ok For The General Reader ; GIFT MAR 1 1929 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC: Geographical and Social Studies BY J. C. SUTHERLAND, B. A. Inspector General of the Protestant Schools of the Province. MONTREAL RENOUF PUBLISHING COMPANY 25 McGill College Avenue T, a <~, ... .- o c 7 s> * e S" 3 Pi 1 5^ I if I w &' p< i. ?> THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Geographical and Social Studies BY J. C. SUTHERLAND, B. A. Inspector General of the Protestant Schools of the Province. MONTREAL RENOUF PUBLISHING COMPANY 25 McGill College Avenue PlOSIL Copyright, Canada, 1922, by John Campbell Sutherland. CONTENTS Chapter Page Illustrations iv Introduction v I Above Sea Level 1 II Plateau, Plain and Mountains 5 a. Laurentian Plateau, b. Lowland Plain, c. Appalachian District. III The Story of the Rocks 19 IV The Great Ice Age 45 V The Great River 61 VI Economic Geography of the Province .... 07 VII Civil Government DO VIII Educational System . 106 IX Geography and Human Culture 136 Appendix lit Glossary 152 709773 ILLUSTRATIONS On The Lievre River Frontispiece Page An Asbestos Quarry at Thetford Mines facing 15 Fossils from Anticosti " 29 Montmorency Falls " 37 Clay Terrace at New Richmond " 59 Ascot Brick Works . " 8i PROVINCE OF QUEBEC GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES INTRODUCTION \ THOUGH written chiefly for the general reader, this book can fairly claim to be a pioneering work in one essential way, because it is the first which has made any connected attempt to describe a Canadian province in ac- cordance with the scientific principles of modern regional geography. During the last thirty years geographical literature has been developing along new lines of scientific, historical, and human interest. The development, however, has been much more marked in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe than on this side of the Atlantic. So far as Great Britain is concerned credit for the advanced work now being produced in Modern Geography is undoubtedly due in the first instance to the Royal Geographical Society. In the 'seventies of the last century that Society made strong representations to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge on behalf of the recognition of Geography in the uni- versity courses. General geographical know- ledge was then being added to at a rapid rate by many explorers on land and sea of scientific training and equipment, and the science of Geography itself had been virtually transformed by the discovery of the principles governing the Vi INTRODUCTION geographical distribution of plant and animal life. Darwin and Wallace had raised biology out of its indeterminate groping among a mass of facts into a determinating connection between causes and effects. But the official university view at that time was still confined to the lower plane. Geo- graphy was regarded as no more than a primary school subject. The Royal Geographical Society, however, continued its efforts to raise the point of view; and by the 'nineties a remarkable change of mind had been brought about. Geo- graphy is now not only recognized at Oxford and Cambridge but at all the other leading universities of the Mother Country. The effect is seen not only in geographical literature at large but also in the school texts of Great Britain. Conscious as he is of its shortcomings the author trusts that this first attempt to modernise the geography of a Canadian province may draw attention to this important matter in the intel- lectual development of the Dominion. It is altogether probable, however, that we shall not have a distinctively Canadian geographical lit- erature of the modern type until such time as we have deliberately followed the example of the Mother Country in having the subject adequately recognised in our Canadian uni- versities. The Annual Reports of the Dominion Geo- logical Survey, the Transactions of the Royal INTRODUCTION Society of Canada, and other sources contain abundant material for literary and pedagogical treatment. Scientific research work is still needed to correlate all the elements of the physiography, geology and general geography of Canada in the most suitable and instructive form for educational purposes. When our uni- versities have taken up the subject in the large way that its importance demands an immense service will be rendered to geographical teach- ing in the schools of Canada. The National Council of Education, formed at Winnipeg in 1919, provided for a survey of the class text books in geography now used in Canadian schools. The survey was made by McGill University, but the report will not be issued until it has been dealt with by the Na- tional Council. From every province there has been a strong demand for more modern text books than those we now possess. The fact is that our school geographies, though mostly produced now in Canada, still retain much of the traditional character that was impressed upon them in the days when we were largely dependent upon the states of New York and Massachusetts for school books of all kinds. A century ago, when English education in Canada was unorganised, and the official authorisation of text books unknown, such dependence could not be avoided. It is true, of course, that here and there energy could and did overcome this dependence in some lines. Thus when a hymn Viii INTRODUCTION book was needed in Nova Scotia, a young printer who was in business with his father went down to Boston to learn how to set music type, returned and issued the hymn book. The young man's name was William Dawson; in 1855 he became Principal of McGill University. It may be stated here that our educational imports from across the border at that period included readers and histories which were far from being calculated to foster British sentiment in the young colony; rather in- deed the reverse. In some parts of Canada these books lingered on until several years after Confederation, although as early as 1846 Dr. Ryerson had caused the Irish National School Readers to be imported to Upper Canada with the view of having books of a British tone. In geographies we remained dependent much longer still upon the United States, chiefly because it was only on this side of the water that books giving adequate attention to the geo- graphy of North America were produced, and because the small Canadian market for a long time did not encourage Canadian publishers to undertake the heavy initial expenses of map- making and map-printing. Naturally the books so long supplied from the United States gave more information about that country than about Canada or the British Empire. No doubt they were a contributing factor to the "exodus" of Canadian youth to the United States during a number of years. INTRODUCTION When at last Canadian publishers began to issue Canadian geographies the handicap of the small market made it necessary to keep a given book in circulation as long as possible. Thor- oughly revised editions were out of the question. A striking example of this fact was the publica- tion of a "revised" Canadian text book in 1915, containing what purported to be a picture of the Victoria Jubilee Bridge at Montreal, but what really was a picture of it in its tubular days ! Of still more consequence is the fact that in text books and teaching methods we have too closely followed a form of presentation set for us by our neighbours in the days when the subject of Geography was made far less interesting than now; this, too, in spite of the fact that our neighbours, thanks to the splendid work of such institutions as their National Geographic Society (founded at Washington in 1888), have been making substantial progress in Modern Geo- graphy in recent years. School texts like the latest editions of the Frye and Atwood books are admirable examples of the newer geographical spirit in that country. The essential character of the newer method is summed up in the one word "regional." The memorising of the natural productions of dif- ferent countries, with sole reference to their political boundaries, is no longer demanded. The factors which determine the amount of rainfall and annual temperature, and which consequently determine the forest, the grassland (prairie), and INTRODUCTION desert areas of the world, are made the basis of geographical teaching, and from this basis the regional areas of different natural productions are deduced. This leads up directly to the other natural "controls" which determine industrial development and trade routes. As already stated, the present geographical studies of the Province of Quebec are by no means intended as a general class book for schools other- wise than as supplementary reading. They will have served their turn if they help to create more interest in the subject among older pupils, teachers and the general public. The first five chapters are essentially physio- graphic and geological. The first, "Above Sea Level," deals with altitudes in different parts of the Province, and gives a list of them in an appendix. The second chapter, "Plateaus, Plains and Mountains," describes the three physio- graphic units of the Province. As most educated people to-day are more or less interested in the geological history and structure of their homelands, the chapter on "The Story of the Rocks" endeavours to popularise the geological facts of the Province best worth knowing. There are certain salient facts known to most people; for instance, that the rocks of the Laurentians belong to the oldest in the world and that the hills of the Eastern Townships and the Gaspe peninsula belong to the Appalachian mountain system. There are other salient facts, however, which are not so generally known. Why INTRODUCTION X | Quebec and Ontario have no coal is one of them. Then the Laurentians are often spoken of as a "range of mountains," whereas they do not owe their origin to the mountain building processes which raised the Alps, the Rockies and the Ap^ palachians but are in reality the edge of a vast plateau of different history . Again, the eight Monteregian Hills rising above the Lowland Plain are the silent witnesses of the enormous denuda- tion which in countless ages wore the plain down some hundreds of feet. The volcanic rocks of the eight hills are left standing because they are hard. The softer sedimentary rocks through which they originally broke their way yielded more readily to the disintegrating influences of air and rains. These and other main features of the geology of the Province should be matters of more common knowledge. The Ice Age is the last great geological age, but is given a chapter to itself. It is of practical as well as of cultural interest. Every alert and educated mind must be interested in the travelled boulders scattered hundreds of miles from their original beds; the "kames" of gravel here and there in the Eastern Townships; the Leda Clay and Saxicava Sand of the Lowland Plain ; the striae and grooves on hill sides; the "roches mou- tonnees" which owe their shape and direction to the moving ice-sheet, and other striking memo- rials of this great period. Business men know that though Quebec has no coal it has economic compensation in abundant water power. This Xii INTRODUCTION power is the parting gift of the last Ice Age. The innumerable rivers, ponds, and lakes of the Laurentian Plateau are ail geologically "young." They date from the very close of the Ice Age, which began probably a million or more years ago and ended within only a few thousands years of our own time. The rivers are young, showing their youthf ulness by tumbling in cascades every- where. The lakes are so young that many of them still have several outlets, no one outlet having had time to outstrip the others in wearing down its barrier of rock or rock-rubbish. After impris- onment for countless ages under the ice-sheet a new drainage system awoke to a springlike en- ergy which still continues. It is to the young lakes and rivers that the Province owes its reserves of water power. These first five chapters lead up to the one on the Economic Geography of the Province. In this chapter emphasis is placed upon the dis- tribution of industries. Industrial progress has been very great in Quebec in recent years. Its permanence will be best assured by wisely conserving the natural resources. The word of science gives the reason here. Why, for instance, were the farmers of the Lowland Plain so long able to "mine" the soil in that area of the Province with apparent impunity, cropping year after year without making proper returns to the soil? Be- cause the Leda Clay, deposited by the Champlain Sea which covered all the lower ground of the Province at the close of the Ice Age, contains INTRODUCTION xiii almost incredible millions of the same Leda and other species that now live below the 30-fathom soundings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The slowly decomposing fossil shells have long been furnishing a magnificent fertiliser phosphate of lime to the soil in this area. But now we must realise that there is a practical limit to the dependence upon this natural process of soil enrichment. The conservation of our forest wealth is an- other practical question where the teaching of science should be constantly and more widely heard. How many Canadians yet realise the importance of the geographical facts that the Laurentian Plateau or Canadian Shield, stretch- ing as it does over the greater part of four provinces, covers more than half the whole area of the Dominion; that only a comparatively small fraction of it is suitable for agriculture; and that, in addition to its mineral contents and its water powers, its most valuable resources are its coniferous forest and fur-bearing animals? With a fuller realisation of these salient facts the conservation of plant and animal life on that great area will be more seriously recognised as a national concern and interest. Above all, the effective perpetuation of the immense but by no means inexhaustible forest as a source of lumber and pulp wood requires and demands not only the continued application of wise legislation and modern scientific methods but also the active co-operation of an enlightened public. To the INTRODUCTION early pioneers of this continent the tree was an obstruction to be got rid of as soon as possible. It is still too often regarded as an enemy on the farm, although its usefulness in the conserva- tion of the soil is of the highest importance. The chapter on "Civil Government" gives an outline of the derivation and distribution of legislative and executive powers under our system. Being geographical it is necessarily limited to a description of the machinery of government. This knowledge is fundamental, however, to the proper study of Civics. In the chapter on the Educational System an outline is given of the Quebec system with special reference to the points in which it differs from the other provinces. The Quebec system has often been misinterpreted by the outside world simply because it has been misunderstood. The chapter on "Geography and Human Culture" is intended merely to suggest how geo- graphical "controls" are related to human history and civilisation. It is only during the last fifty years that this interesting relationship has been well understood. Among English writers, Sir Archibald Geikie, a former Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, was the pioneer in this class of geographical in- terpretation. In conclusion, my thanks are .due to Mr. Theo. C. Denis, Superintendent of Mines, Quebec, and Mr. J. A. Dresser, M. A., of Montreal, for read- ing the manuscript of the geological portions of INTRODUCTION XV the book and offering valuable suggestions which were adopted; and to Dr. G. W. Parmelee and Mr. J. N. Miller, English and French deputy- heads respectively of the Department of Public Instruction, for rendering the same services in connection with the chapter on the "Educational System" of the Province. January, 1922. CHAPTER 1. ABOVE SEA LEVEL. knowledge of the altitudes of a region is the most useful foundation for the study ERRATA. Page 99. "Minister of Lands and Forests." Since this was written the sale of colonization lands has been transferred to the Department of the Minister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries. Page 121, line 2, /or "purposed" read "proposed." of the higher altitudes are on the Laurentian Plateau and in the Appalachian district. The measurements are usually made at the top of the rails in front of railway stations, and hence these points are convenient standards for other local measurements which may be required. Mean sea level is the dividing line above which all heights on the land, and below which all depths in the ocean, are measured. The standard "datum" lines for eastern Canada, determined after observations extending over a year in each case, are marked at Halifax, N. S., St. John, N. B. and Quebec. This mean sea level is not at exactly the same distance from the centre of the earth at every part of the ocean, THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC the earth not being a perfect sphere. Thus, owing to the bulge at the equator, the distance from the surface there to the centre is greater than in this latitude. Again, in recent years it has been found that where large mountain masses are situated on the coasts the attractive force of these masses "heaps up" the waters for a long distance from shore much more than at a low coast. The great majority of the people of eastern Canada live at a comparatively low or moderate elevation above sea level. Montreal is a long distance from the sea, but the top of the railway tracks at Bonaventure station is only 48 feet above sea level. The tracks at the Place Viger station are 58 feet above sea level, and those of Windsor station 110 feet. If the Province were to sink down some sixty feet both the Bonaventure and the Place Viger tracks would be under water. Such a lowering of the land is not expected to happen in the near future, and if it began it is altogether probable that the sinking would proceed very slowly . It is certain that continents do rise and fall with respect to sea level, and that to-day in different parts of the world coasts are rising or sinking, but so slowly that the change is measured usually by a few feet in a century. It is also perfectly certain, as we shall see in another chapter, that only a few thousand years ago the Province of Quebec and surrounding territory sank ten times sixty feet, so that the top of Mount Royal, for ABOVE SEA LEVEL