Hochelaga archipelago

Hochelaga archipelago
Map of the Hochelaga archipelago
Waters	Saint Lawrence River
Geographical location	45 ° 31 ′  N , 73 ° 38 ′  W Coordinates: 45 ° 31 ′  N , 73 ° 38 ′  W
Number of islands	234
Main island	Île de Montréal
Winter satellite photo of the Hochelaga archipelago and the Montréal metropolitan area

The Hochelaga Archipelago ( French Archipel d'Hochelaga ) is a group of islands in the southwest of the Canadian province of Québec . It consists of 234 islands at the mouth of the Ottawa in the Saint Lawrence River . The archipelago includes all the islands in the Rivière des Mille Îles and Rivière des Prairies , in the Lac Saint-Louis and Lac des Deux Montagnes and in part of the Saint Lawrence River.

The name is derived from Hochelaga , a village of the Saint Lawrence Iroquois in the 16th century. It was used for the first time in 1935 by Marie-Victorin , a botanist and Catholic friar, who described the flora of the St. Lawrence Valley in the work Flore Laurentienne .

The largest island in the archipelago is the Île de Montréal , on which the city of Montreal is located. The urban area also includes 74 smaller islands, including Île Bizard , Île des Sœurs , Île Notre-Dame , Île Sainte-Hélène and Île de la Visitation . The second largest island in the archipelago is Île Jésus , which together with Îles Laval and other islands form the city of Laval . Other well-known islands are the Îles de Boucherville , Île Dorval , Île Perrot and Île Sainte-Thérèse .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Archipelago d'Hochelaga. Commission de toponymie Québec, June 28, 2011, accessed August 27, 2011 (French).