ANTICOSTI, island province of Quebec, Canada, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 49° to 50° N., 61° 4o' to 64° 3o' W., length 135m., breadth 30m. Pop. 25o, chiefly lighthouse-keepers. The coast is dangerous, and the harbours, Ellis bay and Fox bay, are poor. Its main wealth consists of timber. Anticosti was sighted by Jacques Cartier in 1534, and named Assomption. In 1763 it was ceded by France to Britain, and in 1774 became part of Canada. Wild animals, especially bears, are numerous, but fish and game had been almost exterminated when, in 1896, Anticosti and the shore fisheries were leased to M. Menier, the French chocolate manufacturer, who converted the island into a game preserve. In 1926 the Anticosti Corporation of pulp and paper manufacturers bought the island from Senator Menier, who has retained his residence and sporting rights.
See Logan, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from its Commencement to 1863 (Montreal, 1863-65) ; E. Billings, Geo logical Survey of Canada: Catalogue of the Silurian Fossils of Anti costi (Montreal, i866) ; J. Schmitt, Anticosti (Paris, 1904).