Abbé Huard River () is a river in the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is a tributary of the

Romaine River The Romaine River (), known also as the Kanatuahkuiau, Uanaman Hipu, and Uepatauekat Shipu, is a river in eastern Canada. It flows from north to south, emptying into the Jacques Cartier Strait in the municipality of Havre-Saint-Pierre. The Roma ...

. The lower part of the river, where it meandered through sand and gravel deposits, has been flooded by the Romaine-2 reservoir.

Location

The Abbé-Huard River, a tributary of the Romaine River, originates in

Abbé Huard Lake Abbé Huard Lake () is a small lake in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is drained by the Abbé Huard River, a tributary of the Romaine River. Location Abbé Huard Lake is in the unorganized territory of Lac-Jérôme ...

. The lake is in the unorganized territory of Lac-Jérôme in the Minganie Regional County Municipality. It is a little more than north of the municipality of Baie-Johan-Beetz on the north shore of the

Gulf of Saint Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in ...

. The river is the second northeast branch of the Romaine River. The mouth of the river, where it meets the Romaine River, is also in Lac-Jérôme. Before the river was flooded, the Abbé-Huard entered the Romaine at PK 131.

Name

Abbé Huard Lake is named after the abbé

Victor-Alphonse Huard Victor-Alphonse Huard (born Joseph-Alphonse, sometimes given as Joseph-Victor Alphonse; 28 February 1853 – 15 October 1929) was a French-Canadian churchman, naturalist, writer and editor. He was a popular educator and promoter of the natural sc ...

(1853–1929), a naturalist and a professor at the Chicoutimi Seminary. He visited the region between

Pessamit Pessamit (formerly Betsiamites, or Bersimis), is a First Nations reserve and Innu community in the Canadian province of Quebec, located about southwest from Baie-Comeau along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Betsi ...

and

Natashquan Natashquan is a municipality located on the north shore of Jacques Cartier Strait, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the Côte-Nord region, Minganie RCM, Quebec, Canada. Natashquan stretches along the coast, on both sides of the Little Natashq ...

in 1895, and described the trip in his ''Labrador et Anticosti'' (1897). In his ''Dictionary of Rivers and Lakes of the Province of Quebec'' (1914), Eugène Rouillard points out the lake was probably named after the Abbé Huard before the river. The

Innu The Innu/Ilnu ('man, person'), formerly called Montagnais (French for ' mountain people'; ), are the Indigenous Canadians who inhabit northeastern Labrador in present-day Newfoundland and Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to ...

call the river ''Uauiekamau Hipu'', or "Round Lake River". The

Naskapi The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical region St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our Clusivity, nclusiveland'), which was located in present day northern Qu ...

call the river ''Umuauk Shipu'' or "Loon River", a literal translation of the French ''Rivière Huard''.

Basin

The river basin covers . The river flows along the contact zone between rocks of the

Anorthositic Anorthosite () is a phaneritic, intrusive igneous rock characterized by its composition: mostly plagioclase feldspar (90–100%), with a minimal mafic component (0–10%). Pyroxene, ilmenite, magnetite, and olivine are the mafic minerals most c ...

Suite of Havre-Saint-Pierre to the north, and deformed rocks to the south. A map of the

ecological regions of Quebec The Ecological regions of Quebec are regions with specific types of vegetation and climates as defined by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks. Given the size of this huge province, there is wide variation from the temperate deciduou ...

shows the river on the border between sub-regions 6j-S and 6n-T of the east spruce/moss subdomain.

Flooded section

The lower part of the Abbé-Huard River now forms the northeast arm of the Romaine-2 reservoir. Before the Romaine-2 reservoir was flooded, the mouth of the river flowed between terraces of sand and gravel. These banks typically rose from above the watercourse. About of the river's banks were subject to active erosion, mostly on the concave shores. There was a well-developed delta at the river mouth. Water temperatures at the mouth of the river where it entered the Romaine ranged from an average of in January to in July. The flooded section was thought to have high archaeological potential, but a survey found no sites.

Notes

Sources