Lake Nipissing
Lake Nipissing is a lake in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has a surface area of 873.3 km2, a mean elevation of 196 m above sea level, is located between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. Lake Nipissing is the third-largest lake in Ontario, it is shallow for a large lake, with an average depth of only 4.5 m. The shallowness of the lake makes for many sandbars along the lake's irregular shoreline; the lake reaches a maximum depth of 64 m near the mouth of the French River, off the shore of Blueberry Island. The lake has many islands most of which are protected under the Protection of Significant Wetlands scheme, controlled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry; the largest population centre on the lake's shoreline is the city of North Bay. North Bay sits along the lake's northeastern shoreline. Other notable towns include Callander; the larger towns toward the western end of the lake are Sturgeon Falls, Garden Village, Cache Bay and Lavigne. Lake Nipissing drains into Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron, via the French River.
Lake Nipissing lies about 25 km northwest of Algonquin Provincial Park. The French fur trader Étienne Brûlé was the first European to visit the lake in 1610. Jean Nicolet, another French trader and explorer had a "cabin and trading-house" for eight or nine years living among the Indians on the shores of Lake Nipissing until 1633 when he was recalled to Quebec to become Commissary and Indian Interpreter for the "Company of the Hundred Associates." In a map dated 1776, the lake is still referred to with its French name "Lac des Sorcieres". During the American Revolutionary War, Lake Nipissing was proposed as the boundary in the instructions of the Continental Congress to John Adams, the Commissioner appointed to negotiate a treaty of Peace with Great Britain; the first permanent European settlement on the lake dates from around 1874 with a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company on the northwest corner in what is now Sturgeon Falls. In 1882 the North-West Mounted Police established their presence on the north east shore.
The lake contains over 40 different species of fish. Numerous sport fishing lodges dot the main shoreline and can be found on several of Nipissing's many islands. Most anglers target walleye, smallmouth bass and northern pike. For various reasons social, numerous stocking associations are engaged in attempts to manage the lake's walleye population; the lake's name means "big water" in the Algonquin language. The name Nipissing was given to many places in the area, notably the Township of Nipissing, Nipissing District, Nipissing University. In the days of fur trade, coureur des bois and voyageurs travelled through the lake by canoe via the Mattawa and French rivers; when the fur trade started to decline in the 1880s, logging became the main economic activity. After World War I, the primary economic activity became tourism and recreation, although logging still contributes a significant economic stimulus to the area. Unlike most lakes in Ontario, Lake Nipissing contains two volcanic pipes, which are the Manitou Islands and Callander Bay.
The volcanic pipes formed by the supersonic eruption of deep-origin volcanoes. Lake Nipissing lies in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, a Mesozoic era rift valley that formed 175 million years ago; the lake is home to an abundance of flora and fauna: white pine is significant, broadleaf trees such as aspen, birch and oak predominate some of the larger islands. Juniper, scrub oak, oak ferns and poison ivy can be found; as well as much prized fish species, Nipissing wildlife includes moose, bald eagle and turtles. The lakeshore and islands are densely covered with broadleaved trees; some of the larger islands on the lake such as Garden Island are exclusively broadleaf with maple and dogwood. Many trees species can be found on and around the lake including: White pine which dominates the smaller rocky islands on the lake. Ash Aspen Beech Birch Dogwood Elm Ironwood Maple Oak Fish - the lake is famous for the plethora of fish and the sport they provide. Of the 44 fish species to be found in Lake Nipissing, the significant include: Northern pike Muskie Walleye Gar Smallmouth bass Yellow perch Cisco or lake herring Whitefish two species deemed to be'at risk' by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
Bald eagle Osprey Great blue heron Common loon Great horned owland a huge variety of ducks and geese List of lakes of Ontario Media related to Lake Nipissing at Wikimedia Commons Greater Nipissing Stewardship Council
Canada
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border, its capital is Ottawa, its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra, its population is urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Various indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Beginning in the 16th century and French expeditions explored, settled, along the Atlantic coast.
As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces; this began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with Elizabeth II as its queen and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the federal cabinet and head of government; the country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education.
It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. A developed country, Canada has the sixteenth-highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the twelfth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index, its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village but to the entire area subject to Donnacona. From the 16th to the early 18th century "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named the Canadas. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country at the London Conference, the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. By the 1950s, the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom, which considered Canada a "Realm of the Commonwealth"; the government of Louis St. Laurent ended the practice of using'Dominion' in the Statutes of Canada in 1951. In 1982, the passage of the Canada Act, bringing the Constitution of Canada under Canadian control, referred only to Canada, that year the name of the national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
The term Dominion was used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Métis, the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers; the term "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal documents, including the Constitution Act 1982. The first inhabitants of North America are hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago; the Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, complex societal hierarchies, trading networks; some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.
The indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000
Rift valley
A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. A rift valley is formed on a divergent plate boundary, a crustal extension or spreading apart of the surface, subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion; when the tensional forces are strong enough to cause the plate to split apart, a center block drops between the two blocks at its flanks, forming a graben. The drop of the center creates the nearly parallel steeply dipping walls of a rift valley when it is new; that feature is the beginning of the rift valley, but as the process continues, the valley widens, until it becomes a large basin that fills with sediment from the rift walls and the surrounding area. One of the best known examples of this process is the East African Rift. On Earth, rifts can occur at all elevations, from the sea floor to plateaus and mountain ranges in continental crust or in oceanic crust, they are associated with a number of adjoining subsidiary or co-extensive valleys, which are considered part of the principal rift valley geologically.
The most extensive rift valley is located along the crest of the mid-ocean ridge system and is the result of sea floor spreading. Examples of this type of rift include the East Pacific Rise. Many existing continental rift valleys are the result of a failed arm of a triple junction, although there are two, the East African Rift and the Baikal Rift Zone, which are active, as well as a third which may be, the West Antarctic Rift. In these instances, not only the crust, but entire tectonic plates, are in the process of breaking apart to create new plates. If they continue, continental rifts will become oceanic rifts. Other rift valleys are the result of discontinuities in horizontally-moving faults; when these bends or discontinuities are in the same direction as the relative motions along the fault, extension occurs. For example, for a right lateral-moving fault, a bend to the right will result in stretching and consequent subsidence in the area of the irregularity. In the view of many geologists today, the Dead Sea lies in a rift which results from a leftward discontinuity in the left lateral-moving Dead Sea Transform fault.
Where a fault breaks into two strands, or two faults run close to each other, crustal extension may occur between them, as a result of differences in their motions. Both types of fault-caused extension occur on a small scale, producing such features as sag ponds or landslides. Many of the world's largest lakes are located in rift valleys. Lake Baikal in Siberia, a World Heritage Site, lies in an active rift valley. Baikal is both the deepest lake in the world and, with 20% of all of the liquid freshwater on earth, has the greatest volume. Lake Tanganyika, second by both measures, is in the Albertine Rift, the westernmost arm of the active East African Rift. Lake Superior in North America, the largest freshwater lake by area, lies in the ancient and dormant Midcontinent Rift; the largest subglacial lake, Lake Vostok, may lie in an ancient rift valley. Lake Nipissing and Lake Timiskaming in Ontario and Quebec, Canada lie inside a rift valley called the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake, is an example of a rift lake.
Extraterrestrial rift valleys are known to occur on other terrestrial planets and natural satellites. The 4,000 km long Valles Marineris on Mars is believed by planetary geologists to be a large rift system; some features of Venus, most notably, the 4,000 km Devana Chasma and a part of the western Eistla, also Alta and Bell Regio have been interpreted by some planetary geologists as a rift valleys. Some natural satellites have prominent rift valleys; the 2,000 km long Ithaca Chasma on Tethys in the Saturn system is a prominent example. Charon's Nostromo Chasma is the first confirmed in the Pluto system, however large chasms up to 950 km wide observed on Charon have been tentatively interpreted by some as giant rifts, similar formations have been noted on Pluto. A recent study suggests a complex system of ancient lunar rift valleys, including Vallis Rheita and Vallis Alpes; the Uranus system has prominent examples, with large'chasma' believed to be giant rift valley systems, most notably the 1492 km long Messina Chasma on Titania, 622 km Kachina Chasmata on Ariel, Verona Rupes on Miranda, Mommur Chasma on Oberon.
