THE JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY A MAGAZINE FOR TEACHERS VOLUME XX 1921 PUBLISHED BY A. J. NYSTROM AND COMPANY 2249 CALUMET AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS The Journal of Geography is published monthly except June, July, and August. The subscription price is $2.00 a year, payable in advance; the price of single copies is 25 cents. Orders for less than a half year will be charged at single-copy rate. Postage is prepaid by the publishers on all orders from the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Panama Canal Zone, Republic of Panama, Hawaiian Islands, Philippine Islands, Guam, Samoan Islands, Shanghai. Postage is charged extra as follows: For Canada, 30 cents on annual subscriptions (total $2.30), on single copies 3 cents (total 28 cents); for all other countries in the Postal Union, 52 cents on annual subscriptions (total $2.52), on single copies 6 cents (total 31 cents). 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NYSTROM AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS Entered as second-class matter January 15, 1919, at the postoffice at Menasha, Wisconsin, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 268896 VOLUME XX JANUARY, 1921 NUMBER 1 THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNICATION IN THE LOWER ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY RODERICK PEATTIE Department of Geology, Ohio State University, Columbus The individuality of people depends in no small degree upon the ease with which they can pass to and from their province to the world at large. Also, upon the ease or difficulty of communication between different portions of a single province, depends, to a great extent, the development of local characteristics, the preservation of ancestral traits, and the degree of economic independence. Modern transportation is responsible for much of the loss of character of the Lower St. Lawrence communities, as it is in all other parts of the world. In the 18th century Dr. Johnson was deploring the fact that "commerce has left the people no singularities." It was not until the last decade in the 19th century that commerce so perfected transportation that the communities of the North Shore were opened to cultural contacts and, indeed, many of the settlements are scarcely touched yet. To us, in the modern world of commerce, individuality results from a personal choice of environment. Life is no longer local or accidental, but a matter of choice. With the French Canadian the environment settled down upon his life much as the snow enshrouds the countryside. This was in a large measure a matter of the difficulty of communication. Without going into a retrospect of history, we may venture to comment upon the obstacles to an interchange of commerce and ideas which exist at the present time. THE WATER COMMUNICATION The water communication of the Lower St. Lawrence is essentially that of an inland sea. The two shores know less of each other than they do of Quebec. There are some portions of Quebec Labrador that are exceptions to this. They are so far from Quebec as to have considerable communication with the South Shore, whence they derive their products of civilization. During the summer months periodically, large freight and trading steamers make the longer journey to and from Quebec. Strangely enough, altho the Lower St. Lawrence is FIGURE I. Map of the Lower St. Lawrence Valley. Reproduced by permission from the Geog. Rev., Feb., 1920. one of the world's great commercial highways, the region has poor or imperfect coast-wise communication. The principal factor in this is the climate. Quebec is a closed port for almost five months of the year, and a dangerous one for one month more. Altho at Father Point the river never freezes over, there is a great deal of ice-float except when the ice bridge forms at Quebec.1 Of the ocean steamers bound for Quebec, "the first vessel usually arrives at Father Point from the sea in the last fortnight in April, and the last one leaves the last few days in November." The small craft do not attempt to break anything but the lightest ice, and even then are always running a risk. The modern ice breakers, perfected since the commencement of the war, will probably have little effect upon the smaller ports that lie far out of the steamer channel. Thirty miles below Quebec the water is too salty to freeze over solidly, and the winds have sufficient play to hinder freezing. But floating ice is in great amount. There is always a channel along one shore or the other, for even a slight breeze is sufficient to blow the ice from the land. But navigation is not a simple matter. Coupled with this is the severity of the weather, which makes the traveling anything but pleasant. In out of the way parts of the world where travel is most difficult, if but one thing is to get thru the weather barrage it is the mail. And yet I saw in Les Escoumains a notice that there would be but six mails that winter for parts of Quebec Labrador, and that those would be of uncertain date. The matter speaks for itself. But none of this has to do with the delightful summer months. One sees from the little town along the low hills of the South Shore, or from the piedmont hamlet on the north a continual procession of ocean liners, far out in the channel, passing back and forth between Quebec and the world. Occasionally a huge sailing vessel slowly passes, reflecting the sunlight from her sails. Small barges and freighters steam busily out to the Labradorian Coast, or turn south to the Maritime Provinces and the States. One of the larger freighters may betray its destination by turning aside from the procession to head in toward the smoke of a mill waste-pile. A few fine passenger steamers ' The following clipping from Le Progrès du Saguenay' is taken as typical. Chicoutimi, April 24, 1919 La Navigation Le fleuve Saint-Laurent est maintenant ouvert entre Quebec et Montréal. A Quebec, on a placé les pontons et les caboteurs ont repris leur service. Le Saguenay est maintenant navigable partout à la chaloupe et nous espérons que les gros navires y apparaitront bientôt. 2 This and other details of the harbors on both shores, tho they may have been observed personally, are in a great part on the authority of "The St. Lawrence Pilot." |