instance, became a mere tiny islet in the sea. It will be seen also that there is clear evidence that we are not yet restored to the altitude which preceded that sinking. It is an established and fundamental principle of geological science that continents, or larger or smaller portions of them, rise and fall relatively to sea level in long periods of time; that the areas which sink below sea level accu- mulate the deposits which eventually become the stratified rocks of the earth; that the rising areas become subjected to that process of denu- dation of their solid materials constantly carried on by the air, the rains, the rivers and other agencies ; that this cycle of change from periods of deposition to periods of denudation is a contin- uous one, and that consequently " Where now the long street roars hath been "The stillness of the central sea." TENNYSON. These changes, however, are effected slowly and are measured in thousands and millions of years. Hence the main physiographic features of this continent are now what they were in the days of Champlain and La Salle and hundreds of years before them. In their explorations these pioneers followed the natural routes de- termined by the present physical geography. In the circumstances of the time, La Salle's dream of a New France which would sweep from the known Canada to Louisiana was not unreason- THE PROVINCE OP QUEBEC able geographically. England then seemed to be confined to the Atlantic coast by the Appal- achian mountain barrier, while the vast area of moderate elevation which stretches westward to Lake Michigan, and then southward to the Mississippi, is almost a geographical unit. The practical mind of La Salle grasped the advant- ages which it offered for future colonisation. The moderate elevation of the valley of the St. Lawrence System (including the river and the Great Lakes) is illustrated by the following figures. Lake Superior is many hundred miles from the Atlantic coast, but its height above sea level is only 602 feet. Niagara river and falls account for 326 feet of this total slope of 602 feet. Yet, the difference in level between Lake Superior and the Atlantic is actually fifteen feet less than the descent from Gould to Cookshire on the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Eastern Townships a short run of 17 miles ! On the other hand the source of the comparatively short St. Francis river is 1762 feet above sea level. PLATEAU, PLAIN AND MOUNTAINS CHAPTER IL PLATEAU, PLAIN AND MOUNTAINS VV7 HAT is a mountain? The old definition that it is a very high hill remains as good as any. It is certain, however, that the amount of elevation above sea level does not in itself deter- mine a mountain. The plains of Manitoba, Sask- atchewan, and Alberta increase in elevation westward until they are more than four thousand feet above sea level, but they are still plains although they are much higher than the average elevation of our Laurentian highlands. Then we speak of 'Mount' Royal (769 feet) and more reasonably of Brome mountain (1,755 feet), but by way of compromise they are both described as belonging to the eight Monteregian 'Hills'. Nevertheless, any high hill which rises in a dominant way above the surrounding country is frequently and conveniently called a mountain. In physical structure the Province of Quebec is divided into three distinct areas :- the Laur- entian highlands, the St. Lawrence Lowland Plain or Valley, and the southeastern Appal- achian mountain and valley district. When Ungava was added to the Province in 1912 the whole area became 703,653 square miles, and it is thus more than three times greater than that THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC of France or Germany. From north to south the distance is 1200 miles, and from east to west 950 miles. The Laurentian highlands, ex- tending as they do to Hudson Strait, occupy nearly ninety-five per cent of the whole area. The St. Lawrence Lowland Plain, so far as its extension in this Province only is concerned, reaches from the City of Quebec to the borders of Ontario, and has an area of about 10,000 square miles. The plain is fairly triangular, with the apex at Quebec and with the base angles at Lake Champlain and Ottawa respectively. The Appalachian district includes all the hilly and mountainous region of southeastern Quebec ex- tending from Lake Champlain to the end of the Gaspe peninsula. A. The Laurentian Plateau or Canadian Shield. We speak of this area as the Laurentian high- lands, and sometimes as the Laurentide range of mountains. Mountainous, indeed, the area seems to the traveller on the railroad from Montreal to Mont Laurier, or from Quebec to Lake St. John, and on the Labrador coast facing the Atlantic there are heights which rise to 5000 and 6000 feet. But in general the elevation varies between 500 and 2000 feet, and over a considerable portion of about 200,000 square miles the evenness of the sky-line gives the pla- teau the appearance of a peneplain (almost a plain). As the physical characters of the area have become better known, the geologists of THE LAURENTIAN PLATEAU Canada have preferred to adopt the name "Laur- entian Plateau," while a European geologist (Suess) also proposed the name "Canadian Shield." What is the difference between a plateau and a high plain? Both names suggest the idea of flatness, although at the same time either may be of a "rolling" character. The essential dif- ference between the two is that a plateau rises visibly with a certain amount of steepness from its surroundings of land or water on at least one side, while the approach to a high plain is grad- ual and not manifest in the same clear way. The Laurentian Plateau rises with steepness on all sides. Considering only the southern boundary, with which we are most familiar, it rises in a visible and dominant way along the north shore of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence to about 20 miles below the City of Quebec, and then leaving the river it is a dominant feature in the landscape above the lowlands to the county of Pontiac, continuing thence on- ward in the Province of Ontario. In Quebec Province the plateau is wholly north of the St. Lawrence. The name "Canadian Shield" is also approp- riate. It expresses the massiveness and solidity of the plateau. Its area in Canada is about two million square miles, somewhat less than a third of this total being in the Province of Quebec. It is of great solidity, due not only to the hard- ness of its rocks in general but also to their THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC thickness. Long ages ago the average height of the plateau must have been considerably greater than at present. The hills have every- where the rounded character which declares that the region is an old and "subdued" one. But the "weathering" or wearing-down process, which in time levels the highest mountains and plateaus, works much faster upon "soft" rocks, such as limestones and shales, than upon "hard" rocks. The hardness of the rock formations of the Laurentian Plateau explains its great per- sistence through vast periods of time. Then the deep base of the plateau, extending under the younger, and mostly sedimentary, rock strata of the plain to the south, was the strong shield against which was exerted the slow pres- sure which gave form to the Canadian portion of that wave or wrinkle of the earth's crust known as the Appalachian mountain system. A striking evidence of this resistance is afforded in the "curvature" of the Gaspe peninsula. Looking at the map, it might be supposed that this curvature is due to wave action on the shores, but it is the axes of the mountain folds in this region which are curved. The direction of the fold was determined by the Canadian Shield. The Laurentian Plateau or Canadian Shield extends more than half way across Canada and northward to the Arctic Ocean. It crosses the St. Lawrence river in Ontario, it rises from there as the Adirondacks of New York state, THE LAURENTIAN PLATEAU and once again it passes into United States territory west of Lake Superior. Innumerable lakes and rivers, large and small, are found all over the plateau. The drainage is "young," dating only from the Ice Age. The rivers have not had time since that period to saw long channels of the same level . In Quebec the drainage is southward into the St. Lawrence ; westward into the Ottawa river and Hudson Bay ; northward into Hudson Strait, and eastward into the Atlantic. The lakes are "young." Some have several outlets, no one outlet having had "time" to work faster than the others. The drainage into the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa has become of immense importance in affording vast stores of water power for ma- nufacturing purposes. Control of the flow at all seasons of the year is necessary in large basins like that of the St. Maurice and its tri- butaries, and this has been effected in recent years in the St. Maurice basin by the construc- tion of the Gouin Dam by the Government of the Province. It is one of the largest dams in the world. Another great water power region is that of the Saguenay river in its thirty mile course from Lake St. John to Chicoutimi. At low water, Lake St. John is but 314 feet above sea level, the Lake St. John district being a depressed part of the Laurentian Plateau. In the southwestern portion of the plateau some hard woods are still found, but in the 10 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC greater part of the area the forest growth is composed of the cone-bearing trees, of so much importance in the pulp and paper industries. In the early days of European settlement in Canada this northern part of the Province was penetrated for considerable distances by the hunters and trappers, at the instance of the various fur companies of the time. Real settle- ment, however, did not begin until the nine- teenth century. The first industry was lumber- ing. Then followed, upon suitable soils in limited districts, the beginnings of agriculture. It was the lumbering operations in the upper Saguenay district which led, about 1860, to a realisation of the agricultural possibilities of the Lake St. John region. The clay soil of this district is of comparatively recent origin, having been laid down in the Champlain Sea which covered so much of the Province at the close of the Ice Age. B. The St. Lawrence Lowland Plain. This plain extends on both sides of the St. Lawrence system of river and lakes to Lake Huron. As stated on a previous page, the trian- gular part in Quebec has an area of about 10,000 square miles. It was the first part of the Prov- ince to be generally deforested, the Leda Clay underlying it being of exceptional agricultural value. It is also the area having the largest percentage of the population. Lake Champlain, at the southwestern base of the triangle, is only THE ST. LAWRENCE LOWLAND PLAIN 11 95 feet above sea level. This low elevation of Lake Champlain is connected with a salient geograph- ical principle. Montreal owes its position as a commercial metropolis, first, to the fact that it is at the head of ocean navigation, and secondly to the long Hudson-Champlain valley, connecting Montreal and New York directly north and south. It was also the pathway of war-parties in the many struggles in the 17th and 18th centuries between New Prance and New England, the settlements of the participat- ing Iroquois Indians being in that part of the Lowland Plain which lies south of Lake Ontario, and west of the Hudson-Champlain valley. The rock formations in the St. Lawrence Low- land Plain are mostly sedimentary, that is, rocks formed mechanically or by chemical precipitation under water. The strata are also flat-lying, that is, undisturbed by mountain folding. But breaking up through these sed- imentary strata are eight hills or mountains, of igneous (ignis, fire) origin. After one of them, Mount Royal, they are called the Monteregian Hills. They are composed of minerals, such as nepheline syenite and essexite, which were ori- ginally in a molten state, and which arose through the surrounding rock as a soft "magma." The fact that the eight hills are very much alike in their composition indicates that they may have welled-up from the same deep-seated source, although each is some miles from the other. This common origin is the more likely 12 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC from the fact that many small "dykes" in inter- vening and surrounding areas have the same composition as the hills. In the course of millions of years the softer sedimentary rocks through which the igneous rock penetrated have been considerably worn away. The igneous rock was molten when it arose, but soon hardened. Considerable masses of sedimentary rock are still clinging near the top of two of the Monteregian Hills, as evidence that when they arose the Plain was filled with several hundred feet more of rock strata than it now possesses. These eight isolated Hills, therefore, on a nearly straight line of over fifty miles, are standing memorials of the immense amount of denudation which has taken place in the softer rocks of the Plain in the millions of years since their formation. "It is probable that some, if not all, of them, represent the substructures of volcanoes which at one time were in active eruption in this region." (Frank D. Adams.) The area of each hill is determined by the line which separates the igneous from the surround- ing sedimentary rock. By this measurement Brome mountain has an area of 30 square miles, while that of Mount Johnson is less than half a square mile. At the line of contact between the igneous and the sedimentary rock, the latter is usually found "baked." The Monteregian Hills and their heights are as follows:- THE APPALACHIAN DISTRICT 13 Above sea level (in feet) Mount Royal 769 Montarville or St. Bruno 715 Beloeil 1,437 Rougemont 1,250 Yamaska 1,470 Shefford . . 1,725 Brome 1,755 Mount Johnson or Monnoir . . . 875 C. The Appalachian District. The traveller on the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal to Sherbrooke is more or less aware of the fact that from Danby to South Durham a short distance of four miles the train is going up grade. The elevation at Danby is 437 feet; at South Durham it is 608 feet. In the 66 mile journey from Montreal to South Durham the train has been moving mostly in the St. Lawrence Lowland Plain. Approaching and passing Danby one is apparently still in the Plain, but as a matter of fact an invisible "line of fault," or dislocation of the underlying rock structure, has been crossed, and this line of fault or dislocation is regarded as the geological line of separation between the Appalachians to the southeast and the lowland plain on the north- west. This line of fault was traced many years ago by Sir William Logan from Lake Champlain to the City of Quebec, and thence down the St. Lawrence to the Gulf. 14 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC But it is only when the train enters the rock cutting at South Durham that we have the visible evidence of being within the boundaries of the great mountain system which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to Newfoundland. The Appalachians receive different names in different parts of the United States and Canada. The Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire are parts of the system, and it is these mountains which extend into Canada. Apart from local names the gen- eral name in the Eastern Townships is the Notre Dame Mountains; in the Gaspe peninsula they receive the Indian name of the Shickshocks. In the Eastern Townships the Appalachians consist of three fairly parallel ridges, about twenty-five miles apart. The first is known as the Sutton Mountain belt, extending from the Province line near Sutton to South Durham, Pachmond, Danville and beyond. As it passes eastward it gradually approaches the St. Law- rence, but opposite the City of Quebec the axis is still some thirty miles from the river. Nev- ertheless, the complicated folds of the rocks at Levis, immediately opposite Quebec, are due to the Appalachian uplift. The second parallel ridge is that known as the Stoke or Sherbrooke ridge. It includes the hills in the vicinity of Sherbrooke and Capelton. The third ridge is at the international bound- ary line, in the vicinity of Lake Megantic, and is of small extent in the Province. THE APPALACHIAN DISTRICT 15 Just southeast of the Sutton Mountain belt, and parallel with it, there is another ridge of different origin. This is the Serpentine belt which extends from the Chaudiere River to the Province line in Brome county. It is not due to the mountain-building process which raised the three other ridges, but like the Monteregian Hills was originally an igneous "magma," welling up from the depths. Doubtless, however, it was the pressure of the Appalachian uplift which provided the "line of weakness" for the entrance of the molten igneous masses. Mount Orford (2,820 feet above sea level), Owl's Head (2,484 feet), and the other mountains by the west shore of Lake Memphramagog, belong to this igneous Serpentine belt. That is to say, while they are in the Appalachian district they are technically not a part of it. It is in the Serpentine belt that the asbestos mines are situated, asbestos being one of the altered (metamorphosed) products of the ori- ginal igneous magma. But the Sutton, the Sherbrooke or Stoke, and the Lake Megantic ridges are true Appalachian folds. The three ridges may be regarded as types of anticlinal folding or anticlines, that is, upward folds of the earth's crust, formed in the same way that a heap of small towels ridge upward in the centre when pressed inward from two opposite sides. They represent the type of mountain-building due to shrinkage of the earth's crust. This shrinkage developed a pres- 16 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC sure from the direction of the Atlantic Ocean which uplifted the rock strata against the resistance (in this province) of the deep base of the Laurentian Plateau or Canadian Shield. The Appalachians are old, "subdued" moun- tains, millions of years younger than the Laur- entian highlands but millions of years older than the youthful Rocky Mountains. The Appalachians were uplifted and worn down again more than once in their long history. That even now the mountain-building process is not entirely complete is indicated by the Quebec land-slide of a few years ago, and the minor earthquakes which occur from time to time along the line'of junction with the rocks of the northern