - 4730 by canoe, 1600 by ship, 800 by dog team, and 1600 on foot. Not only were the technical aspects of the main travel routes detailed, but his report included extensive historical, geological, botanical, meteorological, entomological, ornithological and ethnographic information that to this day constitute a standard reference on the region. . Low was the first to identify the extensive iron deposits around Schefferville and Labrador City. He was also the first man to realize that the centre of the Labrador Plateau had been the pivot for a continental ice sheet and was, in fact, part of the Pre-Cambrian Shield. . After a brief period in private business, Low assumed command of the Neptune for its 1903-1904 voyage to the eastern Arctic, which resulted in Canada officially claiming the Arctic Archipelago. In 1906, at the age of 45, Low retired from active field work to become the director of the Geological Survey. Although his tenure was only 18 months, he oversaw the transfer of the G.S.C. from the Interior Department to the new Mines Department. In 1907 Low became the first deputy Minister of the Department of Mines, but within a few months he was stricken by what is thought to have been a cerebral hemorrhage and, soon after that, by spinal meningitis. . Amazingly, the strength and endurance of his youth did not totally fail Low, for he lived out a long, apparently quiet, retirement in Ottawa, ultimately dying in virtual obscurity in 1942 at the age of 81.