5 



Islands, and entering New-York. Here the Lauren- 

 tides spread out into an area of about 10,000 square 

 miles of high lands, known as the Adirondack 

 country, and lying between the Lakes Ghamplain 

 and Ontario. The narrow belt of hill-country which 

 connects the ' Adirondacks with the Laurentides 

 north of the Ottawa, divides the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence proper from that of the great lakes, which 

 is still bounded to the north by a continuation of the 

 Laurentides. The base of these from near Kingston 

 runs in a western direction, at some distance in the 

 rear of Lake Ontario, until it reaches the southwest 

 extremity of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron; after 

 which it skirts this lake, and Lake Superior, and 

 runs northwestward into the Hudson Bay Terri- 

 tory. This great northern hill-region consists of the 

 oldest known rock-formation of the globe, to which 

 the name of the Laurentian system has been given, 

 and occupies, with some small exceptions, the whole 

 of the province northward of the limits just assigned. 

 We shall designate it as the LAURENTIAN REGION. 

 Over a small portion of this area, along Lakes Huron 

 and Superior, and farther eastward on Lake Temis- 

 aming is another series of rocks, to which the name 

 of the Huronian system is given. But as the country 

 occupied by these rocks is geographically similar to 

 the Laurentian, it is for convenience here included 

 with it. 



To the south of this region the whole of Canada 

 west of Montreal, with the exception of the narrow 

 belt of Laurentian country described as running 

 southward across the Ottawa and St. Lawrence 

 Rivers, is very level. The same is true to the east- 

 ward of Montreal until we reach the Notre-Dame 

 range of hills, already described as passing south- 

 ward into Vermont, and in its north-eastern exten- 