part of the Province. In the long ages the Appalachians have under- gone much denudation. The ridges are but the cores of the hard rocks which formed the lower portion of the area; most of the soft rocks have been worn away. Eastward of the City of Quebec the Notre Dame mountains sink into low hills, but they rise again in the Gaspe peninsula to heights of 3500 feet and more. Five distinct folds (anticlinals) are recognised in the Gaspe district, from the south shore of the St. Lawrence River to Perce. These folds are:- 1. The Florillon, 2. The Haldimand, its axis running through Gaspe mountain at Gaspe Basin, 3. Tar Point anticline, on the south shore of Gaspe bay, 4. The St. Peter, meeting the sea at Point St. Peter, 5. The Perce. THE APPALACHIAN DISTRICT 17 The principal rivers of the Appalachian district cross the several mountain ridges in "water gaps." If, as is probable, the ridges were slowly raised, it is possible that the principal rivers were able to "saw" their way across them as fast as they were raised. On the other hand it is possible that the courses of these rivers were determined by the denudation (working backward) which took place after the uplift. But the tributaries which empty into the princi- pal rivers are wholly in the valleys parallel with the ridges. They empty into the principal rivers by falls or rapids, and hence water powers are usually found at the junction of the principal river with a tributary. This has given rise to several manufacturing places. Sherbrooke, at the junction of the Magog with the St. Francis, and Windsor Mills at the junction of the Ouat- opekah with the same river, are examples. Lakes, large or small, are less numerous in this region than on the Laurentian Plateau, but the altitudes of some of them are worth noticing. In chapter I. it was mentioned that the surface of Lake Superior is 602 feet above sea level. This may be compared with the following: Lakes Altitudes (in feet) Massawippi 525 Little Magog 634 Brome 648 Memphramagog 682 18 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Brompton 784 Aylmer 816 Megantic 1,303 The varied land-forms, the lakes and streams, the wide valleys, the wooded or cultivated hills and hill slopes, of the Eastern Towships, all combine to give this portion of the Appalachian district great scenic beauty. First settled at the beginning of the 19th century, by United Empire loyalists and other immigrants from the United States, and now containing a mixed popula- tion of English and French descent, this part of the Province has undergone great development agriculturally and industrially. The abundance of pure water from innumerable springs, and the excellence of its pasture lands, have made the district one of the most important in Canada in dairying, while the numerous water powers have encouraged considerable manufacturing. The Gasp6 peninsula, comprising the counties of GaspS, Bonaventure and Matane, is also one of magnificent scenery; the two former counties facing Chaleur Bay, and Matane the St. Law- rence. Fishing, lumbering, pulp wood and agri- culture are the principal industries. The popula- tion along this coast is of French and English origin, with a considerable percentage of people of Channel Islands origin, who with French names either speak English only or both languages. THE STORY OF THE ROCKS 19 CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF THE ROCKS *T* HE many different rocks of the crust of the earth are divided into three classes accord- ing to their physical origin, as follows: 3. Metamorphic. 2. Sedimentary. 1. Igneous. All three classes have been mentioned in the previous chapter. Igneous rocks are those which were originally in a molten condition, such as granite. Igneous rocks are sub-divided into two classes. Those which cooled and crystallised in the depths of the earth are called plutonics; those which reached the surface in the molten condition (such as most lava flows) are called volcanics. The Sedimentary rocks comprise chiefly those which have been formed under water, in seas or lakes. They consist of the sediments carried by the rivers to the lakes and seas. Where the sediment laid down is sand, the layers are in time hardened by pressure and other causes into sandstone; where the sediment is mud, the layers are gradually hardened into shale. Other sedimentary rocks will be mentioned in this chapter. 20 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Metamorphic rocks are either igneous or sedimentary rocks which have been changed or altered (metamorphosed) by heat, pressure and similar causes. Marble is the most familiar metamorphic rock. It is limestone altered by heat and pressure. That marble is formed under pressure in the depths is shown by the fact that it retains the carbon dioxide of the original lime- stone. If the latter had been subjected to heat at the surface of the earth, the carbon dioxide would have been driven off into the atmosphere and only quicklime would have been left. Hence when marble is found at the surface it is certain that there has been much denudation of over- lying rock since its formation. The greater part of the Laurentian Plateau consists of igneous and of metamorphic rocks. There are overlying areas, however, of sed- imentary rock, as in the Lake St. John district. The greater part of the Lowland Plaift consists of sedimentary strata, lying almost in the same flat position in which they were laid down in the ancient seas. The Lowland Plain, however, is pierced through by the eight Monteregian Hills of igneous origin. The greater part of the Appalachian district of the Eastern Townships and Gaspe Peninsula (and intervening counties) consists of very much disturbed and folded sedimentary rocks, in which there are areas of igneous and metamorphic rocks. The main facts of the Story of the Rocks, (that THE STORY OF THE ROCKS 21 is, the geological history of the earth) have been made out within the last two hundred years. In the decipherment and unravelling of that history the sedimentary rocks have been the most important. Where sedimentary rock strata are found in the undisturbed position in which they were laid down in the sea, it is certain that the lower strata are the older, and that the succession is to be read upward from the bottom, just as we know in the case of a brick-wall that the lowest layer was laid first and so on upward to the topmost or youngest layer. In the sed- imentary strata, also, are found entombed the "fossils" the forms of animal and plant life which lived at the time that the mud or sand or limestone were being deposited. In no one part of the world is that succession complete, but by comparing the strata in dif- ferent parts of the world the general history has been made out. All geological time is divided into four great Eras, namely: 1. Pre-Cambrian, 2. Paleozoic, 3. Mesozoic, 4. Kainozoic. Each of these Eras is again divided into distinctive Periods, while each Period has its systems, groups, formations, etc. The name Pre-Cambrian for the first great Era is a non-committal or compromise one. At one time it was called the Azoic (meaning "with- out life"), but when evidence of life seemed to be certain, Sir William Dawson proposed the name Eozoic (meaning "dawn of life"). These and other names, however, were abandoned for 22 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC the present one, which merely asserts that the periods of the era preceded the Cambrian. Almost the whole mass of the Laurentian Plateau belongs to this most ancient era, the Pre-Cambrian. Rocks of the same era are found in northern Europe and elsewhere in the world, and doubtless underlie the younger strata every- where. It is believed that the Pre-Qambrian lasted very much longer than the three great eras which have succeeded it. It is estimated that the duration of the Pre-Cambrian must have been considerably more than a hundred million years, and that about a hundred million years have elapsed for the formation of the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Kainozoic, allowing sixty million years for the Paleozoic, twenty-five million for the Mesozoic and fifteen million for the Kainozoic. While these enormous figures are far from exact, they are far from being purely speculative and are below the mark if anything. Two considerations which are taken into account in estimating the duration of geo- logical time may be mentioned. The one is that the materials which are deposited in the ocean to eventually form rock strata are deposited very slowly. The rate of deposition varies, but a long period of time is required in all cases to form one foot of rock. Yet there is one form- ation of altered (metamorphosed) sedimentary rock of the Pre-Cambrian in the Laurentian Plateau the Grenville crystalline limestone THE STORY OF THE ROCKS 23 of Argenteuil county and elsewhere which has a total thickness of nearly eighteen miles ! The other consideration is that although the strata of the different geological periods are thousands of feet in thickness, in many places the formations are only the remnants of what was originally formed, owing to the constant denudation of all rock surfaces above sea level. Darwin's chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological Record in the "Origin of Species" was the first great exposition of this truth. The Pre-Cambrian was undoubtedly an era of enormous duration, as measured not only by the time required for the forming of the sediment- ary rocks just mentioned above, but also on ac- count of the time required for the immense volcanic and metamorphic activity which had been, apparently, completed before the on-com- ing of the next great era, the Paleozoic. Of the several areas in the world where the Pre-Cambrian rocks are largely developed, the Laurentian Plateau or Canadian Shield is the most important. Some years ago a joint commit- tee of the Geological Surveys of Canada and the United States was appointed to study the area with the view of determining the order in which the different members of it had been formed. There is no problem in geology more difficult. Whatever order originally existed in the sed- imentary portions has been largely masked by subsequent volcanic action and the crushing and other forces of earth-movements. Life no 24 THE PROVINCE OP QUEBEC doubt existed in the Pre-Cambrian. The altered crystalline limestones of the Grenville formation were once ordinary limestones, and this fact speaks of the existence then of lowly animal life at any rate, while the graphite found in rocks of the same era speaks of the existence of lowly forms of plant life. But except for the doubtful fossil, Eozoon Canadense, there are no evidences in this Province of the general char- acter of the life in that early age of the world's history. The Pre-Cambrian in geology is often com- pared with the pre-historic of human history a record containing many hints but through which we have to grope in more or less uncertainty. The latest Canadian determination of the era gives the following order for the members rep- resented in the Province of Quebec: 5. Keweenawan. 4. Huronian. 3. Laurentian. 2. Grenville series. 1. Keewatin. As in geological tables generally, the oldest member is placed at the bottom and the suc- ceeding members in order of time are numbered upward. The oldest, the Keewatin, consists of green schists of igneous origin. The essential fact about the Keewatin rocks is that, although the oldest known in the Pre-Cambrian, they are not THE STORY OF THE ROCKS 25 the base of the era. So great has been the volcanic activity in that era, and throughout its area, that no set of rocks has yet been found of which it could be said that they formed the original basement upon which the others had been formed. The Grenville series, as already stated, was originally a sedimentary series of rocks, which by their great thickness must have required a vast period of time for their deposition, and now consist of altered rocks crystalline lime- stones, greywacke, quartzite, slate and iron- bearing rocks. The Laurentian consists of vast masses of granite and syenite which invaded the Keewatin and Grenville, and folded, crumpled and altered the older rocks to schists and gneisses. In the original classification by Sir William Logan many years ago, the Laurentian was regarded as the oldest. The present classification makes it third in the order of time, and invading the two earlier. The Laurentian rocks form by far the larger part of our area of the Plateau. The Huronian is composed of thick beds of conglomerate, quartzite and arkose. The Keweenawan is represented by large dykes and smaller bodies of igneous rocks which invaded Lower Huronian rocks in Northwestern Quebec. Penetrating the gneisses of the Laurentian are vast masses of igneous (plutonic) rock called anorthosite, from which the beautiful 2 m M fc * u <_,- 2 2 n 3 H - O * ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROVINCE 85 manufacture of calcium carbide, and the mat- erials for bricks, tiles, and Portland cement. The Lorraine shales of Montmorency Falls are burn- ed for bricks; the Utica shales, mixed with Leda clay, are burned at Delson and Laprairie for the same purpose; the Leda clay alone is burned for bricks and for the making of agricultural tiles, and with limestone is used in the manufacture of Portland cement. Bog iron ore and ochre are surface deposits both on the Lowland Plain and on the Laur- entian Plateau. The bog iron ore is that which was smelted at Three Rivers nearly two hundred years ago. In recent years it was worked for a time at the Radnor forges north of Three Rivers. The ore is formed in bogs and swamps by the action of the organic acids arising from the decay of plant life. The ochre is of similar origin, and is used as red paint. The more valuable ores and minerals are found in veins and masses in those regions where the rock strata have been much disturbed, folded and cracked by earth-movements such as those involved in mountain-building, and where volcanic activity in the past is evident. The Appalachian district is such a region, and the Eastern Townships in particular have produced a considerable amount of mineral wealth. The greater part of the world's supply of asbestos comes from this district of the Province, the chief deposits being at Thetford, Black Lake, Broughton and Asbestos (near Danville). The 86 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC serpentine rock in which it is found was origin- ally a soft "magma" which welled up through a "line of weakness" in the earth's crust due, un- doubtedly, to the Appalachian movement. The copper deposits of the same area are often found in sedimentary rocks but invariably they are immediately beside masses or dykes of igneous rock. The copper ores at Capelton contain much sulphur which is converted into sulphuric acid. Gold is found in the copper ores at Capelton and Eustis. Chromite (chromic iron) is associated with the serpentine rock which carries the asbestos. It yields chromic acid, in the form of chromate of soda or potash, used extensively in the tann- ing of leather. Gold has been washed from the alluvial soils of the Chaudiere River and its tributaries. Granite is worked in the Eastern Townships, and also roofing slate, at New Rockland. The Laurentian Plateau, the scene also of vast volcanic activity in the past, is another mineral region. So far only the southern fringe has been developed to any extent. Among the econ- omic minerals in that region are graphite, mica, apatite, molybdenite and magnesite. As graph- ite is one of the forms of carbon its presence in these rocks indicates that plant life existed in the Pre-Cambrian. It is used as a lubricant for machinery, for the making of crucibles used in the manufacture of steel, and is the substance of the so-called "lead" pencils. Mica is extens- ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROVINCE 87 ively used as a non-conductor in all kinds of electrical construction and apparatus. Some years ago the mineral apatite (phosphate of lime) was shipped from Labelle county to Capelton in the Eastern Townships, where it was converted, by means of sulphuric acid, into the fertilizer known as superphosphates. Mol- ybdenite, found in Pontiac county, was in large demand during the war, and is now used in the manufacture of steel for tools and for parts of automobiles. Magnesite, found in Ar- genteuil county, is used as a furnace lining in metallurgical processes. Gold has been found at the head waters of the Harricana River in the Abitibi district. The mineral possibilities of large portions of the Plateau are still unknown. An important memoir on the geology and mineral resources- of Canada, issued by the Geological Survey, Ottawa, says: "Upon the knowledge already gleaned con- cerning the economic deposits of the Dominion, by geological exploration, by prospecting, and by actual mining, it is safe to predict that the mineral industry will become a very great and valuable one. Its development will render essential a close study of the geology of the country. The geological field in Canada is as rich and inviting as the mining. Perhaps half the rock history of the world is written in the Pre-Cambrian, and it is of this portion that most remains to be deciphered. Since the great- 88 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC est spread of these old rocks occurs in Canada, much of this work will fall to Canadian geolo- gists, and the careful solution of the problems presented will be as valuable to science as to the mining industry/* The general development of the Laurentian Plateau will doubtless take place when railway construction becomes more extended. It was railway construction which disclosed the nickel resources of Sudbury, the silver of Cobalt, and the asbestos of Thetford and Black Lake. It may be added that "wild cat" mining speculation may be guarded against in these modern days. Investors in this Province should always consult the Department of Mines, Quebec. FISH AND GAME. