Lake Ha! Ha! is a

waterbody A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ...

tributary of the Ha! Ha! River. It is located in the municipality of

Ferland-et-Boilleau, Quebec Ferland-et-Boilleau is a municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (''The Fjord of the Saguenay iver') is a regional county municipality in the Saguen ...

, in the

Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (''The Fjord of the Saguenay iver') is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is Saint-Honoré, which is also its most populous municipality. It is named for the ...

(MRC), in administrative region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, located in the

Saguenay River __NOTOC__ The Saguenay River () is a major river of Quebec, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. ...

valley, in

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 ...

. The southeastern portion of the

petit lac Ha! Ha! Petit lac Ha! Ha! is a freshwater lake in the Ferland-et Boilleau municipality, in the administrative region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in the province of Quebec, in Canada. It is located on the east side of Lake Ha! Ha! into which it drains. ...

is served by route 381, which separates the lakes

and lake Ha! Ha!. The bridge passes over the waterbody at the peninsula attached to the north shore and then the route goes northwest to serving the northwestern part of the lake Ha! Ha!. The landscape of this lake, surrounded by mountains, attracts nature lovers. Forestry is the main economic activity of the sector; recreational tourism activities, second. The surface of Lake Ha! Ha! is usually frozen from late November to early April; however, safe ice movement is generally from mid-December to late March.

Geography

The main hydrographic slopes near Lake Ha! Ha! are: * north side: Huard Lake, Ha! Ha! River, Hamel Arm, rivière des Cèdres, Papinachois Creek, Brébeuf Lake, Éternité Lake; * east side: John Creek, Malbaie River, Pin Creek; * south side: Ha! Ha! River, Pierre River, Viper Lake, Cinto Lake, Rivière à Mars Northwest; * west side: Pierre River, rivière à Mars. The Ha! Ha! Lake consists of length of with a crescent-shaped open to the north-east of which the southeastern extremity stretches eastward between mountains. Its maximum width is ; its altitude is ; and its area is . The Ha! Ha! Lake is crossed on to the northwest by the current of Ha! Ha! River to the dam at its mouth; while the current of the Pierre River flows northward on . The Ha! Ha! Lake supplies itself from the outlet of Huard Lake (coming from the northwest), a creek (coming from the east), a creek (coming from the south), Ha! Ha! River (coming from the southeast), two unidentified streams and the Pierre River (coming from the West). The dam at the mouth of the lake is located at: * south of the village center of Boileau, Quebec; * southwest of Huard Lake; * south-east of the confluence of the Ha! Ha! River and the Baies des Ha! Ha! (Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean); * south-east of downtown

Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the S ...

; * northwest of downtown

Baie-Saint-Paul Baie-Saint-Paul ( 2011 Population 7,332; UA population 4,535) is a city in the Province of Quebec, Canada, on the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Baie-Saint-Paul is the seat of Charlevoix Regional County Municipality. The city is ...

. From the dam at the mouth of the lake, the stream flows down the Ha! Ha! River on to the northwest, across the Baie des Ha! Ha! (Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean) on northeasterly, then go east on the

on to

Tadoussac Tadoussac () is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu call the place ''Totouskak'' (plural for ''totouswk'' or ''totochak'') meaning "bosom", probably in reference to the tw ...

where this last river flows into the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

Toponymy

The specific "Ha! Ha!" generates several interpretations according to the sources consulted. A popular interpretation associates it with an exclamation indicating irony or onomatopoeia of laughter. It is generally recognized by historians that it is rather a descriptive denomination. This specific derives from the French word haha, meaning "an unexpected obstacle on a path". This term identifies a ditch at the end of an alley that blocks a passage. This term is used in the military vocabulary because it describes a ditch located at the postern or at the entrance of a fortification, thus preventing the passage. In addition, the recollect Gabriel Sagard (baptized Théodat) published the Dictionary of the Huron Language (Paris, 1632), following a ten-month stay of the brother in Huron, from 1623 to 1624, in which is listed the noun Háhattey, meaning "road, lane or address".Work: Names and places of Québec, work of the "Commission de toponymie du Québec" published in 1994 and 1996 in the form of a printed illustrated dictionary, and under the name of a CD-ROM produced by the company Micro-Intel, in 1997, from this dictionary. The toponym ''Lake Ha! Ha!'' was formalized on December 5, 1968, by the Commission de toponymie du Québec.

Geography

Toponymy

References

See also