Quebec

a province of Canada. It was known formerly as Lower Canada. It lies on both sides of the St. Lawrence. It extends from Hudson Bay to New England and New Brunswick, and from the Ottawa River to Labrador. Area, 351,873 square miles. Population in 1901, 1,648,898. Portions of the province are hardly to be distinguished from New England, but the majority of the inhabitants are of French descent, as may be inferred from the fact that, of the population named, 1,429,260 adhere to the Catholic faith. French settlements were formed as early as 1608. They extended along the waterways. Lands were surveyed in strips running from the streams backward. Each settler had a bit of water frontage. The rural architecture still reminds the traveler of France. The houses have sharp roofs with wide, spreading, curved eaves, sheltering broad verandas. Many of the barns and other buildings are covered with thatch. There is a tendency to live in villages. The gray spire of the village church is a prominent feature of the landscape. The people are decidedly simple in habits. They are cleanly, temperate, jolly, and contented. The men find employment in tilling their small farms, or in lumbering and in the fisheries. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, many of the inhabitants emigrated to New England, to find employment in the cotton mills. Many also moved westward through northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, attracted by the lumbering business.

Lumbering is still an important industry of the province. The fisheries yield an income of $2,000,000 a year. Over 6,000 men are employed in the fishing season. Salmon and cod are the principal fishes. The valleys and portions of the uplands are productive. The chief field crops are wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, clover, hay, corn, peas, and buckwheat. The French are fond of soup made of peas; hence the term "peasoups," used derisively by their English-speaking neighbors.

A system of common schools is maintained at public expense. They are in charge of a superintendent of public instruction and an educational council. Attendance is compulsory. Catholic communities are free to give instruction in the Catholic faith; Protestant communities in the catechism of their choice. Each school is under the direction of a local board, and is supported in part by local taxation. There are in the province nearly 200 academies and high schools, eleven normal schools, eight industrial schools, and various institutions for the blind and deaf mutes. Laval Catholic University at Quebec, the Presbyterian College and McGill University at Montreal are the chief institutions of higher learning. Quebec is represented in the Dominion Parliament by sixty-five members. There is also a provincial Legislative Assembly of seventy-four members.