THE COUNTY OF lilMOUSKI. 



Honourable H. Mercier, 



Premier of ihe Province of Quebec. 



Sir, 



I havo tho honour to submit, iu this report, the result of an expodition 

 which I have just made iu the interior ol the county of Rimouski, for the 

 purpose of exaiuining- that region from various points of view, and espe- 

 cially with reference to agriculture and colonization. 



As soon as we leave the banks of the Saint Lawrence and penetrate 

 even to a slight extent into the interior, the first thing that strikes lis is 

 the geological appearauce of the soil. 



"We find ourselves in a country which appears mountainous, owing 

 to the numerous and capricious upheavals of the soil, a country inter- 

 sected by deep valleys which give it an appearance of infinite irregular, 

 brokt-n and diversified undulations, like that of great waves breaking upon 

 a surface full of precipices and prolonged escarpments. 



These mountains, which, from a certain distance, seem to be rather 

 high, are but hills, frequently of irregular shape and rounded, regular 

 ridges containing not a single rock but, on the contrary, a soil very rich 

 in fertile ingredients and covered with forests of the kinds of timber 

 w^hich are most in demand. There are many rivers and water-courses 

 which in most instances seem to How at the bottom of abysses for they 

 have had to plough deeply through die soil to find a bed and flow either 

 into the River Saint Lawrence or the rivers into which they fall. 



There is abundant evidence that the whole of the surrounding soil 

 consists of a thick mass of alluvium, which varies in height and forms, in 

 a great measure, the hills which we see on all sides. 



We may add that in the numerous depressions of the soil, sometimes 

 even on the sides of the mountains, we find lakes of all sizes and in such 

 nurabi'rs that the observing traveller cannot refrain from asking whence 