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, with its arm the Chaleur Bay, is one of the great fishing grounds of the world. The waters are cool and not too deep, the characteristic of those ocean areas where the edible fish are found in the greatest quantity. Fish feed upon the microscopic plants and animals, the general name for these organisms being 'plankton'. The plankton flourish most abundantly in water sufficiently shallow to reflect sunlight from the bottom. The St. Lawrence River furnishes fresh water plankton, and the Labrador current salt water plankton; these meet in the waters of the Gulf. Cod, lobster, salmon, mackerel, and herring, ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROVINCE $9 constitute the principal economic resources of the Gulf. The inland fish of interest to the sportsman are salmon, ouananiche, trout, pike, black bass, perch, pike-perch, and maskinonge. The three principal species of trout are the American brook trout (salvelinus fontinalis), Great Lake trout (christlmover nainaycush), and the Rain- bow trout (salmo irideus) introduced from the Pacific coast. The principal wild game of the Province are moose, caribou, and red deer. The Laurentian Plateau is exploited for the fur-bearing animals. The conservation of the desirable forms of wild life in general, fur-bearing and other, is more fully recognized on this continent to-day than formerly. The idea of carrying out this conservation by means of "animal sanctuaries" and "bird sanctuaries" was first proposed by Lt.-Col. William Wood, the Quebec historian. The recent introduction of the reindeer on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, Saguenay county, is an interesting fact of economic geo- graphy. The fishermen along that coast have long depended upon the Eskimo dog for trans- portation. The reindeer now bids fair to re- place the dog for that purpose, and in addition to furnish milk, butter and meat for the people, to whom not only the horse but also the cow and the pig have been unknown. 90 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC CHAPTER VII CIVIL GOVEBNMENT. The Dominion of Canada is a self-governed country in the three forms of Federal, Provincial and Municipal government. The British North America Act (1867) is the written constitution or instrument of government which defines the powers of the Federal or Dominion parliament and of the Provincial legislatures. It confers upon the Provincial legislatures the right of determining the powers and organization of municipal government. Although passed and sanctioned in the Brit- ish parliament the British North America Act was drawn up by the representatives of the people of Canada, the details having been dis- cussed during several years before 18 G7 in the joint parliament of Upper and Lower Canada, and in conferences in which New Brunswick, Nova Scotia> Prince Edward Island and New- foundland took part. At that time there was but a small population in what are now the Western Provinces. The Act expressed the will of the people of Canada in that it embodied the principles which their elected representatives deemed best suited to the country. All who seriously study the history of Canada must be convinced that the Fathers of Confederation CIVIL GOVERNMENT 91 deliberated and acted with great judgment and wisdom in laying the constitutional foundations of our laws and legislative institutions. The British North America Act has proved to be a workable instrument of government. The Act confers upon the parliament of the Dominion of Canada exclusive powers in regard to the following subjects: the public debt and property; the regulation of trade and commerce; the raising of money by any mode or system of taxation; the borrowing of money on the pub- lic credit; postal service; census and statistics; militia, military and naval service and defence; the fixing of and providing for the salaries and allowances of civil and other officers of the government of Canada; beacons, buoys, light- houses and Sable Island; navigation and ship- ping : quarantine and the establishment and maintenance of marine hospitals; sea coast and inland fisheries; ferries between a province and any British or foreign country, or between two provinces; currency and exchange; banking, in- corporation of banks and the issue of paper money; savings' banks; weights and measures; bills of exchange and promissory notes; inter- est; legal tender; bankruptcy and insolvency; patents of invention and discovery; copyright; Indians and lands reserved for Indians; natur- alization and aliens; marriage and divorce; the criminal law, except the constitution of the courts of criminal jurisdiction; but including the procedure in criminal matters; the estab- 02 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC lishment, maintenance and management of penitentiaries; and such classes of subjects as are expressly excepted in the enumeration of the classes of subjects assigned exclusively to the legislatures of the provinces. Most of the subjects assigned to the Dominion parliament are readily seen to be of general or national interest, such as the postal service, weights and measures, militia, customs tariff, banking, etc. In the case of "census and stat- istics" the reference is simply in regard to the Dominion as a whole; provincial governments also gather and publish statistics of their re- spective provinces, and local municipalities take an annual census. The various subjects that the Dominion Gov- ernment has to deal with necessitates the organ- isation of Departments. There is not, however, a separate Department for each of the enum- erated subjects. Thus, census and statistics are under the control of the Department of Trade and Commerce, and the Department of Agricul- ture has the additional charge of patents and copyrights. Each Department has as its head a respons- ible Minister of the Crown, who must be a mem- ber either of the House of Commons or of the Senate. In practice he is now almost invar- iably a member of the House of Commons, and thns more directly responsible to the people, the members of the House of Commons being elect- ed and the members of the Senate appointed. GOVERNMENT 93 The Ministers, with the Premier or Prime Min- ister, form the Executive Council, more frequent- ly known as the Government or Cabinet. When a Government enters upon office it does so in virtue of the fact that it has the support of the majority of the members of the House of Commons, this majority having been elected be- cause of the 'policy' advocated by the leaders of the party. Control of the reins of govern- ment is not for a fixed period of time, as in the United States, but is based essentially upon the support of public opinion. In this and other constitutional respects Canada follows British custom and precedent. Our federal and provincial system is out- wardly the same as the federal and state system of the United States, but is different in its essential features. Thus, the president of the United States and the Governors of the indivi- dual states are given large discretionary and even executive powers, while the Governor General of the Dominion and the Lieutenant Governors of the Province exercise their func- tions upon the "advice and consent" of the Executive Council of the Dominion or the Prov- ince, as the case may be. On this account, the phrases "Governor - General in council" and "Lieutenant-Governor in council," as applied to executive acts in Canada are sometimes mis- understood by writers in the United States. The classes of questions which the British North America Act reserves to the exclusive 94 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC authority of the provinces are as follows: The amendment from time to time, notwithstanding anything in this Act, of the constitution of the province, except as regards the office of lieu- tenant-governor (who is appointed by the Gov- ernor-General in council, that is, by the Dom- inion Government) ; direct taxation within the province in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial purposes; the borrowing of money on the sole credit of the province; the establish- ment and tenure of provincial offices, and the appointment and payment of provincial officers ; the management and sale of the public lands belonging to the province, and of the timber and wood thereon; the establishment, maintenance and management of public and reformatory prisons in and for the province; the establish- ment, maintenance, and management of hos- pitals, asylums, charities and eleemosynary in- stitutions in and for the province, other than marine hospitals; municipal institutions in the province; shop, saloon, tavern, auctioneer, and other licenses, in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial, local or municipal pur- poses; the incorporation of companies with provincial objects; solemnization of marriage in the province; property and civil rights in the province; the administration of justice in the province, including the constitution, main- tenance and organization of provincial courts (but not including the appointment of judges), both of civil and of criminal jurisdiction, and CIVIL GOVERNMENT 95 including .procedure, in civil matters in those courts ; the imposition of punishment by fine, penalty, or imprisonment for enforcing any law of the province made in relation to any matter coming within any of the classes of subjects enumerated in this section; generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the province. The provinces have control, also, in all local works and undertakings, except lines of steam or other ships, railways, canals, telegraphs, and other works and undertakings connecting the province with any other or others of the provinces, or extending beyond the limits of the province; lines of steamships between the province and any British or foreign country, and such works as, although wholly situate in the province, are before or aftar their execution declared by the parliament of Canada to be for the advantage of two or more of the provinces. Education comes under the control of the individual provinces. Art. 93 of the British North America Act, however, reserves to the religious minority in any province, having a system of separate, or dissentient schools, the right of appeal to the Governor-General in council against any act or decision affecting any right or privilege of the minority. The parlia- ment of Canada has also the power to make 'remedial laws' in such cases. Each province having the right to model its law and institutions in its own way, in all THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC subjects in which they have exclusive rights, it naturally follows that the laws and institutions of the nine provinces differ more or less from one another. Thus, French civil law is the basis o civil law in the Province of Quebec. Quebec and Nova Scotia are the only provinces having a Legislative Council as well as a Legislative Assembly. The Legislature in Quebec, therefore, consists of three branches: the Lieutenant-Govern or, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative As- sembly. The powers and functions of the Lieutenant- Governor (who is appointed by the Governor- General in Council) are parallel with those ol the Governor-General. Each represents the sovereign, the one in provincial and the other in federal affairs, and each acts upon the advice of his responsible ministers, the Executive Council. The Legislative Council consists of 24 mem- bers appointed for life by the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in council. Each member represents one of 24 divisions of the Province. The Legislative Assembly at present (1920) consists of 81 members elected from 82 different constituencies. The three branches of the Legislature cor- respond to King, House of Lords and House of Commons of the Imperial parliament, and to the Governor-General, Senate and House of Com- mons of the Dominion. CIVIL GOVERNMENT 97 The Executive Council (Government) is com- posed chiefly of members of the elective House the Legislative Assembly. The Executive Coun- cil of Quebec consists of the Premier; the Attorney General; the Secretary of the Province and Registrar; the Treasurer of the Province; the Minister of Public Works and Labour; the Minister of Agriculture; the Minister of Colon- ization, Mines and Fisheries; the Minister of Lands and Forests; the Minister of Roads; the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and one or more Ministers "without portfolio," that is, not ad- ministering any department of Government. The Premier is the leader of the Government, and advises the Lieutenant-Governor as to the persons whom he desires to have as his respons- ible Ministers. The Premier may have a Depart- ment under his control, and it is usually that of Attorney General. British parliamentary principles are followed in the governmental system of the Province. Ministers are the responsible heads of their Departments in all departmental acts and de- cisions, and only retain office while the Gov- ernment to which they belong remains in power. Nevertheless the routine work of each Depart- ment is carried on by deputy ministers and their staffs of officials and assistants, and forming what is called the Civil Service. The deputy ministers and civil servants are permanent officers. The deputy minister of the Depart- ment of the Provincial Secretary has the title 98 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC of Assistant Provincial Secretary; the deputy minister of the Attorney General's Department is the Deputy Attorney General, and the deputy minister of the Treasury Department is the Assistant Treasurer. The English and French Secretaries of the Department of Public In- struction are deputy ministers. The functions and duties of the several Depart- ments are defined in the Revised Statutes of Quebec; a brief outline is sufficient to indicate their general nature: ATTORNEY GENERAL. The Attorney Gen- eral sees that the administration of public af- fairs in the Province is in accordance with the law, and he has the control and management of the judicial organization of the Province, including registry offices. The Department is essentially the Law Department. PROVINCIAL SECRETARY AND REGIST- RAR. The Provincial Secretary represents the Department of Public Instruction in the Legis- lature as well as his own Department. He also deals with all matters concerning the technical schools, night schools, reformatory and indus- trial schools. The Bureau of Statistics; letters patent incorporating companies; hospitals, in- sane asylums, and charitable institutions gen- erally; statistics of births, marriages and deaths, are among other matters under the control of this Department. CIVIL GOVERNMENT 99 PROVINCIAL TREASURER. The Provincial Treasurer is the adviser of the Crown in finan- cial matters. He is charged with the duty of preparing the annual "budget" of ways and means for carrying on the work of Government. The budget speech of the Treasurer is one of the most importants events in the annual sessions of the Legislature. In that speech he reviews the finance of the past year the revenues and the expenditures and outlines the policy of the Government in this connection for the coming year. Among the provincial revenues may be mentioned the monies derived from lands and forests owned by the Province, succession duties, motor vehicle fees, licenses, commercial corporations, and others. The larger expenditures of Government are upon education, agriculture, asylums, maintenance, of various institutions and good roads. MINISTER OF LANDS AND FORESTS. He has the oversight, control and management of everything connected with the administration and sale of public lands belonging to the Province; the managements of escheats, and in general the forest reserves. This Department has under its control the very important task of administering the laws of the Province in re- gard to tne cutting of timber and the protection of forests against fire. MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE. He has the management and control of everything con- 100 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC nected with agriculture in the Province. He has the control and supervision of provincial agricultural schools and colleges and model farm grants from the Province; permanent exhibition committees, agricultural and horti- cultural societies, farmers' clubs and institutions for teaching agriculture, and beet sugar manu- facturies receiving Government grants. The Dairy Association of the Province, farmers' and dairymen's associations, and societies for the manufacture of butter and cheese, report to him each year. In general, this Department aids and encourages agriculture and agricultural education. MINISTER OF COLONIZATION, MINES AND FISHERIES. He is charged with the control and management of everything connected with colonization, immigration and emigration; col- onization works and roads; administration and sale of mining lands; fisheries within the jurisdiction of the Province, and the carrying out of the game laws. MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS AND LA- BOUR. He has the management, custody, and control of all public works, immoveables and public buildings belonging to the Province, and all buildings destined for the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor or for offices for the pub- lic departments. He controls the collecting and publication of statistical and other information relating to the condition of labour; institutes CIVIL GOVERNMENT 101 and controls enquiries into important industrial questions and those relating to manufactures, and has supervision and control over all pro- ceedings under the Quebec Trade Disputes' Act. The Council of Arts and Manufactures and mechanics' institutes are under his control. MINISTER OF ROADS. He has the charge of the establishment of roads and highways in the Province, in accordance with the provisions of the law whereby municipalities are aided by loans and otherwise to build improved, or, as they are generally known, Good Roads. MINISTER OP MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS. This Department was recently established. Among other things, it supervises the loans and sinking funds made by municipalities upon the author- ization of Government. There is also the DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, whose head is the Superintend- ent, and who is not a member of the Govern- ment. In the succeeding chapter this Depart- ment will be referred to more fully. In logical order a statement in regard to the Legislature should have preceded this outline of the functions and duties of the executive departments. But this general view of the various responsibilities of government depart- ments may serve to indicate more clearly the kind of matters with which the Legislature deals. The making of the provincial laws, and voting the annual sums of money required to 102 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC carry on the public business in all its branches, constitute the principal functions of the Legis- lature. At its annual sessions, usually lasting two months or more, bills are presented on various matters. Certain classes of questions, and particularly all "money" bills, originate only with the Government. Private members, how- ever, may propose bills on many matters. The bills are submitted to special committees of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative As- sembly; and after being "reported" to the chambers they are "debated." After passing a third reading in each chamber a bill becomes an "act," when sanctioned by the Lieu tenant- Governor. As in other legislatures under the British system, the presiding member of either cham- ber Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly --is the "Speaker." He is the choice of the Government in power, the nomination being endorsed by the majority vote of the members. The duty of the Speaker is to main- tain the rules of procedure and debate. