St Lawrence

The river above tide water is not subject to excessive flooding, the maximum rise in the spring and early summer months, chiefly from northern tributaries from the Ottawa eastward, being I o feet. The Great Lakes serve as impounding reservoirs for the gradual distribution of all overflows in the west. At Montreal, soon after the river freezes, there is a local rise of about z o ft. in the level in the harbour, caused by restriction of the channel by anchor ice; and in the spring when the volume is augmented, this obstruction leads to a further rise. To prevent flooding of the lower parts of the city a dike was built in 1887 along the river front, which prevented a serious flooding in 1899.

Tides enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the Atlantic chiefly through Cabot strait (between Cape Breton and Newfoundland), which is 75 m. wide and 25o fathoms deep. The tide entering through Belle Isle strait, io m. wide and 3o fathoms deep, is comparatively little felt. The greatest range is attained in North umberland strait and in Chaleur bay, where it amounts to io feet. At the entrance to the estuary at Anticosti it has again the oceanic range of about 6 ft., and proceeds up the estuary with an ever increasing range, which attains its maximum of 19 ft. at the lower end of Orleans island, 65o m. from the ocean at Cabot strait. At Quebec, 3o m. farther up, the range is nearly as great ; but at 4o m. above Quebec it is largely cut off by the Richelieu Rapids, and finally ceases to be felt at Three Rivers, at the lower end of Lake St. Peter, 76o m. from the ocean.

The St. Lawrence provides ample water-power, which is being increasingly used, and from Lake Superior to the gulf there are numerous points on its tributaries where power has been developed. Nearly all the rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence below Quebec are stocked with salmon. In the salt water of the gulf and lower river, mackerel, cod, herring, smelt, sea-trout, striped bass and other fish are caught for market.

The St. Lawrence is spanned by the following railway bridges: (I) A truss bridge near Cornwall. (2) A truss bridge with a swing at Coteau Landing. (3) A cantilever bridge at Caughna waga. (4) The Victoria Jubilee bridge, 6,592 ft. long by 67 ft. wide, with 25 spans, double railway and trolley tracks, driveways and sidewalks. (5) A cantilever bridge, having a central span of

1,800 ft., crosses the river at a point 7 m. above Quebec. The southern half of the superstructure, while in course of erection in August 1907, fell, killing 78 men, and necessitating a serious delay in the completion of the work.

Discovery of St. Lawrence.

The St. Lawrence was discov ered by Jacques Cartier, commissioned by the king of France to explore and trade on the American coast. Cartier entered the strait of Belle Isle in but Breton fishermen had previously resorted there in summer and penetrated as far as Brest, leagues west of Blanc Sablon, the dividing line between Quebec and Labrador. Cartier circled the gulf, but missed the entrance to the river. On his second voyage in 1536 he named a bay on the north shore of the gulf, which he entered on Aug. 1o, the feast of St. Lawrence, Baye Sainct Laurens, and the name gradually extended over the whole river, though Cartier himself always wrote of the River of Canada. Early in September, he reached "Canada," now Quebec, and on Oct. 2 reached Hochelaga, now Montreal. No permanent settlement was then made. The first, Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, was established by Champlain in 1603, and Quebec was settled by him in 1608. Be tween that time and 1616 Champlain explored the whole river system as far west as Lake Huron, reaching it by way of the Ottawa river, and taking possession of the country in the name of the king of France. It became British by the treaty of Paris, in 1763.

See S. E. Dawson, The St. Lawrence, its Basin and Border Lands (New York, 1905) (historical) ; St. Lawrence Pilot (7th ed., Hydro graphic Office, Admiralty, London, 1906) ; Sailing Directions for the St. Lawrence River to Montreal (United States Hydrographic Office publication, No. Io8 D, Washington, 19o7) ; Annual Reports of the Canadian Departments of Marine and Fisheries, Public Works, and Railways and Canals, Ottawa ; Transactions (Royal Society, Canada, 1898-99), vol. iv. sec. iii.; T. C. Keefer on "Ice Floods and Winter Navigation of the St. Lawrence," Transactions (Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, Presidential Address of W. P. Anderson, on improve ments to navigation on St. Lawrence, 1904)• (W. P. A.)