Isle-aux-Coudres, Québec, Canada (Saint-Louis-de-l'Isle-aux-Coudres)
1832 - ISLE AUX COUDRES,

seigniory, about 2 m. from the N. shore of the St. Lawrence, nearly opposite to the Bay of St. Paul, is in the co. of Saguenay. - 5 m. in length by 66 arpents in breadth and 5 leagues in circumference. Granted Oct. 29, 1687, to the ecclesiastics of the seminary of Quebec, to whom it still belongs. - Compared with the neighbouring mainland, the island is low, though near the centre are some few rising grounds: the shore in one or two places rises abruptly from the ater, and is covered with thick creeping shrubbery, but in general the ascent is gradual and easy. The soil throughout is of a good, prolific quality and nearly all under tillage, producing grain of all kinds far beyond the consumption of the seigniory: there are a few meadows and pasture grounds. The farms, 400, are divided into two divisions, called Cote du Cap a la Brance and Cote de la Balcine, which are very little watered by streams of any description; in the former, which is at the W. of the island, the soil is light and the farms are 50 arpents by 2 or 3; in the latter or east end the farms are 33 arpents by 2 or 3; the centre of the island is a strong black soil, but its general character throughout is light. The hay grown on the beach is rich and abundant, and about 63,000 bundles are made annually. The price of oxen is 30 dollars, sheep 6s, pork 1s. per lb., turkeys and geese 5s., fowls from 1s. to 1s. 6d. 0 North of the island there is anchorage for shipping. - Alex. Tremblay, a miller, has erected a stone mill, 36 ft. by 30, on Riviere Rouge, which works 2 pairs of stones. A small quantity of wood of very inferior kinds still remains on the high ground, about the middle of the island. - There is one parish, in which are a church and a parsonage-house, and the inhabitants live in neat well-built houses on each side of a good road that makes a complete tour of the island. - The battures and shoals near its low and sandy shore are very productive fishing-banks; the little bays are the rendezvous of numerous small craft, employed in transporting to Quebec the surplus produce of the island and of the opposite seigniories. - The principal mineral production of this island is the garnet of Cap a l'Aigle which is there found in as great abundance and in as much purity of colour as at any other place in the known world: - This beautiful island Charlevoix represents as having been detached from the main land by a violent earthquake, but it exhibits no other symptom of such a catastrophe than a whirlpool between it and the opposite shore; this channel, at low water, is dangerous for boats and canoes, which are liable to be thrown on the limestone rocks to the right of the entrance into St. Paul's Bay. It is, however, more probably that this island, which is formed on a rocky basis and covered with alluvial soil, has obtained its present appearance from the gradual accumulation of alluvial soil brought from the mountains by the R. Gouffre and other streams in their rapid descent into the bay, where the water is turbid and discoloured; the whirlpool naturally concentrates this constant efflux of soil and forms the island.

Population 652
Churches, R.C. 1
Cures 1
Presbyteries 1
Corn-mills 1
Saw-mills 1
Medical men 1
Taverns 1
Atrisans 4
River craft 2
Tonnage 49
Keel boats 17

A Topographical Dictionary of The Province of Lower Canada by Joseph Bouchette, Esq., London, 1832

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