BOUT one hundred 

 miles nearly due north 

 from Quebec lies Lake 

 St. John, some twenty- 

 six miles long by twenty 

 wide. It is of no great 

 depth, hence its Indian 

 name, Pikouagami, or, " the Flat Lake," 

 which expresses well the appearance of its 

 shores and its function as a settling-basin 

 for the silt of a dozen rivers which pour 

 into it the waters of a tract the size of 

 the State of Maine. Fed by innumerable 

 lakes and streams, most of these rivers 

 are large. Three of them the Ashuap- 

 mouchouan, " the river where they watch 

 the moose," the Mistassini, or "river of the 

 great rock," and the Peribonca, " the cu- 

 rious river " come from great lakes on 

 the summit of the watershed between the 

 St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, receive 



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