Volume 6, numéro 11, 1961 Mélanges géographiques canadiens offerts à Raoul Blanchard

EN :

Human geography is torn between two tendencies : the ecological tendency examines man in interrelation with the natural environment, the chorological tendency places the accent on the changes which man bas produced in the landscape. Man, in this sense, is a genuine geographic factor. There are two extreme positions : one tends to point out the role of determinismof the natural environment, the other seeks « the key to geographical explanation » in the culture of man. By means of examples taken in part from his own research, the author, while according an essential place to culture in geographical interpretation, draws attention to the fact that culture itself is explained in large part by its genetic environment. For example, one could not imagine the peasant cultures of l'Asie verteand the ideal of nomad and urban life of l'Asie fauve —marked by the imprint of Islam —being interchanged, the one for the other.

The expansion of peoples of western civilization, first of all, and then the ubiquity of industrial civilization, appear to contradict an ecological conception of the relation between man and environment. But the industrial revolution it self was favored by a combination of conditions that man was able to exploit and that explains the rise of western and central Europe, just as the lack of the conditions explains the technological immobility of the Mediterranean.

Research into ecological correlations is not the essence of human geography. Human geography ought to remain « the description and interpretation »of the human elements of the landscape, of regions, and of continents. Its fundamental method remains observation. Spiritual factor s, biological factors, superior forms of economic life, and social structures are not of interest to human geography except in so far as they are evident in the physiognomy of areas. The interpretation, with delicate gradations as in all the social sciences, ought to be based simultaneously on the « influences of the environment »and on the resources of the culture of a given people. It thereby reflects both determinism and the freedom of choice in all human behaviour.

EN :

It is a well known fact that tourism is an important resource for the Province of Québec. This paper attempts to give a brief account of this geographical phenomenon as it occurs in Québec, with regards to the forms {touring, temporary out-of-town lodging, weekend commuting), attractions (physical, cultural), equipment (hotels, motels, country homes, cottages, parks, transport), and regional variations.

FR :

Depuis 1956, la Direction de la géographie du Ministère des mines et des relevés techniques a entrepris l’étude systématique de la formation de la glace dans le golfe Saint-Laurent. Cette étude a pour but notamment d'éclairer les conditions de la navigation dans cette région pendant l'hiver. L'auteur décrit les techniques utilisées pour cette étude, en particulier les relevés aériens, et les principaux résultats obtenus jusqu'ici. Il en profite pour signaler les publications déjà nombreuses auxquelles ont donné lieu ces recherches. L'article se termine par la définition d'une série de termes couramment utilisés maintenant dans l'étude de la glace.

EN :

The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the localities of the shrub form of Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicansvar. Rydbergii)in the Lake St. John area, and especially to comment upon its displacement from the St. Lawrence plain beyond the Laurentians. We agree with Gillis' use of a former latin binomial name for the plant, we also re-examine the known stations which are plotted on a figure at an appropriate scale this time, and rejecting the persistence of the plant as a relic of the Laflamme Sea period, or as a remnant of an old growth in limey soils, we finally postulate its recent introduction by men or birds.