AN'TICOS'TI (N. Amer. Ind. Naticotck). A barren island in the province of Quebec, Can ada, dividing the Gulf of St. Lawrence into two channels, and situated between lat. 49° and 50° N. and long. 61° 40' and 64° 30' IV., forty miles north of Cape Gaspe (Map: Can ada, S 7). It is 135 miles long, with a maximum width of 40 miles; has an area of 2500 square miles. It is almost destitute of harbors, the north shore Icing mountainous, and the south low and beset with shoals, while the neigh boring currents are capricious. Ellis Bay. to the west, and Fox Bay, in the northwest, are the only safe harbors. The climate is severe, while the surface is an alternation of rocks and swamps. The principal inhabitants are the keepers of the lighthouses situated at different parts of the coast. Pop., 250. Near the island there are considerable salmon, trout, cod, and herring fish eries. It is a favorite resort for seal and hear hunting, and in 1896 was acquired as a game preserve by M. Menier, a Parisian manufacturer.
The most extensive peat deposits in the Domin ion are found in Anticosti. Marl also exists in most of the small lakes and ponds along the coast. In 1873, divided into twenty counties by a land company, Anticosti was the scene of a disastrous colonization scheme. The colonists who were attracted by specious promises, had to be removed to the mainland, after suffering severe privations. The rocks of Anticosti are of great interest to the geologist, as they comprise a series of shale and limestone beds that consti tute an uninterrupted transition formation be tween the Ordovician and Silurian systems such as is known in few other localities. Consult: Logan, Geological Surrey of Canada, Re port of Progress from its Commencement to 1863, with atlas (Montreal, 1S63-65) ; Bib lings, "Catalogue of the Silurian Fossils of Anti costi." Geological Survey of Caninda (Montreal, 1866). See SILURIAN SYSTEM,