Bonatti, E. "Punctiform initiation of seafloor spreading in the Red Sea during transition from a continental to an oceanic rift". Nature. 316: 33–37. Bibcode:1985Natur.316...33B. Doi:10.1038/316033a0. Mart, Y.. "Analogue experiments of propagation of oblique rifts". Tectonophysics. 316: 121–132. Bibcode:2000Tectp.316..121M. Doi:10.1016/s0040-195100231-0
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park is a provincial park in Ontario, Canada. The park spans both sides of the Mattawa River, it has an area of 25.5 square kilometres and is about 14 kilometres west of Mattawa, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Parks; this park is popular in the summer with campers, providing many recreational activities such as canoeing, hiking, wildlife viewing, other family activities. The visitors centre houses the Voyageur Heritage Centre, which highlights the historic importance of the Mattawa River to the fur trade through interactive exhibits; the park is home to the Canadian Ecology Centre, an outdoor education centre, which provides educational programs on sustainable forestry. The park is named after Samuel de Champlain, one of the first French explorers of Canada of the 17th century. Media related to Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Pinus strobus
Pinus strobus denominated the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine, soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, United States, south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and very in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama; the Native American Haudenosaunee denominated it the "Tree of Peace". It is known as the "Weymouth pine" in the United Kingdom, after Captain George Weymouth of the British Royal Navy, who brought its seeds to England from Maine in 1605. Pinus strobus is found in the nearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome of eastern North America, it prefers well-drained or sandy soils and humid climates, but can grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests, this dominant tree towers over many others, including some of the large broadleaf hardwoods, it provides food and shelter for numerous forest birds, such as the red crossbill, small mammals such as squirrels.
Eastern white pine forests covered much of north-central and north-eastern North America. Only one percent of the old-growth forests remain after the extensive logging operations of the 18th century to early 20th century. Old growth forests, or virgin stands, are protected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Other protected areas with known virgin forests, as confirmed by the Eastern Native Tree Society, include Algonquin Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park, Algoma Highlands in Ontario, Canada. Small groves or individual specimens of old growth eastern white pines are found across the range of the species in the USA, including in Ordway Pines, Maine. Many sites with conspicuously large specimens represent advanced old field ecological succession; the tall stands in Mohawk Trail State Forest and William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Massachusetts are examples. As an introduced species, Pinus strobus is now naturalizing in the Outer Western Carpathians subdivision of the Carpathian Mountains in Czech Republic and southern Poland.
It has spread from specimens planted as ornamental trees. Like most members of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, the leaves are in fascicles of 5, or 3 or 4, with a deciduous sheath, they are flexible, bluish-green, finely serrated, 5–13 cm long, persist for 18 months, i.e. from the spring of one season until autumn of the next, when they abscise. The seed cones are slender, 8–16 cm long and 4–5 cm broad when open, have scales with a rounded apex and reflexed tip; the seeds are 4–5 mm long, with a slender 15–20 mm wing, are dispersed by wind. Cone production peaks every 3 to 5 years; the branches are spaced about every 18 inches on the trunk with 5-6 branches appearing like spokes on a wagon wheel. While eastern white pine is self-fertile, seeds produced this way tend to result in weak and malformed seedlings. Mature trees are 200–250 years old, some live to over 400 years. A tree growing near Syracuse, New York was dated to 458 years old in the late 1980s and trees in Michigan and Wisconsin were dated to 500 years old.
The eastern white pine has the distinction of being the tallest tree in eastern North America. In natural pre-colonial stands it is reported to have grown as tall as 70 m. There is no means of documenting the height of trees from these times, but eastern white pine may have reached this height on rare occasions. Greater heights have been reported in popular, but unverifiable, accounts such as Robert Pike's "Tall Trees, Tough Men". Total trunk volumes of the largest specimens are 28 m3, with some past giants reaching 37 or 40 m3. Photographic analysis of giants suggests volumes closer to 34 m3. Pinus strobus grows 1 m annually between the ages of 15 and 45 years, with slower height increments before and after that age range; the tallest presently living specimens are 50–57.55 m tall, as determined by the Native Tree Society. Three locations in southeastern United States and one site in northeastern United States have trees that are 55 m tall; the southern Appalachian Mountains have the most locations and the tallest trees in the present range of Pinus strobus.
