I could judge, two leagues in length, others a trifle more or less. About these islands are many rocks, also very dangerous shallows, some two leagues distant from the main land on the South. All this shore, both north and South, from Tadoussac to the Island of Orleans, is mountainous, and the soil very poor. The wood is pine, fir, and birch only, with very ugly rocks, so that in most places one could not make his way. Now we passed along south of the Island of Orleans, which is a league and a half distant from the main land and half a league on the north side, being six leagues in length, and one in breadth, or in some places a league and a half. On the north side, it is very pleasant, on account of the great extent of woods and meadows there; but it is very dangerous sailing, in consequence of the numerous points and rocks between the main land and island, on which are numerous fine oaks and in some places nut-trees, and on the borders of the woods vines and other trees such as we have in France. This place is the commencement of the fine and fertile country of the great river, and is distant one hundred and twenty leagues from its mouth. Off the end of the island is a torrent of water on the north shore, proceeding from a lake ten leagues in the interior: [308] it comes down from a height of nearly twenty-five fathoms, above which the land is level and pleasant, although farther inland are seen high mountains appearing to be from fifteen to twenty leagues distant. ENDNOTES: 293. The deepest sounding as laid down on Laurie's Chart is one hundred and forty-six fathoms. The same authority says the banks of the river throughout its course are very rocky, and vary in height from one hundred and seventy to three hundred and forty yards above the stream. Its current is broad, deep, and uncommonly vehement: in some places, where precipices intervene, are falls from fifty to sixty feet in height, down which the whole volume of water rushes with tremendous fury and noise. The general breadth of the river is about two and a half miles, but at its mouth its width is contracted to three-quarters of a mile. The tide runs upward about sixty-five miles from its mouth. 294. If the Indians were three days in crossing Lake St. John here referred to, whose length is variously stated to be from twenty-five to forty miles, it could hardly have been the shortest time in which it were possible to pass it. It may have been the usual time, some of which they gave to fishing or hunting. "In 1647, Father Jean Duquen, missionary at Tadoussac, ascending the Saguenay, discovered the Lake St. John, and noted its Indian name, Picouagami, or Flat Lake. He was the first European who beheld that magnificent expanse of inland water."--_Vide Transactions, Lit. and His. Soc. of Quebec_, 1867-68, p. 5.