The remote country to the north of the Ottawa is but little known. On the south shore of the St. Lawrence, the peninsula of Gaspe is the most eastern district; this large tract of country has been very little explored: so far as it has been examined, it is uneven, mountainous, and intersected with deep ravines; but the forests, rivers, and lakes are very fine, and the valleys fertile. The sea-beach is low and hard,[150] answering the purposes of a road; at the Cape of Gaspe, however, there are some bold and lofty cliffs. Behind the beach the land rises into high, round hills, well wooded; sheltered from the Gaspe district to the Chaudiere River, the country is not so stern as on the northern side of the St. Lawrence; though somewhat hilly, it abounds in large and fertile valleys. The immediate shores of the river are flat; thence irregular ridges arise, till they reach an elevated table-land fifteen or twenty miles from the beach. From the Chaudiere River westward extends that rich and valuable country now known by the name of the Eastern Townships. At the mouth of the Chaudiere the banks of the St. Lawrence are bold and lofty, but they gradually lower to the westward till they sink into the flats of Baye du Febre, and form the marshy shores of Lake St. Peter, whence a rich plain extends to a great distance. This district contains several high, isolated mountains, and is abundantly watered by lakes and rivers. To the south lies the territory of the United States. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 118: "The sea (if it may be so termed) on Lake Ontario is so high during a sharp gale, that it was at first thought the smaller class steamboats could not live on it; and on Lake Superior, the waves almost rival those of the far-famed Cape of Storms, while the ground-swell, owing to the comparative shallowness, or little specific gravity of the fresh water, is such as to make the oldest sailor sick. Whether the water in the lowest depths of Lakes Superior and Ontario be salt or fresh, we can not ascertain; for the greater density of the former may keep it always below, or there may be a communication with the fathomless abysses of the ocean."--Montgomery Martin, p. 181.]