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. There are three classes of municipalities in the Province of Quebec, 1. Those governed by a special charter of the Legislature, 2. Those governed by the Cities and Towns' Act, 3. Those governed by the Municipal Code. The great majority are under the Municipal Code, The councils oi' the village and rural munici- CIVIL GOVERNMENT 103 palities under the Municipal Code consist of a Mayor and six councillors, all elected for terms of two years, three councillors retiring each year. The county council consists of the mayors of the different municipalities in the county governed by the Code. The presiding officer of this council is the Warden, who is chosen by the Mayor from among themselves. The executive officer is tbe secretary-treasurer. In general, the duties and functions of muni- cipal councils are the maintenance of peace and order and the provision and maintenance of utilities in the public interest. The range of matters thus concerned varies greatly. The maintenance of peace and order in a rural muni- cipality is a much less difficult matter than in a large city; in the latter, also, the provision of public utilities such as water supply, public parks, and so forth, entails a much greater ex- penditure. An English writer of the eighteenth century, who wrote under the name of "Junius," said that "the submission of a free people to the authority of the Chief Magistrate is no more than a compliance with laws which they them- selves have made." If it was true then, when only a small proportion of the people of England or of any other country had the right to vote, that we "make" (through our representatives) the laws we are required to obey, it is surely more true to-day when almost everybody has a vote. But this increase of democratic power 104 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC carries with it an increased responsibility. Good local government in city, town and country is a matter of ever-growing importance. Federal, provincial and municipal government are three parts of a connected whole. The same principle of responsibility is attached to each. The wel- fare of Canada depends upon the extent to which the moral sense of this responsibility is an active one in the individual communities. And to this end we must look, for one thing, to the great means of the diffusion of general and sound education. The chief function of parliaments and legis- latures is to make and amend the laws. The progress of legislation in modern countries is to a large extent the measure of the moral worth and enlightenment of the people. It is not always, however, an absolutely certain indication of enlightenment and moral worth. Thus, some years ago, both Turkey and Abyss- inia adopted compulsory education laws, in keeping with that movement elsewhere; but so far as the results show, the object in view was, apparently, not to provide schools for the people at large but to have something on the statute books that would look well to other countries from whom they wished to borrow money. This is an extreme case, but in western countries to- day there is a tendency to overload the statute books with much legislation which by its very nature is apt to be a dead letter. At the same time, sound, wise and progressive CIVIL GOVERNMENT 1Q5 legislation is a reality, and should be a matter of general concern. Great measures which liberate vast moral and economic forces, and immensely change the social conditions of a country, may not appear more than once in a lifetime, but lesser measures may often quietly effect beneficent changes in the public welfare. 106 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC CHAPTER VIII EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM As explained in the previous chapter, Educa- tion is one of the matters under the exclusive control of the individual provinces of the Dom- inion, subject only to the provisions of Art. 93 of the British North America Act. In the United States also the schools are under the control of the individual states and not under that of the federal government. There is no Minister of Education under the Quebec system. The Secretary of the Province is the member of the Cabinet who represents the interests of education in the Legislature, The Department of Public Instruction, how- ever, is separate from that of the Secretary of the Province. All matters of an administrative character concerning the public schools and normal schools of the Province are under the supervision of the Department of Public In- struction, and all correspondence connected therewith should be addressed to the Super- intendent of Public Instruction, Quebec. It may be added here that the words "public school'* include in Quebec all schools under control of commissioners or trustees whether kinder- garten, elementary, intermediate (model), acad- emy or high schools. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 107 Technical schools, night schools, reformatory and industrial schools, are under the control of the Department or' the Secretary of the Province, and all correspondence concerning them should be addressed to the Secretary of the Province, Quebec. Department of Public Instruction. The Sup- erintendent is the head of this Department. He is assisted by two secretaries a French Sec- retary and an English Secretary each of whom is a deputy-minister. At present, also, the French Secretary is the Secretary of the Roman Catholic Committee of the Council of Public Instruction, and the English Secretary the Secretary of the Protestant Committee. In this double capacity, therefore, the two secret- aries of the Department are charged with responsible duties in connection with the schools they respectively represent. The School' Law is contained in Arts. 2521 to 3051 of the Revised Statutes of Quebec, 1909, and subsequent amendments, The Regulations of the two Committees of the Council of Public Instruction do not form part of the School Law proper but they have all the force of law. Art. 2532 states that "The Superintendent; in the exercise of his functions, shall comply with the directions of the Council of Public Instruction or with those of the Roman Catholic and Prot- estant Committees as the case may be." The Superintendent is ex officio member and chairman of the council of Public Instruction, 108 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC and is a member of each committee thereof, but he has a right to vote only in the committee of the religious belief to which he belongs. Among the duties of administration perform- ed by the Department may be mentioned the following : 1. Receiving the annual reports of the school municipalities of the Province. 2. Receiving the autumn reports and spring bulletins of the school inspectors. 3. Administering the public school grants, and also the Superior School and Poor Muni- cipality grants recommended by the two Com- mittees of the Council of Public Instruction. 4. Preparing the Annual Report of the Su- perintendent. 5. Receiving petitions in regard to changes in the boundaries of school municipalities, an- nexations, or erections of new municipalities, and other such matters in which the School Law directs that the assent of the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in council is given "upon the recommend- ation of the Superintendent." 6. General correspondence. COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. The Council of Public Instruction as a whole consists of Roman Catholic and Protestant members; practically of the two Committees, with the ex- ception of the associate members of each refer- red to later on. The members of the Protestant Committee who are members of the Council are EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 109 equal in number to the lay members of the Roman Catholic Committee. The Council is seldom called together. Joint consultation of the two Committees is required only when questions affecting the joint inter- ests of Roman Catholic and Protestant schools are proposed. Ordinary matters are readily dealt with by communication from one Com- mittee to the other. Upon each Committee, however, separately and equally, very large powers are conferred. Each makes its own Regulations for the organ- ization, administration and discipline of its respective schools, Elementary and Superior. In other provinces the power of making regula- tions is conferred upon the Minister of Educa- tion. The Committees meet separately to perform the duties conferred upon them by the School Law. The Protestant Committee meets four times a year; in February, May, September and November, usually on the last Friday of the month. Certain Sub-committees, as for instance the one which reports upon the course of study and text books, meet more frequently. The Roman Catholic Committee meets three times a year, in February, May and September, with Sub- committee meetings also during the year. As to the membership of the Committees, Art. 2540 reads: "The Roman Catholic Committee consists of: "The bishops, ordinaries or administrators of 110 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC the Roman Catholic dioceses and apostolic vicar- iates, situated either wholly or partly in the Province, who are members ex-officio. "An equal number of Roman Catholic lay- men appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in council during pleasure. "The Lieutenant-Go vernor in council may add to the said Committee four officers of in- struction, two of whom, being priests, shall be principals of normal schools in this province, and two of whom shall be laymen, officers of primary instruction; such appointment being made for a term not exceeding three years." "The Protestant Committee consists of: "A number of Protestant members, equal to the number of Roman Catholic lay members, and appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in council during pleasure. "The Protestant Committee may associate with themselves six persons, and the Provincial Association of Protestant Teachers may, each year, at their annual meeting, elect one of their members to be an associate member of the Protestant Committee, for the following year." While the four appointed officers of instruc- tion of the Roman Catholic Committee, and the Associate members of the Protestant Committee are not members of the Council they are full members of their respective Committees. As already stated-, the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Committees have the same and EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM HI equal powers in regard to their respective schools; and all schools under control, whether elementary, model or intermediate, academy or high school, are either Roman Catholic or Prot- testant, that is, they are conducted under the Regulations of either the one or the other Com- mittee. The matters upon which the Committees' in- dependently make Regulations are the most important in all that relates to a system of public instruction. Art. 2548 reads: "The Roman Catholic or Protestant Commit- tee, as the case may be, and as the provisions which concern them require, may, with the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in council, make regulations: "1. For the organization, administration and discipline of public schools; "2. For the division of the Province into inspection districts and for establishing the boundaries of such districts; "3. For the government of normal schools; "4. For the government of boards of ex- aminers; "5. For the examination of candidates for the office of school inspector; "6. For determining the holidays to be given in schools." This enumeration is more comprehensive than might appear at a first glance. Thus, as pre- viously explained, the words "public School" in- 112 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC elude Elementary and Superior Schools. The provisions include, therefore, the making of the courses of study for all schools, and all other matters affecting their internal administration. Regulations are approved by the Lieutenant- Governor in council, but each Committee author- izes the text books, maps, globes, etc., for its schools without this reference and when it sees fit may withdraw the authorization. A Roman Catholic Central Board of Examin- ers and a Protestant Central Board of Examin- ers, appointed by order-in-council upon the rec- ommendation of the respective Committees of the Council of Public Instruction, may issue, in accordance with the regulations of each Com- mittee, teachers' diplomas. Normal schools also grant diplomas, and the Superintendent grants a diploma of qualification to any pupil of a normal school who has obtained from the prin- cipal a certificate establishing that such pupil has successfully followed a regular course of studies therein in accordance with the regula- tions of the Roman Catholic or Protestant Com- mittee, as the case may be. Such diplomas, therefore, are signed both by the Superintendent an$ the principal of the normal school. While each Committee examines the can- didates for the oi'fice of inspector of schools, and grants their certificates of qualification for appointment, the actual appointment necessarily rests with the Government by whom their sal- aries and travelling allowances are paid. There EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 113 are fifty Roman Catholic inspectors and ten Protestant, and there is a Protestant inspector of Protestant Superior Schools. The elementary schools are visited twice a year, the inspectors furnishing to the Depart- ment an "Autumn Report" in connection with the first visit and a much more extensive "Spring Bulletin" in connection with the second visit. In September each year the inspectors hold Teachers' Conferences throughout their districts, giving instructions in regard to the course of study and regulations, together with pedagogical advice. An Inspector General of Roman Catholic schools and an Inspector General of Protestant schools are officers of the Department. SCHOOL BOARDS. The local control of the schools rests with the school boards, the members of which are elected by the rate- payers (proprietors of real estate and hus- bands of proprietors), except in the cities of Montreal and Quebec, where they are appointed. In both cities certain of the members are ap- pointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in council and others by the city council. In addition, in the case of the Roman Catholic board of school commissioners of Montreal, the Archbishop of Montreal has powers of nomination. Both in Montreal and Quebec there is a Protestant board of school commissioners as well as a Roman 114 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Catholic Board. In Three Rivers the municipal council is the Roman Catholic school Board. For all school boards of the Province in gen- eral the elections take place in the month of July. If for any reason an election is not held in that month the appointment to the vacancy or vacancies is made by the Lieutenant-Governor in council. Most of the school municipalities coincide either with the civil municipality or the parish. The cases where the boundaries do not coincide are chiefly those in which school municipalities have been erected "for Catholics only" or "for Protestants only," portions of two or more muni- cipalities being sometimes detached and thus erected. The number of school boards "for Catholics only" and "for Protestants only" is limited; in both instances they have been re- quired usually for geographical reasons. In other provinces the members of school boards are called simply "trustees." In Quebec the ratepayers belonging to the local religious majority (which may be either Roman Catholic or Protestant) are represented by a board of five "commissioners," while the ratepayers belong- ing to the "dissentient" minority are represented by a board of three "trustees." Where boards represent "Catholics only" or "Protestants only" as well as in the case of Montreal, Quebec, and other cities with special charters there may be two boards of commissioners in the same municipality, but in no other case. A board of EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 115 commissioners and a board of trustees in the same municipality is the normal condition. In newly organized school municipalities two commissioners retire by lot at the end of the first year; two by lot at the end of the second year, while the fifth completes his term at the end of the third year. Thereafter each com- missioner completes a full term of three years, two being elected annually during two years and one every third year. The same principle is applied in the election of trustees, except that in newly organized municipalities one only retires by lot in the first and second years, the board consisting of three members only, and therefore one retires yearly. Male proprietors of real estate, or the hus- bands of proprietors, duly entered as such in the valuation roll, are eligible for election. So, also, although not qualified in respect to prop- erty, is every Roman Catholic cure and every minister of any other religious faith ministering in the school municipality. Retiring commis- sioners or trustees are eligible for re-election. Persons elected are bound to accept office and cannot retire before the expiration of their term, but members of the Roman Catholic or Protestant clergy, persons over sixty years of age, and all who have been commissioners or trustees within four years, may refuse to accept office, or having accepted may afterwards re- sign. The right to resign is limited, therefore, to these cases. 