EN :

Article 80 of the British North America Act expressly disallows any modification of the boundaries of twelve of the electoral districts of the province of Québec (all located in the Eastern Townships and along the north shore of the Ottawa River) without the majority consent of the deputies representing these districts. In 1867 the districts were predominantly English-speaking but most now contain a French-speaking majority. The author traces the history of application of Article 80 from 1867 to the present, and by citing numerous boundary changes that have occurred shows that the Article has been more honoured in the breach than the observance. The author concludes that the Article is obsolete and antidemocratic. He then outlines some of the procedural difficulties involved in a possible repeal of the Article.

EN :

Contrary to a popular belief, the forest is not always strictly a land habitat. The fact is well known for the Souther regions, from the Dismal Swamp of Georgia to tropical mangroves. In Northeastern America, in the temperate zone, semi-aquatic forests are also found, one type being the riparian forest of the fresh water shores of the upper St. Lawrence Valley. During the spring the surface is normally flooded, but in summer it free from water. These forests are summarily described in the accompanying paper, in relation to the normal high water level and to the river bed. In the past, these areas were hardly used, but they could support a profitable horticultural development, provided that a special technique is used, as in the case of the Dutch polder or the hortillonnageof the Amiens region.

EN :

The writer situates the Island of Orleans and briefly describes its physiography and history of settlement. The toponymy imposed during the early French regime (toponymie primitive)is described —with a few notable exceptions {Orléans, Argentenay, Beaulieu and Cap de Condé) these place names have almost entirely disappeared. Much of the present toponymy was established after 1666 and originates principally from Catholic parish names and from local usage. The major place names of the island were imposed by Church authorities but the minor toponyms were created by the local inhabitants. The island's toponymy is described as dynamic because many of the original place names have either been replaced or altered. The writer is of the opinion that toponymy should conform with reality ; consequently he deplores the fact that local usage is frequently ignored on contemporary maps of the Island of Orleans.

An index of place names of the Island of Orleans is appended to the text.

EN :

A considerable lack of agreement exists, particularly between French and English-speaking geomorphologists, on the precise use of many periglacial terms, and up to the presenty there bas been little correlation of the periglacial terminology of these two languages. Accordingly, the authors have prepared a bilingual glossary of 900 periglacial terms in an attempt to eliminate some of this confusion.

Many of the problems encountered in the preparation of this glossary result from different conceptions of the terms « periglacial » and « périglaciaire ». Periglacial studies are generally considered to involve analyses of permanently frozen ground, patterned ground and frost-shattering, whereas the term « périglaciaire »refers to the systematic study of all « cold »processes (except those associated with glacier ice) and their resultant phenomena. The term thus includes, amongst other things, gelifraction, gelifluction, geliturbation, fluvioperiglacial action, effect of sea, lake, river and ground ice, windwork in areas of cold climate, action of snow, and chemical erosion by meltwater.