42 
brush covered and difficult to prospect except along stream beds and 
mountain tops. The most urgent need at present is improved means 
of communication. 
It is worthy of note that Ells in 1884 suggested that a line of railway 
from the Canadian National to Gaspe basin over the plateau in the centre 
of Gaspe would be the shortest and easiest, because of the level character 
of the country. 1 Such a railway would have passed within a few miles 
of the zinc deposits just mentioned and would have been of great value 
in opening them up. 
Region of Lake Ste. Anne 
The upper part of Ste. Anne river, whose lower waters have already 
been referred to, is about 5 miles northeast of the Federal Zinc and Lead 
mine. A day was spent in visiting lake Ste. Anne, and in climbing a 
mountain to the west of the lake. The region has been briefly described 
by Mailhiot, who studied it from the point of view of the solid geology and 
whose party cut out the trail to the river. 2 
The path descends 325 feet from the Federal camp to a tributary 
of Berry brook, crosses a narrow watershed to another small tributary 
stream, and then rises to the main divide between Chaleur bay and the 
St. Lawrence, at about 1,900 feet. A rapid descent of 2 miles toward the 
east reaches Ste. Anne river, here flowing nearly north with a moderate 
current; three-quarters of a mile south the lake opens out. 
Scarcely any rock is encountered along the trail, and the lake enters 
the river very gently in swampy surroundings. Its elevation is given 
in White’s “Altitudes in Canada” as 1,355 feet, on the authority of the 
Canada Gulf and Terminal railway (Projected extension). The 
writer’s aneroid readings make it 1,357. It is about 5 miles long from 
southeast to northwest, according to Mailhiot’ s map, and two narrows 
almost divide it into three lakes. Its position in comparatively low 
ground and with no high land between it and the headwaters of Little 
Cascapedia river to the south, and the fact that it has, according to Low, 
a greater depth than 120 feet, make its drainage across the highest part 
of the Shickshocks to the St. Lawrence decidedly puzzling. 3 It might be 
expected to flow into the Little Cascapedia instead of carving a valley 
2,500 feet deep between Tabletop and mount Albert. 
The mountain just west of lake Ste. Anne was ascended from the 
highest level on the trail, and proved to be precipitous on its northern side. 
The upper part of the steep, slope is mostly clothed with scrubby spruce 
very difficult to penetrate, and consists partly of angular rock fragments 
ending in bare crags. The summit, which is nearly flat and elongated from 
northwest to southeast, has an elevation of 3,060 feet as determined by 
aneroid. 
The rock is reddish brown, very fine grained, and encloses small 
porphyritic feldspar crystals. The thin section examined is too badly 
weathered to give much aid in naming the rock, though it may be placed 
with the acid eruptives of the region. 
1 Geol. Surv., Can., 1882-4, p. 10 E. 
2 "Mining Operations in the Province of Quebec”, 1917, p. 124, etc., also map at end 
of report, 1918. 
3 Geol. Surv., Can., 1882-4, p. 7 F. 