116 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC When a vacancy occurs in case of death, lack of qualification (as, for instance, when a com- missioner or trustee disposes of his real estate), refusal to accept office when the law authorizes such refusal, resignation legally given, change of domicile, or incapacity, during three consec- utive months, by reason of absence or sickness, the remaining commissioners may replace the commissioner or trustee within thirty days. If this is not done within the period of delay, the appointment is made by the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in council upon the recommendation of the Superintendent. DISSENT. Any number of persons belonging to the religious minority in a municipality, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, may dissent and form a dissentient school municipal- ity. The notice of dissent is signed in triplicate. One is served on the chairman or secretary of the school commissioners, one is sent to the Superintendent, and the third is retained for the archives of the dissentient board. The notice of dissent must be given before the first of May in any year, and goes into effect on the first of July. The ratepayers who have signed elect three trustees in July. While "any number" of ratepayers, tenants and occupants of the local religious minority may dissent, it is essential in practice that there shall be three persons qualified by law to act EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 117 as trustees. It is necessary, also that there shall be enough pupils to form a school. When two-thirds of the minority have dis- sented, by giving notice, the rest become dis- sentient by law, without the formality of notice, except those who may be sending their children to the schools of the commissioners. The general provisions of the School Law in respect to their powers and duties are the same for trustee boards as for boards of commis- sioners. Quebec differs from most of the provinces in following the "township" or the parish plan. A rural board of commissioners may have any- where from one to half a dozen or more schools under its control, while the board of trustees may have nearly as many. Under this system the stronger and richer "districts" into which the municipality is divided by its board are bound to assist the weaker and poorer districts, as by law the taxes are uniform throughout a municipality and must be put into a "common fund" for all districts. Large rural school municipalities make school consolidation easier, whenever this is deemed desirable and possible. SCHOOL TAXES. In the larger cities and towns the school taxes are collected by the municipal authorities. In most of the places under special charter the annual rate of taxation is determined by the Legislature or rather a 118 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC maximum is fixed beyond which the board can- not go. In general, however, throughout the Province the boards have the right to levy the rate re- quired for the maintenance of their schools. In the great majority of cases, also, the boards collect their own taxes, although under the School law they may require the municipal authorities to do the collecting. The valuation roll of the municipal council is that which is followed by the school board, unless the former has failed to make a valuation. In municipalities where there is dissent each board levies its rate independently upon its own supporters, but the commissioners alone have the right to collect the school taxes due from incorporated companies. The commissioners then pay over to the trustees the annual share of the latter in these "neutral panel" taxes. This share is determined according to the en- rollment of pupils in the schools of each board. Thus if the commissioners have 300 pupils, and the trustees 200, the share of the trustees is as 200 is to the total number in this case two- fifths. If there are two boards of commissioners (as may happen in the instances mentioned on a previous page) the division is made on a slightly different basis. The board of commissioners with the largest number of ratepayers collects the taxes on incorporated companies and then divides them with the other board of commis- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM H9 sioners not according to enrollment but accord- ing to the number of children from 5 to 16 years of age, of each religious faith, "residing" in the municipality. If the territories of the two boards of commissioners do not wholly coincide the division is made according to the number of children belonging to each residing "in the territory common to both." Where a "special" tax is levied, as for the building of a school, either the commissioners or the trustees may tax the incorporated com- panies in the same way as other ratepayers un- der their control, to an amount equal to the amount to which the board would have been entitled if the tax had been, instead, an ordinary tax levied and apportioned by the commission- e'rs. Thus, if the commissioners have levied a "special" tax of 50 cents on the hundred dol- lars, and the commissioners have 300 pupils in their schools to 200 of the trustees' pupils, the commissioners will levy the three-fifths of 50 cents on the incorporated companies. With the same proportionate number of pupils the trust- ees would levy the two-fifths of 50 cents (or two-fifths of whatever the rate of their special tax might be) on the companies. In this connection it may be stated that for the building of schools in rural municipalities either the district to be served by the element- ary school, or the whole municipality, is subject to the special tax, according as the one or the other plan has been followed in the municipal- 120 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC ity. The existing plan may be changed, upon the approval of the Superintendent, six months after notice to that effect has been given to the rate-payers. If the assessment is for a Superior School the district in which it is placed is first assessed for the amount that would have been necessary for an elementary school, and the ad- ditional amount required to accomodate the higher classes is levied on the whole municipal- ity, including the district itself. The justifica- tion for this is that the Superior School provides the elementary education for the district in which it is situated as well as the higher grades for all districts. School boards administer the properties of the school municipality. They select and pur- chase school sites and build and repair school houses (all subject to appeal by ratepayers with- in certain days after public notice has been given). If a loan has to be made for any purpose of this character "no acquisition, "construction or repair" may be carried out until the school corporation has complied with the law in re- spect to loans. A site may be selected, and plans made for a building, but no actual pur- chase of the site or contract for the building may be made until the authority for the loan has been obtained from the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in council on the recommendation of the Superintendent. The ratepayers must first be informed, by notice, that a meeting of the board is to be held to consider a resolution in this EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 121 connection. The resolution declares the purpose or purposes of the purposed loan, the particul- ars of the proposed issue of bonds or debentures, and declares that a special tax shall be levied yearly for the interest and sinking fund. The resolution, if adopted by the board at this public meeting, is published, and if after thirty days no opposition has been offered by ratepayers a cer- tificate to that effect is sent to the Superintend- ent. It is then submitted to the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in council for approval. School boards engage the teachers. Engage- ments are for one year, but may be longer in special cases approved by the Superintendent. If a teacher has not given notice before the first of May that he does not intend to teach the following year he is by that fact re-engaged on the same terms, unless by the first of June the board gives notice that his services are not required for the next year. Boards may not give collective or simultan-" eous notices to teachers that their services are not required for the following year when the real intention may be to retain some and not others. While engagements must be in writing, in virtue of a resolution of the school board, the essential contract binding both parties begins, of course, when verbal or written agreement has been reached. Boards are required, under pain of losing their grants, to engage qualified teachers. When 122 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC efforts to this end have failed permission may be issued by the Superintendent to engage a teacher without diploma. The Protestant Com- mittee requires that the application shall state that the vacant position was duly advertized in newspapers, and shall mention the salary offer- ed. This application must be approved by the inspector before it is sent to the Department. Permissions are not issued upon the application of the teacher but of the school board. The diplomas authorized by the Protestant Committee are Elementary, Intermediate (Mod- el), High School (Academy) each being either first or second class; also Kindergarten Dir- ector and Kindergarten Assistant certificates. Normal school training is given at the School for Teachers, Macdonald College. First Class High School diplomas are granted only to uni- versity graduates who have taken the university course in Education. PROTESTANT SCHOOLS. The complete course of study is in eleven grades, Grade XI being the School Leaving and matriculation year. In the Elementary Schools the first seven grades are taught; in the Intermediate (Model) Schools the first nine grades, and in the High Schools (Academies) the whole eleven grades are taught. Quebec is exceptional in having the Elementary grades in the Superior Schools. The system, however, works well. It is rendered practicable by the fact that these higher schools EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 123 are under the same local board which has charge of the elementary schools. In small towns there may be but one Protestant school and that a High School, doing all the education- al work of the community from first primer to university matriculation. In other respects secondary Protestant educa- tion is similar in Quebec to that of other prov- inces. The course of study is the usual 'ladder to the university'. In so far as school subjects are concerned Quebec may be regarded as con- servative. The Elementary course includes Writing, English, History, Geography, Arith- metic, French, Hygiene, Nature Study and Agri- culture, Drawing and Music. Simple business forms, etc., are included under the head of writ- ing from Grade V to VII; English Grammar begins in Grade V; History of Canada in Grade VI; Geography from a text book in Grade IV; Arithmetic in all grades; French begins in Grade IV; Hygiene and Nature Study in all grades; Music in all grades; Drawing from Grade II. The additional subjects in the Superior Schools are Geometry, Algebra, Latin, Science (Physics or Chemistry or Botany). British History begins in Grade VIII, and is continued to the end of the course. Canadian History of a more advanced character is taken up again in Grades X and XI. Latin is optional and begins in Grade VIII. Greek is no longer on the course of study. English Literature begins in Grade I (child poems) and leads up to Shakespeare and Browning in Grade XL 124 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. The Roman Catholic Academies do not take up all the ad- vanced subjects taught in the higher grades of the Protestant High Schools, but Catholic sec- ondary education is not neglected. It is pursued in many independent institutions; in the case of boys, in the twenty Classical Colleges scattered through the Province. These institutions are exceptional in their organization. The pupils enter at an early age and not only do high school work but proceed through the Arts course, the degrees being given by the Universite de Mont- real and the Universite Laval, Quebec. The high literary culture of French Canadian states- men and professional men generally is largely due to the influence of these colleges. Leading teaching convents in Montreal, Quebec, and other centres render the same service in literary culture for the French Canadian women of the Province. To .outsiders, whether of other provinces or of the United States, nothing is more striking in regard to the Quebec system than the fact that the public schools, elementary and superior, are "religious" in their control and distinctively either Roman Catholic or Protestant the Jews belonging to the Protestant schools. The Quebec "anomaly" is viewed favourably or unfavourably according to the theory held in regard to the function of public education. The purely secularist theory is upheld not only by pronounced secularists but also by many re- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 125 ligious men who hold that religious teaching belongs to the home, the Sunday School and the Church. They point to the cementing influence of the "common school" in building up a com- mon national sentiment, and doubt the possib- ility of introducing religious instruction to suit all members of the community. At the same time there has been a movement in recent years among leading educationists in the United States towards some measure of religious instruction in the schools as a means of inculcating moral principles among the many who are deprived of ideal home and church religious influences. There is also the classic case of Professor Huxley, who, over forty years ago, after becom- ing a member of the London School Board, sur- prised his secularist friends by advocating the introduction of Bible readings in the board schools as the best means of moral instruction. Fortunately we are not called upon in this chapter to decide upon the merits of this dis- puted question. It is enough to point out that during the French regime in Canada (1608- 1759) education was in the hands of the clergy; that from 1760 onward the Roman Catholic church has held to the principle that public education should be religious, and that the great majority of the laity are of the same conviction. Education being a provincial matter the exist- ing system is inevitable. From the time, however, that public educa- tion was organized in the Province the majority 126 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC have consistently accorded to \he Protestant minority the same rights in regard to their schools, and it is certain that the Protestant Committee has always regarded this as a priv- ilege in respect to moral and religious instruc- tion. The course in this subject in the Protest- ant schools is defined by the Protestant Com- mittee, composed of members of the different denominations. No trouble has ever arisen from the work of the Committee in this connection. Religious instruction is not obligatory upon pupils of an opposite faith in any school. This freedom extends to the matter of lang- uage. In French Roman Catholic schools French is the language of instruction, with English as a second language subject. In Eng- lish Roman Catholic schools English is the language of instruction, with French as a sec- ond language subject. The same rule is follow- ed in English and French Protestant schools. The freedom as to the language of instruction is a matter of unwritten law. There is nothing in the School Law nor in the Regulations of the Roman Catholic or the Protestant Committee on the subject, except that in the Roman Catholic Committee's Regulations there is a general heading over such subjects as Reading as "French for French Schools, or English f'xr English Schools." In mixed communities where there are both English and French Catholic pupils the Depart- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 127 merit requires that the teacher shall be bi- lingual. In the course of study authorized by the Protestant Committee the teaching of French begins in Grade IV and is continued to the end of Grade XI. The Oral Method is used through- out. It is taught during four years in all elementary schools, during six years in inter- mediate schools, and during eight years in high schools. In order to render the teaching of the language more effective, specialists in French are trained for the high schools. Each board engaging a specialist receives a special grant from Government. A Supervisor of French teaching in English Schools is provided also by Government. UNIVERSITIES. The four universities of the Province Laval, Quebec, and the Universite de Montreal, Montreal, (both Roman Catholic), McGill University, Montreal, (non-sectarian) and Bishop's College University, Lennoxville, (Anglican) - while all receiving Government grants are wholly independent in their control. There is no "provincial'* university, but Laval, the Universite de Montreal and McGill each re- cently received a special grant of one million dollars from the Government of the Province. There is co-operation between the Protest- ant Committee and the two English universities. Both conduct courses for the training of High School teachers.. The training of teachers for Elementary and Intermediate Schools is con- 128 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC ducted at Macdonald College, now forming a part of McGill University. Teacher training, however, is a matter under the control of the Protestant Committee. The Classical Colleges, affiliated with the, two French universities, are also independent. The Polytechnical School and the School of Commercial Higher Studies, Montreal, are now under the control of the Universite de Montreal. ROMAN CATHOLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS, There are fourteen normal schools for the train- ing of Roman Catholic teachers. There is also a Domestic Science teacher-training school, giv- ing a thorough four year course. TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. The Montreal and Quebec Technical Schools are the two largest institutions of this character, and were founded and are largely maintained by the Government of the Province. They are under the control of the Secretary of the Province. Other technical schools aided by Government are those at Sher- brooke, Shawinigan Falls, and Beauceville. The Protestant Board of School Commissioners of Montreal conducts a Commercial and Technical High School, which holds night classes under the name of the Technical Institute. GOVERNMENT GRANTS. The share of each board in the principal Public School Fund is determined by the number of pupils enrolled in the previous year. This fund is distributed to EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 129 all school boards, city, town and country. The deductions for the Teachers' Pension Fund are made from the grants, the present rate of the stoppages being two and a half percent. There is another Public School Fund ($225,000.00) distributed on the same basis of enrollment but only to village and rural boards. These boards must have maintained certain minimum salary standards during the previous year. The grants from this fund have accom- plished much in raising the salaries of rural teachers. The Legislative votes for Superior Education and for Poor Municipalities are divided into two portions, according to the respective numbers of Roman Catholics and Protestants in the Province as given in the preceding federal census. All non-Roman Catholic persons are counted as Protestants in determining the basis of division. The Protestant Committee adds to its share of both funds certain other Protestant moneys, collected or given by Government, such as mar- riage license fees, etc. The Committee's grants to its Superior Schools are apportioned accord- ing to the results of the June Examinations and the general report of the- Protestant Inspector of Superior Schools. The Poor Fund is appor- tioned by the Committee on the basis of the local effort of the boards concerned, as deter- mined by the departmental reports from the inspectors and the secretary-treasurers. 