Quebec

I

Introduction

Quebec, province in eastern Canada, bordered on the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay; on the east by Labrador (a part of Newfoundland and Labrador), the Strait of Belle Isle, and the Gulf of St Lawrence; on the south by New Brunswick, Ontario, and the American states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York; and on the west by Ontario, James Bay, and Hudson Bay. The Ottawa River forms part of the boundary with Ontario.

Quebec became part of the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, as one of the four original provinces. The great majority of Quebec's inhabitants today use French as their first language. The name of the province is derived from an Algonquian term for “place where the river narrows”, referring to the St Lawrence River near the site of the present-day city of Quebec, the provincial capital.

II

Land and Resources

Quebec is the largest of the Canadian provinces (as a political subdivision of Canada it is second in size only to the territory of Nunavut). Its vast area of 1,540,680 sq km (594,858 sq mi) accounts for 15.5 per cent of Canada's total area and includes 183,890 sq km (71,000 sq mi) of inland freshwater surface. The province, which includes a wide range of physical landscapes, vegetation zones, and climates, has a maximum northern to southern extent of about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) and a maximum eastern to western distance of about 1,610 km (1,000 mi). Elevations range from sea level to 1,622 m (5,322 ft), atop Mont D'Iberville in the Torngat Mountains in the north-east. Anticosti Island and the Magdalen Islands, all in the Gulf of St Lawrence, are part of Quebec, which has a tidal shoreline of some 13,775 km (8,560 mi).

A

Physical Geography

Quebec can be divided into three contrasting geographical regions. These are a vast section of the Canadian Shield, the Appalachian Region, and the St Lawrence Lowland. The Canadian Shield, which makes up about 90 per cent of Quebec, is mostly composed of ancient fractured rocks of granite and gneiss. The heavily dissected southern part forms a major subdivision called the Laurentian Mountains, which rises to 968 m (3,176 ft) atop Mont Tremblant. The sparsely inhabited Ungava Peninsula is part of the Canadian Shield; in the north it is treeless, but vegetation increases towards the south. Because of low temperatures, permafrost—permanently frozen ground—underlies the northern quarter of the shield area in Quebec.

The Appalachian Region, which is an extension of the Appalachian Mountains of the United States, is mostly made up of parallel ridges of folded and eroded sedimentary rocks. The Notre Dame Mountains form the chief mountain system of the region. Mount Jacques-Cartier (1,268 m/4,160 ft), on the Gaspé Peninsula, is the highest point in the Appalachian Region.

Between the Canadian Shield and the Appalachian Region and mostly straddling the St Lawrence River is the narrow St Lawrence Lowland. This is underlain by limestone and covered by marine clays and glacial sands. Around Montreal, the flat lowlands are interrupted by the Monteregian Hills, a series of isolated peaks, the highest being Brome Mountain (533 m/1,749 ft).

Quebec's network of rivers and lakes may be grouped into two major drainage systems, one trending east via the St Lawrence to the Atlantic Ocean and the other west, north, and east into James Bay, Hudson Bay, and Ungava Bay. Ranked among the world's great rivers, the St Lawrence has its source west of the Great Lakes and is 3,058 km (1,900 mi) long. The Canadian Shield region is drained west into Hudson and James bays; the region contains many lakes, the largest of which include Lake Mistassini, Gouin Reservoir, Lac à l'Eau Claire, Lake Bienville, and Lac Saint-Jean.

B

Climate

The climate of Quebec is characterized by striking regional variations, by long, cold winters and short, cool summers, and by ample year-round precipitation (about a third of which falls as snow). The northern Canadian Shield region has an arctic climate, and a more moderate humid continental climate dominates the Laurentian Highlands, the Appalachian Region, and the St Lawrence Lowland. Only the last-named area is warm enough for extensive agriculture. Kuujjuak, in the north, has a mean January temperature of about -23° C (-10° F) and a mean July temperature of about 11° C (52° F); Montreal, in the south, has an average January temperature of about -9° C (16° F) and an average July temperature of about 22° C (72° F). As a rule, annual precipitation in Quebec increases towards the south. Kuujjuak receives about 484 mm (19 in) per year, and Montreal about 1,000 mm (39 in).