Illustrations 1 to 3 provide some appreciation of the changing physical geography and vegetative cover of QuÄbec as seen through time. Few people who live in the St. Lawrence Valley and its tributaries realize that at one time bowhead whales and seals swam above them in the Champlain Sea or that caribou and mastodon grazed in a tundra or spruce forest parkland setting along the shoreline. At 8,800 B.C. virtually all of QuÄbec north of the St. Lawrence was still covered by the continental glacier while the St. Lawrence Valley was occupied by the Champlain Sea. Direct evidence of Fluted Point culture hunters in the province at this time is lacking although circumstantial evidence would suggest it is only a matter of time before early sites are located. The plant communities at this time would favour caribou and, indeed, the locations of Fluted Point culture sites in adjacent provinces and states strongly suggest that caribou herds were the major prey of these early hunters. Question marks on illustrations 1 to 3 indicate that there was insufficient information to map accurately a particular ancient shoreline.
Courtesy: National Film Board of Canada
(Adapted from Pierre J.H. Richard, Couvert vÄgÄtal et palÄoenvironnements du QuÄbec entre 12 000 et 8 000 ans BP, Recherches amÄrindiennes au QuÄbec, XV (1985)
