Volume 11, numéro 23, 1967

FR :

Dès l'aube de la colonie, le Saint-Laurent a été la voie de l'humanisation des paysages québécois, l'axe privilégié de peuplement de l'Est canadien, le facteur dominant de ses pulsations économiques et politiques. L'auteur, limitant son propos à la période antérieure au régime confédéral (1867), s'interroge sur les facteurs qui ont fait du Saint-Laurent le pôle géographique du Canada français et sur les

« définitions » successives du fleuve, de 1608 à 1867.

De 1608 à 1665, le fleuve fut une voie de commerce international des fourrures, de conquête des terres du ponant totalement « extroverti », il était au service des vieux pays, plus que du Canada. A partir de 1665, les efforts de peuplement agricole de Jean Talon lui donnent une importance de premier plan dans la vie de relations à l’intérieur de la Nouvelle-France, dont il est l'unique route ; il commence alors à devenir mer intérieure. // le restera pour la majeure partie des Canadiens français, jusqu'aux années 1830-1840, tout au long de leur phase de repliement rural, en dépit des activités de commerce international qu'animaient depuis 1765 des entrepreneurs anglophones employant une main d'oeuvre canadienne. Mais la notion de Saint-Laurent - mer intérieure s'affirmera presque sans partage, chez les Canadiens français, à partir de 1840. Le commerce du bois, celui des grains, les constructions navales sont entre les mains des Britanniques ; les habitants renforcent le caractère autarcique de leur agriculture et de leur genre de vie; leurs relations avec la France sont à peu près nulles depuis le tournant du siècle. Le concept dominant de Saint-Laurent - mer intérieure qui a prévalu alors n'a pas été sans danger pour la nation canadienne-française et pour son insertion dans le monde industriel qui s'épanouissait de part et d'autre de l'Atlantique.

EN :

In most instances, biogeographical monographs deal only with a fragmentary aspect of the subject-matter. In spite of their titles, some of these monographs are nothing but phytogeographical essays, and even then, these deal with a limited range of phanerogams only and leave aside the cryptogams. This is so because the authors, when they are not also systematically oriented, neglect a large segment of the flora and fauna. Research conditions also require sometimes specialization around one particular point. A biogeographical study which would claim to be comprehensive must include not only the vegetation cover, the fauna, and man in his many-sided activities, but also a description of the whole living world since the very beginnings of the organization of the Biosphere.

Taking the Saint-Lawrence River, this essay depicts some examples of features which are all-important in an unabridged biogeography. Thus, the study deals successively with the pageant of life on the River since the Precambrian era ; a brief look at the discordant levels of the Laurentian flora : the upper part of the thalweg, the banks, the shores, and the waters, since each of these elements follow a different evolution in their rhythm; the calendar of the seasons and the irregularities which upset the climatic cycle. Finally, man enters the scène with all the elements which tie him to the River: patterns of settlement, toponymy, house construction styles, clothing, transportation, gathering, hunting, forestry and agriculture, gastronomy, medicine, and, finally, the role of the River in recreational activities and in literary works.

Since the author bas devoted nearly half a century to the study of the River, this essay sometimes includes autobiographical elements.

EN :

This paper is based upon the premise that in order to justify the considerable capital investment required in such projects, the construction of a deep-draught waterway must serve the long-term economic and political interests of the regions and nations concerned. The question then arises as to what role should such a waterway play so that those interests might be furthered. In trying to answer this question, the author suggests three hypotheses, namely that, 1. The new waterway must provide cheap transport for heavy goods of low per-unit value which can only be carried in bulk, 2. It must create or intensify exchange between two or more economic regions on the same continent, and further the international trade of those regions, and 3. It must encourage the development of under-undustrialized regions and the utilization of hitherto inaccessible natural resources.

By comparing the infrastructure and the traffic of two such waterways,, one in Western Europe, the canalized Moselle river, the other one in North America, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the author attempts to verify these hypotheses empirically and finds that all three are valid in both situations. It was found that in both cases the chief result of the new waterways has been the increased competitiveness of the regions which they serve vis-à-vis more powerful neighbors in the competition for world markets.

EN :

From the beginning of the 19 ^th century, the growth of the city of Cornwall bas taken place by spurts, which were connected either with periods of industrialization (1870-1890 and 1920-1930) or, more often, with the construction of canals along the St. Lawrence (1834-1848 and 1876-1908). Canalization work on the river, from 1954 to 1959, brought about to the city a new cyclical spurt, which was reflected in considerable prosperity and speculation during the period of construction, followed by a very distinct depression after 1959, which was made worse by the sudden shutdown of one of the major local plants. However, since 1962, the economic situation has been improving thanks to a new wave of industrialization.

