THE REGION OF MOUNT LOGAN, 
GASPE PENINSULA 
By J. Franklin Collins and Merritt L. Fernald 
The Gaspfi Peninsula, as recently pointed out in this journal, 1 was one 
of the first known parts of Canada, claimed for France by Cartier in 1534. 
“But though the oldest it is far from being the best known section of the 
country.” To be sure, Dr. J. M. Clarke, under the title “The Heart of 
Gaspe,” has made known the region of Perce, one of the finger tips of the 
region; but the sketch “Across Gaspe” is the first general account available 
of the backbone of Gaspe, the Shickshock Mountains. 
In 1844 Sir William E. Logan, accompanied by a young assistant who 
later became the distinguished geologist, Alexander Murray, crossed the 
central-western section of the peninsula from Cap Chat (or Chatte) to the 
Baie des Chaleurs. About seventeen miles up the Cap Chat River he en¬ 
tered the Shickshock Range and in his narrative of the trip mentioned some 
of the mountains adjacent to the river. 
Both the principal summits we visited. In ascending the eastward one, which stands 
exactly opposite to the lower part of the valley of the Chat, and seems to terminate it, look¬ 
ing from the St. Lawrence, we clambered up the north side of the range, which presents a 
face whose slope cannot be much under 45 0 for 3000 feet; and we found that before the hori¬ 
zon was clear over the lower ridges between us and the great river, we had attained the 
elevation of 1753 feet above its surface. The highest spring of water we could discover, 
which was an abundant one of excellent drinkable quality, coming from the strata at the 
upper base of the peak, was 3544 feet up. The summit peak itself, a bare pointed rock, was 
3768 feet, while the broad flat top of another mountain summit, two miles to the westward, 
which went among us by the name of Mattawees (the Micmac word for a porcupine)—from 
our having killed one of these animals as we scaled its side,—and on which we rested the 
first night of our ascent, having reached it by mistake, was 3365 feet. A deep ravine sep¬ 
arated Mount Mattawees from the main peak, and another one severed it from a dome¬ 
shaped top nearly its own height, about a mile and a half to the westward, between which 
and the gorge of the Chat stood another gigantic boss. 
The main summit to the westward of the Chatte, to which we gave the name of Bayfield 
Mountain, in honour of Captain Bayfield, who on one of his Charts has indicated its position, 
we ascertained to be 3471 feet, after having reached it by a very steep and fatiguing ascent 
from the gorge to a precipitous mountain knob, 2669 feet high,—which acquired the title of 
the Old Man [Bonnehomme], from the existence of an erect stone in a step at its edge, in the 
position of one watching what might be passing below. 2 
Ever since Logan’s report in 1846 the name Mt. Logan has had a regular 
place on maps of Canada or of the Province of Quebec, and slightly to the 
west has appeared the name Mt. Bayfield. In the interval up to 1918, how¬ 
ever, no definite attempt to identify with exactness the mountains described 
by Logan seems to have been made. During that summer the Canadian 
IF. J. Alcock: Across Gaspe, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 14, 1924. PP* 197-214* 
2 Sir William E. Logan: Geological Survey of Canada: Report of Progress for the Year 1844, Montreal. 
1846, p. 11. 
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