Chamcook Lake is a lake of Saint Andrews Parish,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located just north of the

Passamaquoddy Bay Passamaquoddy Bay (french: Baie de Passamaquoddy) is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of the bay lies within Canada, with its w ...

which is part of the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

, near the border with

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The town of

Chamcook, New Brunswick Chamcook ( ) is an unincorporated area in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. It lies between the eastern bank of Chamcook Lake and the western edge of Passamaquoddy Bay. Local governance is provided by the Chamcook Local Service Distri ...

lies on the eastern bank of the lake and Chamcook Mountain is nearby. The lake has been notable within

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and Canada for its fishing.

Etymology

Chamcook comes from the

Passamaquoddy The Passamaquoddy ( Maliseet-Passamaquoddy: ''Peskotomuhkati'') are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatik'','' straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick ...

word ''K'tchumcook'' which, according to

William Francis Ganong William Francis Ganong, M.A., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C., (19 February 1864 - 7 September 1941) was a Canadian biologist botanist, historian and cartographer. His botany career was spent mainly as a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachu ...

, has many meanings but none are certain.

Geography

Chamcook Lake is approximately from

. The lake is connected by road to

St. Stephen, New Brunswick St. Stephen (2016 population: 4,415) is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, situated on the east bank of the St. Croix River around the intersection of New Brunswick Route 170 and the southern terminus of New Brunswick Route ...

. A

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

freight service station has been located at Chamcook Lake. Chamcook Lake3

The lake is situated at above sea level, and has a maximum depth of . The Chamcook River which feeds the Chamcook Lake rises from the cone shaped hill range of Mt. Chamcook. The Chamkcook harbour, a wet dock, lies is to the eastern side of the peninsular where development took place. It contains Odell Island in the southeast and Big Rock in the north. Despite its name, the Odell Island is larger than Big Rock. Approximately to the north beyond Big Rock is a sister lake named Little Chamcook Lake. The Chamcook Lake watershed serves as a potable water supply for the

Atlantic Salmon Federation The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is an international conservation organization established in 1948. The Federation is dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and the ecosystems on which their well bein ...

, the

St. Andrews Biological Station St. Andrews Biological Station (acronym: SABS; originally: Atlantic Biological Station) is a Fisheries and Oceans Canada research centre located on Brandy Cove Road in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Along with the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, the ...

, the Champlain Industrial Park, and the town of St. Andrews. The lake's red rock is

feldspathic Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...

, of a brownish-red colour that weathers to brick-red, imperfectly syenitic, and showing some indications of an eruptive origin. A set of very fine petro-siliceous rocks, which are almost black, but have a perceptible purplish tinge are situated on the western shore. The steep and solitary Chamcook Mountain overlooks the lake. The mountain has a glacial rounded top scored with long scratches which indicate that a glacier from the northern highlands had grated its way across the mountain. The Chamcook Lake and the Chamcook mountain are both located in the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

belt of huge

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

s which has fossiliferous and

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

formations in different sections. ;Ecology After an advisory warning was issued in September 2010 for bloom of

blue green algae Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blue ...

, no detectable toxins were found in the town's drinking water supply, which comes from the lake, though officials continued to monitor the water supply.

Flora and Fauna

Chamcook Lake contains populations of ''

Vitrea ''Vitrea'' is a genus of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Pristilomatidae. According to the World Register of Marine Species this genus belongs in the family ''Zonitidae''. Species This ge ...

'' and in the 1930s a new species of '' Holopedium'' water flea (family

Holopediidae ''Holopedium'' is the sole genus of water fleas The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, are a superorder of small crustaceans that feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter (excluding some predatory forms). Over 1000 ...

) was discovered in the area. ''Lymnaea'' is found mainly along the lake's margin, composed chiefly of ''

Isoetes echinospora ''Isoetes echinospora'', also known as spiny quillwort, spiny-spored quillwort or spring quillwort is a species of quillwort in the Isoetaceae family, and is the most abundant species in Canada. It can be found in shallow aquatic environments fro ...

