For untold ages the river flowed through a silent primeval wilderness. Then the first humans came, the people of the First Nations, and thousands of years later, Europeans, who fought battles upon the river, built towns beside it, and established prosperous farms along its shores. It became a thoroughfare leading into the heart of a great continent, used first by canoes, then by schooners, lumber-rafts, steamships, and huge ocean-going vessels. This is its story--the enthralling history of the greatest inland sea-route in the world, compellingly told, often in the words of the people who took part in the events described. We watch Quebec grow from a lonely trading-post to a famous city; we take part in the battles of the Plains of Abraham and Windmill Point; we see the river's first bridge go up at Montreal, and an ice-railway join its shores; we share in the disasters, celebrations, and daily life of the people, and in the most impressive event of all--the building of a deep-water highway and the harnessing of the river's fall for hydroelectric power. First published half-a-century ago, this vivid narrative, tightly packed with anecdote and incident, is now reissued for the enjoyment of a new generation of readers. It is enhanced by beautiful line-drawings and reproductions of fascinating engravings, paintings, and photographs.