130 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC TEACHERS' PENSIONS. All lay teachers with diploma are entitled to a pension after 20 years of service in the Province and at the age of 56. A teacher may retire at 50 but cannot receive the pension until 56. When accident, ill health, etc., prevents a teacher from continu- ing service, he may receive a pension at any age if he has taught 20 years, and if he has taught over 10 years and less than 20 years he is entitled to receive back all stoppages paid in. Upon restoration to health he may restore his pension rights by paying again the stoppages returned, if teaching is resumed. Married male teachers may contribute for a half pension to be paid to their widows. The contributions must begin at the time of mar- riage, but an amendment to Art. 3004 passed in 1921 enabled husbands who had neglected to pay these extra stoppages to do so before the 30th of June, 1922. The pension of a male teacher is two percent of the average salary for each year of service up to 35 years. The pension of a female teacher is three percent of the average salary for each year of service up to 35 years, provided that it does not exceed ninety percent of tne average salary during the ten years when the salary was highest. In both cases, where the service is over 25 years the average salary may be determined by the 25 years in which the salary was highest. The Pension Fund is maintained by the EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 131 "stoppages" and annual grants from the Legis- lature. Public education, elementary and superior, has made great progress in Quebec during the last twenty-five years. This is manifested not merely in the largely increased contributions of Government and the ratepayers but in many other ways. In all parts of the Province there is a strongly awakened consciousness to the value and importance of education in commer- cial, manufacturing and agricultural progress. Quebec, it is true, is conservative. Its educa- tional system has had an historical develop- ment of its own, and public opinion does not favour adaptation to the spirit and methods of other systems different from its own. This makes it difficult, perhaps, for outsiders to measure progress and results in the familiar and ordinary terms of comparative statistics. Thus a somewhat uniform four-year high school course is general throughout the rest of Canada and in the United States. The last four grades of the Quebec Protestant high schools cor- respond to this system, but for Roman Catholic education the last two grades at any rate are conducted in independent institutions of high literary standards. But the statistics of what would be regarded as high school work only in these various institutions are not readily avail- able in a form that would make the high school statistics of the Province directly comparable with those of other provinces and states. The 132 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC fact of widespread secondary education, how- ever, remains. Quebec is conservative also in the absence of a compulsory education act. Nevertheless, legislation passed in 1919 forbids the employ- ment of boys and girls under sixteen years of age unless they can read and write, and this act bids fair to be well enforced. (Statutes of Quebec, 9 George V., chap. 50.) One conservative aspect of Quebec education is appreciated by all unprejudiced observers. The emphasis placed upon moral and religious instruction both in Protestant and Roman Cath- olic schools has its undoubted influence upon the manners, morals and character of the people. A considerable portion of that gen- eral respect for law and custom, and the rights of others, which marks the Province can be attributed to that instruction in the schools. It should be evident from the statements in this chapter that the English Protestant min- ority in the Province have complete educational freedom Protestant schools maintained by Protestant taxation; Protestant inspectors; teachers trained in a Protestant School for Teachers; courses of study and all Regulations concerning the schools authorized by the Prot- estant Committee, and departmental administra- tion represented by the English Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction. Nevertheless, as some of these features of the Quebec systems are far from being well under- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 133 stood outside the Province, it may be advisable to summarize them here briefly. After long experience the present writer is convinced that the chief difficulty outsiders have in interpreting Quebec educational conditions lies in the fact that all interpretations of other systems of gov- ernment, law and education are likely to be mixed in the mind with the conceptions peculiar to the system with which one is most familiar. Most people in the United States, including even distinguished writers, suppose the Can- adian phrase "Lieutenant-Governor in council'* to mean that the executive acts attributed to the Lieutenant Governor in council are those of the Lieutenant Governor personally rather than of his responsible advisers. Similarly, no doubt, many Canadians are puzzled when they see, in the "movies," a State Governor signing a pardon for a criminal of his own free will without wait- ing for the 'advice and consent' of a cabinet. Having been born and educated in Ontario, the present writer has the advantage of fam- iliarity with two very different school systems, and is therefore perhaps qualified on that ac- count to realize where misinterpretation, even with the best intentions, is most likely to originate. The following points should make clear to all who are familiar with the systems of the other provinces that under the Quebec system the Protestant minority enjoy complete educational autonomy in all things relating to the schools. 134 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 1. Protestants and Roman Catholics have equality under the School Law of the Province. The provisions of the general law apply to both. 2. Dissent is a personal right. It applies to every person, proprietor or tenant, of the local religious minority whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. The majority of the Protestant schools are under the control of Protestant "commissioners" and therefore not dissentient or "separate." 3. Every school Elementary, Intermediate or Model, and High School or Academy is either Roman Catholic or Protestant, that is, in every school under control either the course of study of the Roman Catholic Committee or that of the Protestant Committee is followed. 4. In the Eastern Townships there are still some Protestant boards of commissioners in mixed rural municipalities where "dissent" has not taken place. In these municipalities the Protestant board engages Protestant teachers for the Protestant districts and Roman Catholic teachers for the Roman Catholic districts. The Protestant inspector visits the Protestant schools, and the Roman Catholic inspector the Roman Catholic schools. 5. Protestant taxes support Protestant Elem- entary, Intermediate and High Schools. For the support of each kind of school, also, Prot- estant boards receive their share of the school taxes paid by the incorporated companies. 6. Protestant boards share in all Govern- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 135 merit grants to Elementary and Superior Educa- tion, as well as in the Poor Municipality grants. 7. There are no Departmental Regulations; the Regulations administered by the Depart- ment are those of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Committees for Roman Catholic and Protestant schools respectively. 8. Protestant normal school training is con- ducted under the authority of the Protestant Committee. 9. All examinations and examination stand- ards in connection with Protestant education are conducted under the authority of the Prot- estant Committee. This includes not only the school examinations, but also those for teach- ing diplomas and for the office of Protestant Inspector. 10. The English Secretary of the Depart- ment, who is a dopucy minister, is the respons- ible adviser of the Superintendent in all depart- mental matters concerning Protestant education. 136 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC CHAPTER IX. GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE. We use the word culture here in its more general meaning of civilization. The influence of various geographical factors in the historical and economic development of countries is now a well recognized principle. The foundation of cities at strategic points for trade or manufact- uring, or for both; the tendency towards the greater settlement of peoples in areas of low or moderate altitude, and the influence of moun- tain life upon the character are familiar illus- trations. New York and Montreal are excellent examples of the first mentioned. Then that the greater density of population follows the lines of low or moderate elevation is well shown in the Atlas of Canada issued by the Dominion Government in 1915. One map represents the density of population in eastern Quebec and the Maritime provinces, and another the density in western Quebec and Ontario. Different shades of brown indicate the different degrees of den- sity. The deepest shade of brown is found in the v valleys and in their lowest parts. Mountain life makes for the development of the hardier virtues; that its isolation may also produce a rough or crude culture has been illustrated in recent fiction. GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 137 The area of greatest density of population in Quebec is, of course, in the Lowland Plain from Quebec City westward. East of this city the density is greater on the south shore than on the north shore, but this is partly balanced by the now considerable settlements along the Saguenay River and in the Lake St. John district, water routes being generally favorable to settlement. The population of the Gaspe peninsula is represented on the density map as a surrounding fringe some ten miles wide, with the deeper shades of brow r n predominating on that part of the coast which faces Chaleur bay. The central part of 'the peninsula is mountain- ous and is represented in white, that is, with less than one inhabitant per square mile. In the Eastern Townships the differing shades of brown do not coincide, as might be expected, with the different altitudes caused by the Ap- palachian ridges and their wide intervening valleys. The reason is that these hills are much more "worn down" in the Eastern Town- ships than in Gaspe, and hence are frequently cultivated to their tops. Since 1880 there has been considerable growth of population on the southern portion of the Laurentian Plateau, which railway building and the opening up of new territory like the Abitibi are destined to extend still further. Readers of Parkman's histories can be in no doubt as to the character of the immigration from France to Canada in the seventeenth cen- 138 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC tury. As soon as the possibility of peaceful settlement on the soil was assured by the pun- ishment of the Iroquois (1667), the Marquis de Tracy urged upon the king the necessity of starting this settlement with "good seed." Ex- cept for a small proportion of what Mother Mary of the Incarnation described as "mixed goods'* (une marchandise melee), and which did not remain long, that immigration was in gen- eral of a good and sturdy quality. Coming mostly from northwestern France (although re- cent investigations have shown that the areas drawn from were more widely scattered than was long supposed) the majority were geograph- ically suited to the Canadian climate. It is certain, at any rate, that only a hardy and sound race could have produced the intrepid and ad- venturous "coureurs de bois," while the men who settled on the lands of the seigneurs as farmers displayed a native spirit of independ- ence in demanding to be called "habitants" (in- habitants or residents) rather than "paysans" (peasants) with its suggestion of the feudal conditions which still remained in France. Geographical and political separation have largely preserved in Canada the French lan- guage of the eighteenth century. No error can be greater than that of describing Canadian French as a "patois," although the error is too constantly repeated. No spoken language stands still. Words and phrases, as well as pronun- ciation, are constantly undergoing change. The GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 139 English language in England is now consider- ably different from the same language in the United States and parts of Canada. The French language in France to-day is different from that of the eighteenth century; so also Canadian French is somewhat different from that of the eighteenth century. The essential difference between the two modern forms of the same language is that in Canada more words and phrases, and more of the pronunciation, of the eighteenth century have been preserved than in France. Considering that in addition to geo- graphical and political separation, Canada and France were also isolated commercially, intel- lectually and socially for about sixty years roughly from 1760 to 1820 the truly remark- able fact is the substantial preservation of the language under these circumstances. In his "Antiquity of Man," Sir Charles Lyell, speaking of the rapid changes which modern languages undergo, referred to the case of a German settle- ment in Pennsylvania. From 1792 to 1815, a short period of only twenty-three years, this group of people was isolated from Germany by the European wars of that time. Shortly after 1815 Prince Bernhard of Saxe- Weimar visited America, and he found the group speaking an "obsolete dialect." In 1841 Sir Charles Lyell himself visited them, and found their news- papers full of English words as "fencen," to fence, instead of umzaeunen; "flauer" for flour, instead of mehl, etc., and he expressed the 140 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC opinion that if it were not for the constant flow of immigration from Germany which began after 1815 the Germans of Pennsylvania would have developed, in the course of a few genera- tions, a language unintelligible to Germans or to Anglo-Saxons, although containing elements from both languages. The Germans of Pennsylvania, of course, were surrounded by, and intermingled with, English speaking people, while on the other hand, French Canadians, from 1760 to 1820, al- though wholly separated from Prance for that long period, had contact only with the com- paratively limited number of English speaking people in Canada at that time. This circum- stance, together with the attachment of the people to their own culture and the influence of the highly educated professional classes, largely preserved the language. Changes, how- ever, took place, just as they have taken place in France. In Canada a number of sea-faring words became used in a new sense, such as "embarquer" for "monter"; and in time, as the English population increased, some English words were adopted, just as other English words were adopted in France. But with the resumption of intercourse with France during the last hundred years through trade and other channels, with the much wider contact with French literature which followed, with the gen- eral spread and increase of popular education, with the great development of the French news- GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 141 papers of the Province, with the creation of an extensive and important body of French Cana- dian literature, and, finally, by direct effort, the differences between the French language in Canada and France have been becoming stead- ily less marked. Such differences as do exist are of a purely philological or historical char- acter. A French priest from France may preach to the congregation of a Quebec country parish with the certainty of being well understood. