Lake Saint-Jean

71.94640W 48.69243N

The Lac Saint -Jean is a comparatively shallow 1003 km ² and 98 m high altitude lake in the Laurentian Mountains of the Canadian province of Quebec, about 160 kilometers west of the St. Lawrence River, located in the the Saguenay, the outflow of Lac Saint- Jean, opens near the old colonial settlement Tadoussac. The lake is the center of the administrative region of Saguenay -Lac -Saint -Jean.

Geography and climate

The lake was originally thought to be a crater. At the end of the last ice age, about 11,500 years ago, the Saguenay region filled with glaziärem meltwater. Only after the retreat of the water masses was the connection to the Saint Lawrence River and thus lost to the open sea, and made ​​it the leading freshwater inland waters in the present form.

With its dimensions of 43.8 to 24 kilometers and its shore length of 436 km of the Lac Saint -Jean is the third largest lake in the province of Quebec after the Lac Mistassini and the Lac à l' Eau Claire. It is fed by many small rivers that originate in the majority in the north of the Saguenay -Lac -Saint -Jean region, including the Rivière Péribonka, which is the largest tributary of Lac Saint -Jean. On the edge of the Canadian Shield, surrounded by glacially -formed, medium- high mountains and surrounded by controversy since the retreat of the cold steppes at the end of the last Ice Age of boreal forest, the lake is located in a zone of humid continental climate of the effective climate classification Dfb with harsh winters and warm short but summer period.

Naming

The original name of the Lac Saint- Jean, comes from the language of the Innu who described it as Piékoagami or Pekuakami ( " shallow river ", " shallow lake "). Later, the lake was named in honor of the Jesuit Father Jean de Quen renamed (around 1603-1652 ), and now referred to as a Lac Saint -Jean. Jean de Quen met with his explorations of New France on May 20, 1647 as the first Europeans to the shores of Lac Saint -Jean, and established a mission at once. The ' Montagnais du Lac St. -Jean ' ( Eigenbez.: Pekuakamiulnuatsh - ' people of the Lac Saint -Jean '), use today, as before their Innu ancestors, the area to go to the lake to hunting and fishing.

Nature

Because of its historical connection to the open sea and the gradual retrogression to inland waters, a range of marine species have gradually adapted to the freshwater and are now successful yet in Lac Saint -Jean. These include, among other things, a subspecies of the freshwater salmon (Salmo salar), the three -spined stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ), the " Atlantic Tomcod " ( Microgadus Tomcod ), also called freeze fish, a special kind of indigenous to sandy soils beach grass ( Ammophila breveligulata ) the golden heather ( Hudsonia tomentosa) and beach pea ( Lathyrus maritimus ).

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