Snow pack samples representing snow accumulation for the winters of 1985/86 and 1986/87 were collected at 12 and 15 sites respectively, throughout the Northwest Territories, Canada, during the spring of 1986 and 1987 (from 62°N to 85°N and from 73°W to 130°W). Samples from the annual snow layers were also taken on the Agassiz Ice Cap on north central Ellesmere Island for 17 years. All samples were collected as large volume snow samples and were sealed into Teflon bags. The snow was melted at room temperature and extracted in field laboratories for analyses of organochlorine pesticides (OCs), Ttl. PCB, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and chlorobenzenes (CBZs). Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) usually made up more than 75 % of the total OCs measured. The highest concentration of HCHs was 53.2 ng L^-1. These were followed in abundance by a-endosulfan, dieldrin, chlordane and heptachlor epoxide at concentrations less than 1.0 ng L^-1. PCB concentrations ranged from 0.02 to 1.76 ng L^-1 with most of the samples having concentrations less than 1.0 ng L^-1. DDT was also detected but at low concentrations. CBZs were present at most sites at concentrations between 0.2 and 0.5 ng L^-1 while PAHs were highly variable. Annual fluxes for the pesticides and Ttl. PCB were calculated and these are only slightly less at these Arctic stations than the measured precipitation fluxes at sampling sites across southern Canada. The Agassiz Ice Cap data suggest that the trace organic substance residues in the glacier have decreased since 1970/71; however this is complicated due to the fact that only a small portion of, for example, HCHs are retained in the firn. Volatilizatin from the snow pack during the Arctic summer is hypothesized. Source areas for the dominant pesticides at least, are thought to be Eurasian as oppossed to North American.