''; '' Sagittaria montevidensis''; ''

Potamogeton gramineus ''Potamogeton gramineus'' is a species of aquatic plant known by the common name various-leaved pondweed, variableleaf pondweed, grass-leaved pondweed or grassy pondweed, native to the northern hemisphere where it grows in shallow, clean water. ...

''; ''

Potamogeton spirillus ''Potamogeton'' is a genus of aquatic, mostly freshwater, plants of the family Potamogetonaceae. Most are known by the common name pondweed, although many unrelated plants may be called pondweed, such as Canadian pondweed (''Elodea canadensis' ...

''; and the aquatic form of '' Hypericum boreale''. Ground Cedar is found on the lake's dry bank and ''

'' is frequent along the lake's south margin. The

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

Boletus luridus ''Suillellus luridus'' (formerly ''Boletus luridus''), commonly known as the lurid bolete, is a fungus of the family Boletaceae, found in calcareous broadleaved woodlands in Europe. Fruit bodies appear in summer and autumn and may be locally ...

'' Schaef. ''vermiculosus'' Pk has been found nearby. Of the

Halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. T ...

s, ''

Sagittaria latifolia ''Sagittaria latifolia'' is a plant found in shallow wetlands and is sometimes known as broadleaf arrowhead, duck-potato, Indian potato, katniss, or wapato. This plant produces edible tubers that have traditionally been extensively used by Nati ...

'', ''

Sagittaria cuneata ''Sagittaria cuneata'' is a species of flowering plant in the water plantain family known by the common name arumleaf arrowhead or duck potato. Like some other ''Sagittaria'' species, it may be called wapato. It is native to much of North Americ ...

'', ''

Alopecurus aequalis ''Alopecurus aequalis'' is a common species of grass known as shortawn foxtail or orange foxtail. It is native to much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. It is most commonly found in areas near fresh water, such a ...

'', '' Glyceria borealis'', ''

Eleocharis acicularis ''Eleocharis acicularis'' is a species of spikesedge known by the common names needle spikerush and least spikerush. It is widespread across Europe, central and southeastern Asia, North America and northeastern South America as far south as Ecu ...

'', ''

Acorus calamus ''Acorus calamus'' (also called sweet flag, sway or muskrat root, among many common names) is a species of flowering plant with psychoactive chemicals. It is a tall wetland monocot of the family Acoraceae, in the genus ''Acorus.'' Although us ...

'', and ''

Juncus pelocarpus ''Juncus pelocarpus'', the brown-fruit rush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Juncaceae Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow- ...

'' are noted along the lake margins. The fern vegetation found on the lake's shores and along the stream which flows out from the Chamcook Lake to the sea are ''

Diphasiastrum complanatum ''Diphasiastrum complanatum'', common names groundcedar, creeping jenny, or northern running-pine, is a species of clubmoss native to dry coniferous forests in colder northerly parts of the world. Under the original name ''Lycopodium complanatum ...

'', ''

Diphasiastrum digitatum ''Diphasiastrum digitatum'' is known as groundcedar, running cedar or crowsfoot, along with other members of its genus, but the common name fan clubmoss can be used to refer to it specifically. It is the most common species of ''Diphasiastrum'' i ...

'', and ''

''. In 1886, 200,000 salmon and salmon trout fry (young trout) were deposited in the lake. Fish species reported from the lake included

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

and

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

. During certain times of the year, it is said to contain heavy populations of sebago salmon. Studies conducted into the

methylmercury Methylmercury (sometimes methyl mercury) is an organometallic cation with the formula . It is the simplest organomercury compound. Methylmercury is extremely toxic, and its derivatives are the major source of organic mercury for humans. It is a ...

concentration of eels from Chamcook Lake in the early 1970s indicated elevated levels of

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

in the lake's ecosystem, although

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

from the lake revealed only 0.03 ppm.

References

External links

* http://www.muskiesnb.ca/hydrographic%20mapping/NB%20Lakes.pdf {{authority control Lakes of New Brunswick

Etymology

Geography

Flora and Fauna

See also

References

External links