The River St. Lawrence and estuary, up to Quebec City, sep arate the Laurentian Plateau from the Appalachian district, and from Quebec City to the Ontario boundary the river practically bisects the Lowlands. Anticosti, the Magdalen Islands, and Bird Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, all belong to the province of Quebec.
The chief tributaries of the St. Lawrence river on the north are the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, the Batiscan, the Jacques Cartier, the Montmorency, the Ste. Anne and the Saguenay, the Ottawa also receiving the waters of the Gatineau near Ottawa.
Water Power and Electrical Transmission.—The available water powers of the province of Quebec are the greatest in the Dominion, owing largely to the extensive lake and stream systems of the Laurentian Plateau, and the amount developed at the end of the year 1927 was a total turbine installation of 2,165,445 h•p• In 1912 the Provincial Government established the Quebec Streams commission to undertake a survey of the available pow ers; and, with the view of ensuring an equal flow of water during each year on principal rivers serving power stations and manu factures, the Government built four large storage dams. The Gouin or La Loutre dam on the headwaters of the river St. Maurice is the largest, and was completed in 1917 at a cost of $1,700,000. This dam floods an area of 30o square miles, has a capacity of 160,00o million cubic feet, and has raised the de pendable flow to 16,00o cubic feet per second. It serves to regulate the flow for the many industries at Grand'Mere, Shawinigan Falls and Three Rivers. The other dams are the Baskatong or Mercier (1927) on the Gatineau river, the Taschereau at Lake Kenogami near the river Saguenay, and the Allard on the St. Francis river, in the Eastern Townships. At Lake St. John the Duke-Price company has built a combined storage and power installation, producing 450,000 h.p., with an ultimate capacity of 540,00o h.p. The Saguenay river discharges from Lake St. John, and in the 35 miles from the lake to Chicoutimi, where deep-water naviga tion begins, there is a descent of over 300 feet. Other powers have been developed on this upper course of the river, together with the establishment of large pulp and paper mills ; and at Arvida, three miles above Chicoutimi, aluminium is being pro duced on a large scale, the bauxite mineral being imported by water from South America and elsewhere. The electrical trans
mission of power is carried on on an extensive scale throughout the province, providing electric lighting for many places and power for manufacturing. The aluminium wire for the high-power transmission lines was produced at a reduction plant at Shawini gan Falls. At the present time the production of abundant cheap power is regarded as the chief factor in the industrial development of the province of Quebec, while its transmission through wide areas has given an impetus to manufactures in many small centres.
General Manufacturing Industries.—The progress in man ufactures in the province of Quebec in the present century is indicated by the increase of capital invested in manufactures. In 1901 this capital amounted to $142,403,407 ; in 1926 it had in creased to $1,136,033,133. In 1901 the products of the manu factories amounted in value to the sum of $158,287,994; in 1926 to $820,563,757. Pulp and paper accounted in the latter year for $93,911,100; cotton and other textiles, $51,126,834; cigars and cigarettes, $39,406,058, and flour mills, $32,250,490. Montreal remains the chief centre of manufacturing industry, with a large variety of lines represented. A considerable amount of the capital invested in recent large industries, such as power plants, pulp and paper mills and celanese manufacture, has come from the United States. A celanese factory was established in 1927 at Drummondville on the St. Francis river, costing $7,000,000. The large aluminium works at Arvida were established by an Ameri can company. While cheap power and raw material have been large factors in this attraction of outside capital, the labour con ditions of the province have also been favourable, the French Canadian worker having special qualities of reliability, industry and competence. And with the higher wages now prevailing in the province, the exodus of the industrial workers has ceased.