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier addressed various audiences in France some years ago it was remarked that the pronunciation of only a word or so, here and there, was 'slightly quaint', and the more learned at once recognized the quaint- ness as the common pronunciation of the eight- eenth century. Moreover, every pupil in the English schools of Quebec who is mastering French by the Oral Method, and by the reading of modern French literature texts, is fully aware and confident that when that mastery is at- tained it will have afforded the practical and unquestioned command of the French language as it is written and spoken in Canada. This would not be the case if Canadian French were a 'patois*. The effects of geographical distribution and environment upon culture or civilization con- stitute one of the most important problems in the government of the world to-day. This was recognized when geographical experts were called in to assist in the re-drafting of the map 142 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC of Europe after the Great War. They were not summoned to give merely the kind of informa- tion that is obtained from survey records, but to advise in regard to those larger factors of national affinity or otherwise which have been considerably determined by geographical dis- tribution in the past. Nowhere does this problem require more at- tention than in the British Dominions, compos- ed as they are of so many different races, creeds, and cultures, under diverse geographical conditions. It is this, indeed, which makes the facts ,the meaning and the purpose of Historical Geography so highly important. If the several commonwealths of the Empire are to hold to- gether with the Mother Country to the best interests of world government, it is not by force but by great principles that the connection can be maintained. They cannot be united by tariff bonds which every change in the market might render irksome to one or another of the widely separated partners, but each has the magni- ficent task of developing those principles that experience has shown to have been the most successful, not merely in extending the sphere of British political institutions but in rendering them the instruments of sound progress and normal development for all concerned. This is idealism, it is true, but it is an idealism which accomplished much real work in the second half of the nineteenth century, after it was realized that a Greater Britain was fast growing to GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 143 maturity in different parts of the globe. It is idealism, but it is one that cannot with safety be ignored. The Fathers of Confederation recognized that one of the chief problems in the development of national unity in Canada hinged upon a geographical factor. The Dominion is three thousand miles wide, and the general settlement of population extends across the southern fringe. In 1867 the settled areas were almost wholly in eastern Canada, but the western prairies were soon opened up for cattle-grazing and wheat-growing. To hasten that settlement, and at the same time to afford the means of inter-provincial communication, the Canadian Pacific and the Intercolonial railways were projected and built. The transcontinental railways, and water communication during half the year through the Great Lakes, the canals, and the Great River, have been and are important and indispensable aids to the development of national unity. They have operated by creating currents of inter- provincial trade, as well as east and west inter- course generally, but at the same time the fact that the nine provinces form four distinct geo- graphical or physiographic units has to be taken into account. These units are, 1. British Col- umbia, 2. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 3, Ontario and Quebec, 4. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The dif- ferences in economic development arising from 144 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC geographical position, together with the fact that each of the four units has more or less trade intercourse with corresponding units of the United States, have naturally led to some diversity of interests east and west, although this diversity is no greater than that which is manifest in the differing economic interests of the eastern and western United States. But it is the differences in cultural ideals, arising not merely from geographical position but also from those historical causes which are more or less of a geographical nature, that have made more than one Canadian statesman ex- claim that "Canada is a difficult country to govern," and have impelled many to impatiently desire some magic "melting pot" to jnould all Canadians alike from coast to coast ! The melting pot, however, implies forceful methods and has for its end uniformity rather than the truer unity which may be based upon diversity. It is just here that historical geo- graphy and British idealism suggest higher principles. The Canadian people consist of two sound stocks, an English speaking and a French speak- ing, but geographical distribution having placed the majority of the one in eight provinces and the majority of the other in one province has at times rendered mutual interpretation difficult. Not difference of language only, but differences of temperament, of culture, of ideals, of institu- tions, and of inherited political thought, have GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 145 made it difficult for each to fully understand the other. We have spoken of the attachment of French Canadians to their language. Not less great is their attachment to the soil of Canada. This strongest national tie is sometimes misinter- preted. It is explained, however, by some simple facts of historical geography. Most ot' us who belong to the English speaking majority of Canada, and at the same time are of British birth or of British descent in the first, second, third, fourth or fifth generation, retain more or less personal connection with the mother coun- try. Widespread family relationships between the old country and the new have frequently been maintained from the days when Canada was a "colony" to the present time, and these relationships have constituted a strong factor in the maintenance of British connection. On the other hands, the 65,000 French Cana- dians who remained in Canada in 1760, and who for sixty years after that date were wholly isolated from France, retained, at least so far as the great majority were concerned, no such family relationships with their mother country. Separation was almost complete; and as the English population of the country did not in- crease appreciably until the beginnings of the nineteenth century, the development of a French Canadian nationality, with ideals and institu- tions of its own, was inevitable. A culture, dif- ferent in expression from that which English 146 THE FROVINCB OF QUEBEC Canada inherited from Great Britain or bor- rowed from the United States, was thus created. It is upon the growth of a deeper mutual ap- preciation of all that is best in these two cul- tures, by means of a wider practical knowledge of the two languages and a more profound study of Canadian history, that a broad and truly Canadian spirit should be based, and the devel- opment of that mutual knowledge and apprecia- tion is one of the highest of our political duties as a people. Foni Walt ham in the county of Pontiac to Gaspe in the county of Gaspe" is a distance of about nine hundred miles by railway. It is along this southern boundary of the Province that the English population is distributed chief- ly. The greatest density is on the Island of Montreal, and the least density on the area be- tween Levis and Matapedia, although along most of the St. Lawrence River between Mont- real and Quebec there are but fe\v English speaking people. The Atlas of Canada (1915) shows that the predominating element in the Eastern Townships is of French origin. In 1837 that section of the Province had 37,000 English speaking people and 4,000 French speaking. In 1887 the English element had in- creased to 76,000 but the French had increased to 107,000. This fact, together with the dim- inution of the English people in certain counties during recent years, has been described as a GEOGRAPHY AND HUMAN CULTURE 147 "tragedy" peculiar to Quebec. The present writer lived in the Eastern Townships for thirty years and has long been convinced that the movement of the English rural population from that section to the cities and to the West has been parallel in economic origin to the similar movement of the English rural population from other eastern provinces and from such states as Massachusetts and Vermont. It is a regret- table movement, nevertheless, and so far as farming is concerned it is now being recognized that it is not justified on economic grounds in general. The climatic conditions, the soils, the markets, and the marketing facilities, are im- portant factors which render the business of farming a certainty from year to year in the Eastern Townships, and this should tend not only to hold the prosperous English farmers in that section, but attract others. The diminished English population in a num- ber of the townships has rendered it more dif- ficult to maintain the rural Protestant schools. Exactly the same conditions in this respect which prevailed in the state of Massachusetts after the close of the Civil War, and which led to the adoption of the plan of conveying pupils to a central consolidated school, prevail in the Eastern Townships and other sections of the Province. In recognition of this fact the Gov- ernment of the Province has been providing for some years special annual grants in aid of consolidation of Protestant rural schools. The 148 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC system enables such townships to have schools of higher rank than elementary, every consol- idated school being either an intermediate (nine year course) or a high school (eleven year course). Where such schools are established they tend to hold the English population to- gether. In the financial and industrial affairs not only of the Province but of the Dominion the English element of the city of Montreal has long held a commanding position. During the hun- dred years since James McGill made possible the beginning of the great university which bears his name a long line of broad-minded merchant princes have contributed not only to the expansion of that university but to the endowment of other institutions of immense service to the community and the country. LIST OF SOME ALTITUDES 149 APPENDIX LIST OF SOME ALTITUDES IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. (Top of rails in front of railway station.) Above sea level Places (in feet) Gaspe Village 9 New Carlisle 9 Port Daniel 15 Quebec (C.P.R.) 19 Escuminac 23 Three Rivers 51 New Richmond 58 Matapedia 54 St. Lambert 74 Hudson 91 Delson ' .92 St. Hyacinthe 109 Ste. Anne de Bellevue .... 117 St. Johns 117 Clarenceville 122 Howick 132 Ormstown " . . 138 bacolle 154 Valleyfield 158 Huntingdon 165 Stanbridge 169 Bedford . . 179 150 TilE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Faruham 191 Paspebiac 191 Hull 191 Joliette 201 Ayhner 216 Lachute 228 Drummondville 2G5 Quion 278 Wakefield 330 Shawinigan Falls 364 Cowansville 379 Richmond 390 Bristol 396 Windsor Mills 419 Rawdon 424 Sherbrooke (G.T.R.) .... 485 (C.P.R.) .... 592 Kirigsbury 550 Ayer's Cliff . . 558 La Tuque 563 Manawaki 570 Shawville 572 Arundel 618 Waterville 645 Foster 696 Dudswell 699 Magog 688 Cookshire 685 St. Jovite 700 Compton 733 Sawyerville . . . 885 Bulwer . 939 LIST OP SOME ALTITUDES 151 Coaticook 1006 Thetford 1026 Bury 1063 Scotstown 1195 Ste Agathe 1207 St. Faustin 1254 Gould 1302 Parent 1401 Milan 1645 REFERENCE. Altitudes in Canada. James White. Commission of Conservation, Ottawa. A government publication which may be con- sulted at most public libraries. 152 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC GLOSSARY ANORTHOSITE. A granular igneous rock com- posed almost exclusively of a soda-lime feld- spar. ANTICLINE. A fold of rock strata arching upwards. In a syncline the fold is down- wards, forming a trough. ARKOSE. A sandstone derived from the dis- integration of granite or gneiss, and char- acterised by feldspar fragments. ASBESTOS. An alteration product in serpent- ine rock, occurring in long and delicate fibers, or in fibrous masses or seams. Res- istant to fire and many chemicals. BOULDER. Large or small masses of rock on surface of ground. 'Transported' boulders are those which were carried in or on the ice-sheet in the Ice Age. Many have been carried hundreds of miles. They vary in size from a foot to many feet in circumference. Sometimes they were carried but a short distance by the ice-sheet. Thus at Rich- mond, Que., there is a boulder of quartzite weighing over twelve tons which had been carried only half a mile by the ice-sheet from the parent quartzite ledge. The transport- ed boulders show the results of ice-action by being more or less rounded. GLOSSARY 153 'Local' boulders are usually angular. They have fallen from cliffs or ledges in the im- mediate vicinity, usually by the action of frost. BOULDER CLAY. The lowest transported de- posit of the Ice Age. The clay consists of scraped rock, and the included boulders are usually small and much scratched. BRECCIA. A rock composed of angular frag- ments, larger than sand grains, cemented to- gether, and often presenting a variety of colors. CONGLOMERATE. A rock composed of round- ed fragments, cemented either with carbon- ate of lime or silica. DENUDATION. A general geological term for the wearing away of rocks; erosion. DRUMLIN. An elongate or oval hill of glacial drift (gravel etc.) with its longer axis par- allel to the direction that the ice-sheet mov- ed. DIKE or DYKE. Igneous rock filling cracks or fissures of varying width in other rocks. ESKER. Like drumlins, eskers are formed of glacial drift. But while drumlins form hills, sometimes over a hundred feet in height, and are oval from end to end, the eskers are usually from four to ten feet in height and are continuous for long distances. In 154 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Scandinavia there is an esker over sixty miles in length. The esker is believed to have been formed as a sort of river of sand and gravel under the melting ice-sheet. FORMATION. One of the sub-divisions of a geological Period. Sedimentary strata of the same general character formed at the same time and containing similar fossils throughout large areas. Thus, the Trenton formation. FOSSIL. The remains, impression or trace, of an animal or plant of past geological ages, which has been preserved in sedimentary rocks. GNEISS. Granite and similar igneous rocks which, by alteration, have had their constit- uents arranged in a banded form. GRANITE. An igneous (plutonic) rock consist- ing usually of quartz and feldspar, with either mica or hornblende. IGNEOUS. Applied to all rocks which were formed in a molten condition. INTERGLACIAL. The Ice Age was marked by intervening mild periods of long duration, during which the ice-sheet retreated north- wards and ordinary conditions of plant and animal life were resumed. KAINOZOIC. The last great era of geological time, from the Eocene to the present. GLOSSARY 155 KAME. Like the drumlin and the esker, kames are deposits of glacial drift, but instead of having been formed under the melting ice- sheet it is more probable, from their shape, that the gravel, etc., burst forth from the base of the retreating ice-front, owing to the pressure of the streams under the ice-sheet, and deposited the materials in the oblong heaps which are less oval than the drunilins and shorter than the eskers. MAGMA. The name applied to the soft plastic mass of igneous rocks before they have cool- ed and crystallised. MESOZOIC. The great era before the Kaino- zoic, divided into the three Periods the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. It was essentially the era of the "monsters of the slime". Fossils of the gigantic reptiles found in the rocks of Alberta are exhibited in the Museum of the Geological Survey, Ottawa. METAMORPHIC. The name applied to such rocks, whether originally sedimentary or igneous, which have been altered or meta- morphosed by heat, pressure and other causes. PALEOZOIC. The first great era of the sed- imentary rocks, consisting of the following periods Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian. PENEPLAIN or PENEPLANE. Almost a plain. 156 THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC PLATEAU. A plain which rises visibly with some steepness on at least one side from its surroundings of land or water. PLUTONICS. Igneous rocks which have cooled and crystallised in the depths of the earth. PRE-CAMBRIAN. The general name applied to the vast era which preceded the Paleozoic. The oldest known rocks. SCHIST. Any metamorphic crystalline rock having a closely foliated structure, such as gneiss. Slate has a schistose structure, that is, it can be readily split up into thin leaves (foliate). Most schists, however, are dif- ficult to split in this way. SEDIMENTARY ROCKS. All rocks which have been fonned in the seas and lakes by the deposition of particles of land waste, such as shales and sandstones. The name Aque- ous is also used, as being more comprehen- sive and including chemical (gypsum for example) and organic (coral lime-stone) deposition. In general, sedimentary rocks are Stratified (See Strata). SERPENTINE. A hydro-silicate of magnesia. The rock has usually a dull green color. There is an extensive serpentine band in the Eastern Townships, containing the alter- ation product asbestos. Serpentine itself is an altered or metamorphic rock. SEtALE. Hardened mud rock, usually splitting GLOSSARY 157 easily into thin leaves (foliate), like schists, but shales are not 'crystalline'. SILICA. Oxide of silicon. Most important rock substance. Quartz, quartzite and sand are almost pure silica. Enters into many species of rock, forming silicates. STRATA. The layers in which sedimentary rocks are formed. Layers of limestone frequently have the appearance of having been built like a wall. Sometimes igneous rocks imitate stratification, having formed, on cooling, into beds with joints and bedding planes. But when rocks are described as Stratified, sedimentary rocks are alone re- ferred to. STRIAE. The scratches found on ledge rock over which the ice-sheet had passed. The under load of pebbles rather than the ice produced the striation. The striae are most- ly parallel, and over large areas point uni- formly in one direction the direction from which the ice moved. Sometimes the striae become deep grooves. SYNCLINE. The reverse of anticline, which see. U-SHAPED VALLEYS. U-shaped valleys in mountain areas owe their origin to ice action. V-SHAPED VALLEYS. V-shaped valleys have been cut by river action. VOLCANICS. Igneous rocks which have cooled and crystallised at or near the surface of the ground. See Plutonics. 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