Anticosti

Anticosti, an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, which it divides into two channels, with lighthouses at different parts of the coast, and about 140 miles long, and 30 miles broad in the centre. The hills in the interior rise to about 600 feet. Anticosti has two good havens, one at Ellice Bay, near the western end, and the other at Fox Bay, in the NW. The climate is severe; while the surface is an alternation of rocks and swamps. It is visited by fishermen in the summer, but there are hardly any inhabitants save lighthouse-keepers and a few officials. The island, which is attached to the Canadian province of Quebec, has considerable salmon, trout, cod, and herring fisheries, and is a resort for seal and bear hunting. Marl and extensive peat deposits are found. In 1895 the island (area, 2600 sq. m.; pop. 250 persons) was purchased by M. Ménier, of chocolate fame, and stocked as a game preserve, but remained, of course, part of Quebec province.