Page created on : December 11, 2002
Last updated : December 23, 2002

On August 10, 1535, on the Feast of St. Lawrence, Jacques Cartier gave the name St. Lawrence to a bay of the great river that he had just begun to explorer - a river of central importance to Canada's very existence and growth.

The St. Lawrence, which is 1197 kilometres long, is the 14th largest river in the world, and the second only to the Mackenzie River in this country. The river proper stretches from Lake Ontario at a point near Kingston to the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Sept-Iles. And with its major tributaries, the Ottawa, the Saguenay, the Manicouagan, the St-Maurice, and the Richelieu, it is a drainage basin of over one million square kilometres!

Tapping into a maze of lakes and rivers, the St. Lawrence begins an east-west passage above the U.S. border. It has been a gateway to the nation, a home to much of our population, and a vital artery of exploration, commerce and settlement.

The stamp portrays an outward bound container ship in mid river, with the Laurentians in the background. A vignette shows the Beluga whale, once common in the river and now endagered.