Hochelaga Archipelago

The Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands is a group of islands at the confluence of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River in the southwest part of the province of Quebec in Canada.

Size

Estimates of the number of islands in the archipelago vary. The most widely accepted number seems to be 234, although the number has been put as high as 350.

Islands

The largest island in the group is the Island of Montreal, which forms the main portion of the City of Montreal. The city has jurisdiction over 74 smaller islands in the archipelago, most notably Nuns' Island, Île Bizard and the two islands that served as the site of Expo 67, Saint Helen's Island and the man-made Île Notre-Dame.

The second-largest island in the archipelago is Île Jésus, which along with the Îles Laval and several smaller islands makes up the city of Laval.

Other islands include the Îles de Boucherville, featuring a Quebec National Park, Île Perrot, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and neighbouring Grande-Île, Quebec, as well as the smaller Dorval and Dowker islands.

Name

The archipelago takes its name from Hochelega, an Iroquois settlement on Island of Montreal that was later settled by to become the modern city of Montreal.