10 NATURAL RESOURCES OF QUEBEC ince has a shore-line of about 1,300 miles on Hudson Bay and James Bay, and on the south it borders upon the St. Lawrence river system, a distance of 1,100 miles from the Strait of Belle Isle to the City of Quebec. This great navigable waterway penetrating through the province into the very heart of the continent to the head of lake Superior for 2,340 miles, has been Canada’s great artery of commerce from the earliest times. Upon it are located the two largest cities of the province, Montreal and Quebec, and from its shores settlement has extended toward the interior. Geological Divisions.—Quebec may be divided into three main geological regions of distinct character. First, the Laurentian Plateau Region, which comprises the whole northern part of the province to the north of the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers—about 90 per cent of the total area; second. the Appalachian region which embraces Farms in Richmond County the south-eastern part, lying east of a line joining Quebec city to the foot of lake Champlain; third, the St. Lawrence lowlands which include the plains bordering the St. Lawrence river above the city of Quebec, and the south-western part of the province. OLDER SETTLED PORTIONS That portion of the province south of the St. Lawrence river may be divided, for the purposes of description, into two parts, viz.. the area