Anticosti Island

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Anticosti - Landsat photo

Anticosti Island (French, l'Île d'Anticosti) is a rocky, forest covered island at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At 7,941 km² (3,066 sq miles) in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.

It is very large (217 km long and 16-48 km wide - larger than the province of Prince Edward Island), but very sparsely populated (266 people in 2001), mostly in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island, consisting chiefly of the keepers of the numerous lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The coast is dangerous, and the only two harbours, Ellis Bay and Fox Bay, are very indifferent. The largest lake on the island is Lake Wickenden, which feeds the River Jupiter.

Anticosti was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1534, and named Assomption. In 1680, Louis XIV granted the island to Louis Jolliet as a reward for mapping the Mississippi River. It stayed in Jolliet's family until 1763, when it was ceded by France to the colony of Newfoundland. Canada regained it in 1774. It supported timber harvests until 1972, and is now an important site for deer hunting. Wild animals, especially bears, are numerous, but prior to 1896 the fish and game had been almost exterminated by indiscriminate slaughter. In that year Anticosti and the shore fisheries were leased to M. Menier, the French chocolate manufacturer, who converted the island into a game preserve, and attempted to develop its resources of lumber, peat and minerals. Henri Menier also introduced a herd of deer to the island.

It is frequented by fishermen.

References

Logan, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from its Commencement to 1863 (Montreal, 1863-1865)
E. Billings, Geological Survey of Canada: Catalogue of the Silurian Fossils of Anticosti (Montreal, 1866)
J. Schmitt, Anticosti (Paris, 1904).

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