The consequence of canalization are no less significant from the standpoint of the organization of urban space. Before the work was carried out, Cornwall’s land use map was already very anarchical. The relocation of transport routes, which was made necessary by the creation of Lake St. Lawrence, has considerably aggravated compartmentalization of the urban space. On the other hand, by contributing to the city's administrative consolidation and to the establishment of its Master Plan, improvement of the river has opened new and more realistic prospects for the city's future growth.

EN :

With almost 100 million tons of cargo yearly, of which more than 80 millions pass through Québec ports, the St. Lawrence is an important artery of transport. The fluvial communications System, comprising gulf, estuary, river, and the Great Lakes, extends deep into the north American continent; Duluth, for example, is 2,200 miles from the sea. Although the Seaway has opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going ships, the general increase in tonnage and draught of these vessels has allowed Québec ports, located at the break point between maritimes and Great Lakes traffic, to maintain their privileged position. Nevertheless, transhipment cargoes here are not particularly impressive (about 30 million tons yearly, mainly cereals) if one considers the enormous industrial capacity of the basin; this is because the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence network is in many ways an autonomous unit, essentially continental, and supplied from the interior rather than from the exterior, as is the case of the Rhine basin, for example. In Québec, cargoes originating from « secondary » industries scattered along the river and its tributaries (for example, the Saguenay) are relatively unimportant in terms of tonnage ... only 22 million tons of cargo from these industrial zones pass through Québec ports. Only 3.9% ₀of the 6,539 factories located in cities touching on water, and only 13% of the total industrial payroll in these cities, are directly related to the St. Lawrence. This « underuse »of the river can be explained by Québec s industrial structure, geared to the production of consumer goods for local markets ; in contrast, Ontario has much heavy industry tied directly to the St. Lawrence network.

FR :

La rive la plus élevée de la mer Champlain, qui a envahi les Basses-Terres du Saint-Laurent après la dernière glaciation, a été identifiée à une altitude de 750 pieds au nord de Montréal, et de 525 pieds au sud. Une rive plus récente parcourt toute la région à une altitude uniforme de 100 pieds. Les rivages intermédiaires résultent de pulsations variables de la mer, mais leur répartition et leur nature même rendent difficile la corrélation du niveau des eaux par des méthodes statistiques. Cependant, la preuve est maintenant établie qu'il est possible de localiser les niveaux intermédiaires par l'analyse du pollen. L'accumulation de sédiments renfermant du pollen est plus ancienne dans les secteurs les plus élevés, évacués les premiers par les eaux, et les échantillons positifs tirés de tourbières choisies permettent d'établir les différentes altitudes des surfaces séparant ces tourbières qui se sont développées dans les zones anciennes et plus récentes recelant du pollen. La surface séparant les tourbières datant de la zone IV de pollen (récente) de celle de la zone V (plus ancienne) a été remaniée et se situe à 230 pieds d'altitude au nord de Montréal et à 170 pieds au sud. La déclivité nord-sud de cette surface est de 1.25 pied au mille, ce qui correspond à une rive bien déterminée à une altitude équivalente. Dans la basse vallée de l'Outaouais. Une preuve plus poussée de la validité de la méthode est fournie par la nature horizontale de la surface séparant les tourbières datant des zones de pollen n° III et IV, à la même altitude que la ligne de rivage de 100 pieds. Un rivage inférieur, par exemple à une altitude de 50 pieds, ne peut être daté selon cette méthode.

Les noms de Rigaud, Montréal et Saint-Barthélémi, sont proposés pour nommer les rives s'élevant respectivement à 200, 150 et 50 pieds d'altitude. Au stade « Rigaud », les eaux envahissaient les vallées de l'Outaouais, du Saint-Laurent et du Richelieu. Au stade « Montréal », le lac Saint-François, section du Saint-Laurent, a été séparé du corps principal de la mer de Champlain, tandis que le lac Champlain, le lac des Deux-Montagnes et le lac Saint-Louis se sont successivement séparés durant le stade transitoire « Montréal - Saint-Barthélémi ».

EN :

Corrosion features were observed on the South Shore of the Maritime St. Lawrence Estuary, in conglomerate, limestone, sandstone, shale and cristalline boulders, and are here described for the first time.

An attempt to classify these minor features characteristic of rocky shores is made and an extensive bibliography is given.

An effort should be made to get more information on the geographical distribution of coastal corrosion forms on non calcareous rocks in cold regions.