Anticosti Island (French, Île d'Anticosti) is an island in Quebec, Canada, at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At 7,892.52 km2 (3,047.32 sq mi) in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait, and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.
Anticosti Island is large but sparsely populated (281 people in 2006), with most of the permanent population in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island, consisting chiefly of the keepers of the lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The entire island constitutes one municipality known as L'Île-d'Anticosti.
Because of the more than 400 shipwrecks off its coasts, it is called the "Cemetery of the Gulf".
Read more about Anticosti Island: Geography, History, Access and Transportation, Flora, Fauna, Tourism
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)