One survivor is a specimen known as the "Boogerman Pine" in the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At 57.55 m tall, it is the tallest measured tree in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It has been measured by tape drop by the Native Tree Society. Before Hurricane Opal broke its top in October 1995, Boogerman Pine was 63 m tall, as determined by Will Blozan and Robert Leverett using ground-based measurements; the tallest specimens in Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan are 45–48 m tall. In northeastern USA, 8 sites in 4 states have trees over 48 m tall, as confirmed by the Native Tre
Jean de Brébeuf
Saint Jean de Brébeuf was a French Jesuit missionary who travelled to New France in 1625. There he worked with the Huron for the rest of his life, except for a few years in France from 1629 to 1633, he learned their culture, writing extensively about each to aid other missionaries. In 1649, Brébeuf and another missionary were captured when an Iroquois raid took over a Huron village. Together with Huron captives, the missionaries were ritually tortured and killed on 16 March 1649. Brébeuf was beatified in 1925 and among eight Jesuit missionaries canonized as saints in the Roman Catholic Church in 1930. Brébeuf was born 25 March 1593 in Condé-sur-Vire, France.. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1617 at the age of 24, spending the next two years under the direction of Lancelot Marin. Between 1619 and 1621, he was a teacher at the college of Rouen. Brébeuf was nearly expelled from the Society when he contracted tuberculosis in 1620—a severe and fatal illness that prevented his studying and teaching for the traditional periods.
His record as a student was not distinguished, but Brébeuf was beginning to show an aptitude for languages. In New France, he would teach Native American languages to missionaries and French traders. Brébeuf was ordained as a priest at Pontoise in February 1622. After three years as Steward at the College of Rouen, Brébeuf was chosen by the Provincial of France, Father Pierre Coton, to embark on the missions to New France. In June 1625, Brébeuf arrived in Quebec with Fathers Charles Lalemant and Énemond Massé, together with the lay brothers Francois Charton and Gilbert Burel, he worked at the Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. For about five months Brébeuf lived with a tribe of Montagnais, he was assigned in 1626 to the Huron with Father Anne Nouée. From on Brébeuf worked as a missionary to the Huron, who spoke an Iroquoian language. Brébeuf took up residence with the Bear Tribe at Toanché, but met with no success in trying to convert them to Catholicism, he was summoned to Quebec because of the danger to which the entire colony was exposed by the English.
He reached Quebec on 17 July 1628 after an absence of two years. On 19 July 1629, Champlain surrendered, the missionaries returned to France. In Rouen, Brébeuf served as a preacher and confessor, taking his final Jesuit vows in 1630. Between 1631 and 1633, Brébeuf worked at the College of Eu in northern France as a steward and confessor, he returned to New France in 1633, where he worked for the rest of his life. Along with Antoine Daniel and Ambroise Davost, Brébeuf chose Ihonatiria as the centre for missionary activity with the Huron. At the time, the Huron suffered, their death rates were high. They blamed the Europeans with none of the parties understanding the causes. Called'Echon' by the Hurons, Brébeuf was involved with teaching, his lengthy conversations with Huron friends left him with a good knowledge of their culture and spirituality. He taught it to other missionaries and colonists. Fellow Jesuits such as Ragueneau describe his adaptability to the Huron way of life, his efforts to develop a complete ethnographic record of the Huron has been described as'the longest and most ambitious piece of ethnographic description in all the Jesuit Relations.
Brébeuf tried to find parallels between the Huron religion and Christianity, so as to facilitate conversion of the Huron to the European religion. Brébeuf was known by the Huron for his apparent shamanistic skills in rainmaking. Despite his efforts to learn their ways, he considered Huron spiritual beliefs to be undeveloped and "foolish delusions". Brébeuf did not enjoy universal popularity with the Huron. By 1640, nearly half the Huron had died of smallpox and the losses disrupted their society. Many children and elders died. With their loved ones dying before their eyes, many Huron began to listen to the words of Jesuit missionaries who, unaffected by the disease, appeared to be men of great power. Brébeuf's progress as a missionary in achieving conversions was slow. Not until 1635 did some Huron agree to be baptized as Christians, he claimed to have made 14 converts as of 1635 and, by the next year, he claimed 86. He wrote a detailed account in 1636 of The Huron Feast of the Dead, a mass reburial of remains of loved ones after a community moved the location of its village.
It was accompanied by elaborate gift-giving. In the 1940s, an archeological excavation was made at the site Brébeuf had described, confirming many of his observations. In 1638, Brébeuf turned over direction of the mission at Saint-Joseph I to Jérôme Lalemant. In 1640, after an unsuccessful mission into Neutral Nation territory, Brébeuf broke his collarbone, he was sent to Quebec to recover, worked there as a mission procurator. He taught the Huron, acting as advisor to the Ursulines and religious Hospitallers. On Sundays and feast days, he preached to French colonists; the educational rigor of the Jesuit seminaries prepared missionaries to acquire native languages. But, as they had learned the classical and romance languages, they had difficulty with the different conventions of the New World indigenous languages. Brébeuf's study of the languages was shaped by his religious training. Current Catholic theol
