Acadian and St. Lawrence Water-shed. 399 
Regarding the Gaspé peninsula and its direct extension 
westward, as properly marking the limits of the area under 
discussion, this may be said to have the general form of a 
broadly curving belt convex to the northward of which the 
sides are nearly parallel and at a distance from each other 
of about ninety miles, while its length from Cape Gaspé to 
the Little St. Francis river, is 250 miles. While on the 
northern side it forms the south shore of the St. Lawrence, 
and is of very regular outline, it is on the southern side less 
clearly defined by the valley of the St. John river above 
Edmunston, and farther east by that of the Restigouche 
river and the Bay Chaleur. 
Though everywhere hilly, the district in question can 
only at comparatively few points be properly described as 
mountainous. Its true character is rather that of an 
elevated plateau, having in the Gaspé peninsula an average 
elevation of 1000 feet, but declining to the westward, upon 
which are held up, along certain lines, somewhat more 
prominent ridges, while the sides have been broken up and 
made hilly by the effects of deep and irregular erosion. Of 
the ridges referred to, the most considerable are those 
forming the Shickshock Mountains, included wholly within 
the Gaspé peninsula, and having a length of about sixty-five 
miles with a breadth of from two to six miles, at a distance 
of about twelve miles from the St. Lawrence. Their maxi- 
mum elevation is from three to four thousand feet, and the 
district which they form is one of an exceedingly rugged 
but picturesque character. From the summit of Mount 
Albert, nearly 4000 feet high, not less than (158) one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight distinct peaks were observed and trian- 
gulated by Mr. A. P. Low, who also describes the inter- 
vening valleys as having often the character of deep cafions, 
traversed by narrow but deep streams with numerous rapids 
and falls. Inaddition to the main chain of the Shicksocks, a 
second range, of less elevation, but still including some lofty 
peaks, is found between the latter and the coast, while here 
and there, on either side of the axis, are isolated granite hills, 
such as Table Top Mountain, rising fully 2000 feet above 
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