100 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
This area between the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers is traversed 
by several railways, which radiate, from Ottawa city, to the east, south 
and west. Among these are the Canadian Pacific, (short line) which 
extends along the south side of the former river to its junction with 
the main line from Montreal to Toronto, at Vaudreuil ; the Canada 
Atlantic which traverses an area further inland to the line of the Grand 
Trunk railway at Coteau Junction, thirty-seven miles west of Montreal; 
the Ottawa and Cornwall which crosses almost directly south to the 
latter town on the St. Lawrence river; and the old St. Lawrence and 
Ottawa, now a branch of the Canadian Pacific, which extends to Prescott 
also on the St. Lawrence. All these are east of the Rideau river. 
West of that river several other railway lines are found. One from 
Ottawa to Brockville on the St. Lawrence extends by the way of Carle- 
ton Place to the Rideau river, which it crosses near Smith’s Falls, the 
main line of the Canadian Pacific extending west from Carleton Junc- 
tion up the Ottawa river past Pembroke and Mattawa; while the Ottawa 
and Parry Sound railway (now a part of the Canada Atlantic system), 
follows a more direct westerly course from Ottawa to Georgian Bay. 
From the profiles of these different railways the following figures 
relative to the general elevation of the area may be given. The 
country as a whole is gently undulating and the height of land between 
the waters which flow into the Ottawa and those flowing into the St. 
Lawrence is only a short distance north of the latter river. The only 
prominent hill-feature in the district is that known as Rigaud mountain 
on the lower part of the Ottawa river. 
Most of these railways start from the Central station in Ottawa, 
the elevation of which is fixed at 212 feet above sea level. On the Cana- 
dian Pacific (short line), the highest point between this place and the 
crossing of the South Nation river at Plantagenet station, is at 
Leonard station near the crossing of the Rockland Branch. The eleva- 
tion here is only 272 feet, above sea, the rise above Ottawa in this dis- 
tance being therefore only sixty feet. The height of Plantagenet 
station is only 170 feet above sea level, or thirty-seven feet above the 
low water level of the Ottawa at the junction of the Nation river with 
that stream. 
East of this place the summit of the grade on this line is found at 
Stardale station, east of Vankleek Hill, which has an elevation of 291 
feet. Thence the line descends to Rigaud station at the foot of Rigaud 
mountain, where it is only 108 feet above sea level or thirty-eight above 
the Ottawa river at this point. 
On the Canada Atlantic, starting from the same station in Ottawa, — 
there is a gradual rise, for about twenty miles, of thirty-four feet to | 

| 
| 
| 
1 
