The New Student's Reference Work/Quebec, Can.

Quebec', Can. This, the oldest province of the Dominion, entered the federation in 1867. It has Hudson St. and Bay on the north; the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the east; New Brunswick, the United States and Ontario on the south; Ontario on the west.^[*] Quebec has an area of 706,000 square miles; double that of France and Prussia combined, and very nearly six times as large as that of the British Isles. Population 2,002,712 in 1911, nearly all Canadian in origin. The number of French is nearly five times as great as that of the British. The Roman church led numerically (1,429,260), then the Church of England (81,563), then the Presbyterian (58,013) and lastly the Methodist (42,014). Of the 150,600 occupiers of farm lands 135,625 are owners.

Climate

The climate is much like that of the other parts of eastern Canada, excepting, perhaps, that the winter is slightly colder; but the air is generally dry and bracing, the cold is not felt to be unpleasant, and the climate is exceedingly healthy.

Drainage

The St. Lawrence divides the province, and, below Quebec, begins to branch out to a noble estuary, when it reaches the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The latter forms the southern exit to the Atlantic (between Newfoundland and Cape Breton), while beyond the large island of Anticosti, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the Straits of Belle Isle form the northeastern exit. The St. Lawrence is navigable for ocean-steamships as far up as Montreal, and this brings Montreal 300 miles nearer to Liverpool than is New York. Ottawa River (q. v.), 780 miles in length, drains 80,000 square miles. The St. Maurice is navigable for 40 miles, and the Richelieu is provided with a canal to permit boats to pass from the St. Lawrence at Sorel to Lake Champlain and so to the Hudson. The Saguenay is world-famed as a picturesque river. Large vessels travel it for 60 miles, and its banks are precipitous and imposing. The Chicoutimi trip up the Saguenay is a favorite one for tourists.

Quebec has a number of beautiful lakes, notably St. John, Brome Lake and Lake Memphremagog, part of the last being in Vermont. Lakes St. Louis and St. Peter are expansions of the St. Lawrence.

Resources

The province has many thousands of miles of forestland, so that the lumber industry is very important. The production of woodpulp is one of the main industries. Much of it is exported to the United States. Quebec has shown wise foresight, in making extensive forest reserves. The soil is rich and loamy. Cereals, hay and root-crops grow everywhere in abundance. Indian corn, hemp, flax and tobacco are also raised in many parts of the province. Fruit is grown in quantities, especially apples and plums, which are exported largely. Small fruits, grapes and tomatoes are abundant. Cattlebreeding is carried on largely, and many thousands of animals are exported to Great Britain yearly, the region east and north of the St. Lawrence being especially excellent for pasturage. The fisheries in the St. Lawrence River and Gulf are very productive, and all the smaller rivers teem with fish. The province is rich in minerals. Iron is very generally distributed; lime-phosphates and minerals — lead, silver, platinum, zinc, copper and alluvial gold — are found in various places, and Quebec supplies two thirds of the world's production of asbestos. Agriculture and dairy-farming form the chief occupations, but manufactures, fisheries, commerce, lumbering, mining and shipbuilding employ a considerable part of the inhabitants.

Transportation

The valley of the St. Lawrence and that of the Ottawa are fertile and well-settled. Railways run down both banks of the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Quebec and from Montreal west to Ontario and south to the United States. Ottawa is connected by three lines with Montreal. River navigation on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa is excellent. North of the St. Lawrence the settlement is not broad, for the Laurentian Mountains erect a barrier. The southern section of the entire province from the river to the United States boundary and east to Rimouski is thickly settled and dotted with thriving towns. Across the west of this southern section run railways from Montreal through New York, Vermont and New Hampshire to New York City, Boston and Portland.

Education

The public schools are under the control of two school-boards — one Catholic and the other Protestant — each of which enjoys absolute control of its own schools. The school-rates are levied separately, and the utmost freedom is enjoyed in religious exercises and the choice of books. The Roman Catholic population of the province is 80 per cent. of the whole. The French as compared with the English population of Montreal is as three to two. A magnificent agricultural college and experimental farm has been established at St. Anne's near Montreal, due to the generosity of Sir Wm. Macdonald of Montreal. It is doing great good in advancing the agricultural interests of the province. Two large and important universities, McGill and Laval, are doing excellent educational work in Montreal, and Laval, fortunate in having had Monsignor Mathieu as rector, is carrying on similar work in the City of Quebec. The attendance at McGill averages 1,300 students. Its faculties of medicine and applied science are especially strong. See Laval University, McGill University, Mathieu, Olivier Elzear and Peterson, William.

History

Old Canada was the St. Lawrence valley, and the first settlements naturally were near the mouth of the river. Much of the romance of early Canadian history centers in Quebec. Here the first French explorers came and forced their way up the mighty river, which would, they hoped, prove a shorter route to the Indies. At Quebec and at Montreal they built their stockades and planted their settlements, and from these points went all those daring expeditions of traders and missionaries up the Ottawa, to Georgian Bay, to the headwaters of the Mississippi and elsewhere into the unexplored land of the forest, the furbearing animal and the Indian.

The province is governed by a lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the governor-general, a legislative council, consisting of 24 members appointed for life, and a legislative assembly of 82 members, elected every five years. The seat of the local government is Quebec. The province is represented in the Dominion senate at Ottawa by 24 members and in the house of commons by 65 members. The principal city is Montreal, the commercial metropolis of the Dominion. Quebec, the next city in importance, is the seat of local government and the most historic city in Canada. See Quebec, Past and Present, by Sir J. M. Lemoine; Picturesque Quebec: Sketch of the Province, by Honoré Mercier; and Cassell's Picturesque Canada, edited by Principal Grant.

Notes

↑ Newfoundland now governs the coast of Labrador, which partly cuts off Quebec from the Atlantic.