Date Published:
February 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Montmorency River

Montmorency river rises in Snow lake, Montmorency county, Quebec, and enters the St. Lawrence 8 miles north-east of the city of Quebec, by the Montmorency falls. The falls and river were in 1603 named by Champlain after the Duc de Montmorency (1595-1632), a French marshal and viceroy of New France. The falls, 240 feet in height, are higher than Niagara, but their width is only about 50 feet. They are a great attraction to tourists, as are the "natural steps", a series of extremely regular layers of limestone rock, on the river bank, 2 miles above the falls. At the foot of the falls are several large saw-mills and factories. For a distance of 19 miles, the river runs in s very narrow course between great mountain ranges and is merely a succession of falls and rapids. Its total length is 60 miles, and its basin has an area of 387 square miles.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 325.