ABSTRACTMany accounts of nivation activity stress the role of snowpatches in supplying water to the area immediately downslope, thereby facilitating rillwash and solifluction. It is often assumed that melt of the snowpatch itself provides the main source of water. Runoff meansurements and dye-tracing observations carried out on perennial snowpatches in the Canadian Arctic indicate that the main source of runoff from snow-covered nivation features is active layer interflow, brought to the absence of a thawed zone beneath snowpatches, and that melt of the snowpatch itself is relatively unimportant in generating runoff.