L THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the marvellous Pierced Rock, which gives the name to the village, 

 have influenced the character of the settlement. The rocks and the 

 cliffs have driven them all to gather their main harvest from the sea. 

 At this end of the peninsula the cod is king and the men of Jersey 

 long ago founded wealthy and powerful companies to catch and cure 

 and market codfish. 



Away from the actual coast well graded rivers come down into 

 sheltered harbours, exactly suited to float logs from the wooded 

 mountains inland; and at every river mouth there is a sawmill with 

 its rows of square lumber piles gleaming yellow against the dark hills, 

 while not far off a column of smoke ascends for ever where the refuse 

 is burning. Approaching the mill you are greeted with the resinous 

 odour of the fresh spruce and hear the scream of the circular saws 

 tearing their way through the logs as they are transformed into boards. 



The lumberman in winter is often a farmer in summer, and as 

 one goes westwards on the south side of Gaspé broad fields begin to 

 spread out between the hills and farming becomes of greatest impor- 

 tance. There are green pastures where sleek cattle graze and expanses 

 of clover and of oats or barley or wheat; and in the autumn two-horse 

 wagons, loaded with fragrant hay or with sheaves, move towards the 

 open doors of barns. In some of these prosperous farming communi- 

 ties English is the only language, often spoken with a Scotch or Irish 

 accent, and the whole atmosphere is that of the Maritime provinces 

 rather than of Quebec; but in a majority of places French is the 

 language used. Several settlements which began with U.E. Loyalists 

 or other English-speaking inhabitants are now largely French, as, for 

 instance, New Richmond and Maria; but so far as observed, the 

 French-speaking people of southern Gaspé are usually bilingual. 



At the southwest corner of the peninsula, where the Matapedia 

 river enters the delta of the Restigouche, there is a little colony of the 

 descendants of Scotch farmers perched on a projecting corner of the 

 tableland, 800 or 1,000 feet above the sea level, still preserving their 

 accent and customs; while a mile to the north a newer settlement of 

 French-Canadians has cleared its farms. The two groups are com- 

 pletely segregated, each having its own steep, winding road down the 

 escarpment to the station on the Intercolonial Railway. 



It is probable that a new geological factor may presently arise to 

 modify human relationships in Gaspé. Large deposits of zinc and 

 lead ores have been found in the southern foothills of the Shickshocks, 

 almost in the geographical centre of the peninsula, and if these develop 

 into important mines the "Heart of Gaspé," now practically virgin 



