30 
INTRODUCTION. 
In the Province of Quebec, between the enormous 
expanse of the Laurentian highlands to the northwest, 
constituting the ‘‘Canadian Shield,’ and the disturbed 
and folded tract of country which marks the Appalachian 
uplift, there is a great plain underlain by nearly horizontal 
rocks of lower Paleozoic age. This plain, while really 
showing slight differences of level from place to place, seems 
to the casual observer perfectly flat. Its surface is man- 
tled with a fertile soil consisting of drift redistributed upon 
its surface by the sea, which covered it at the close of the 
Glacial times. The uniform expanse of this plain, however, 
is broken by several isolated hills composed of igneous 
rocks, which rise abruptly from it and which constitute 
very striking features of the landscape. It was at the 
foot of one of these hills rising by the side of the River 
St. Lawrence, and which he named Mount Royal, that 
Jacques Cartier on his first visit found the Indian encamp- 
ment of Hochelaga, the site of which is now overspread 
by the city of Montreal. 
From the top of Mount Royal the other hills referred 
to can all be seen rising from the plain to the east; while 
to the north the plain stretches away unbroken to the foot 
of the Laurentian plateau. 
As has been remarked by Sir Archibald Geikie in his 
Text-Book of Geology: ‘‘The word ‘mountain’ is, properly 
speaking, not a scientific term. It includes many forms 
of ground utterly different from each other in size, shape, 
structure and origin. In a really mountainous country, 
the word would be restricted to the loftier masses of 
ground, while such a word as ‘hill’ would be given to the 
lesser heights. But in a region of low or gently undulating 
land, where any conspicuous eminence becomes important, 
the term ‘mountain’ is lavishly used. In eastern America 
this habit has been indulged in to such an extent that what 
are, so to speak, mere hummocks in the general landscape 
are dignified by the name of mountain.” 
The hills under consideration, while by no means 
‘‘mere hummocks’’, being situated in such a country of 
low relief, seem to be higher than they really are and are 
always referred to locally as ‘“‘mountains.”’ 
