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one of which, known as King's Mountain, has an elevation of 1,125 ^^^^ 

 above sea level, and rises about 900 feet above the large alluvial plain 

 lying between it and the Ottawa River. These hills are covered with a 

 great variety of deciduous and evergreen trees, and among them are 

 numerous mountain lakes, varying in size from mere ponds to lakes of 

 five miles and upwards in length. Flowing from the North through this 

 range of hills, the rapid river Gatineau empties, opposite the city, into 

 the Ottawa, which flows from the West across the centre of the district, 

 widening above the City, with a Southward sweep into a broad and 

 beautiful sheet of water known as Lake Des Chenes, and again narrow- 

 ing at the City where, falling over a limestone ridge, it forms the well- 

 known Chaudiere Falls. Below these its course is straighter and nar- 

 rower, and about twenty miles down it receives from the North the 

 waters of another rapid stream, the Du Lievre. South of the Ottawa is 

 a somewhat undulating tract of country, drained principally by the 

 Rideau, which joins the Ottawa at the City. It is rather a sluggish 

 stream in its upper reaches, through being dammed back at various 

 points for canal purposes, and thus affords several excellent resorts for 

 marsh birds. Much good farming land, with occasional hardwood 

 ridges, is to be found in this part of the district, as well as swamps 

 overgrown with tamarac, cedar, and other cone-bearing trees. The 

 largest of these swamps is a peat-bog in Gloucester Township, known as 

 the Mer Bleue, which covers several thousand acres of land, carpeted 

 to a great depth with spliagnwu moss, and produces immense quantities 

 of berries of many kinds, notably cranberries and blueberries. Thus it 

 will be seen that the district in its various parts offers attractive breed- 

 ing and feeding grounds for many diverse forms of bird life, and 

 as there are parts of it as yet little explored by the ornithologist, it may 

 still be looked to to yield new records, as well as much valuable 

 information, of the breeding and other habits of many species of which 

 too little is now known. 



It is too much to expect that the list has escaped the errors 

 to which a compilation of the kind is so liable, but the compilers trust 

 that when it shall have passed through the purifying fires of criticism, to 

 which it is hoped it will be subjected, it will form a useful basis for 

 future work and study, at least for our local workers. 





