Madeleine, Îles de la

Archipelago of 15 islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence, in the far southeast of Québec; population (1990) 14,000. The islands lie 100 km/60 mi northwest of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, 160 km/100 mi west of Newfoundland, and 80 km/50 mi north of east Prince Edward Island. administratively, they are part of the province of Québec.

Covering an area measuring some 85 km/53 mi from southwest to northeast, the Îles de la Madeleine island group includes Île du Havre Aubert (Amherst), Île d'Entrée, Île du Cap aux Meules (Grindstone, the largest community), Île du Havre aux Maisons (Alright), Île aux Loups (Wolf), Île de la Grande Entrée (Coffin), Grosse Île, Île de l'Est (East), and Île Brion. Sandspits and dunes connect most of the islands. Fishing, fish processing, lobster catching, sealing, and tourism are the main industries. The islands have large colonies of seabirds, and dramatically sculpted red and grey sandstone cliffs. They were probably first visited by Basque fishermen in the early 1500s, and were explored by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and Samuel de Champlain in 1609. French settlers arrived here in 1755 and developed communities, but after 1787, when the English under Isaac Coffin controlled the islands, many left to establish Blanc-Sablon and other towns on the southern Québec mainland. In 1895 a new law encouraged many French speakers to return. Nowadays the islands contain both French- and English-speaking communities; the largest settlements are Fatima (population (1991) 3,100) and L'Etang-du-Nord (population (1991) 3,000), both on L'Île du Cap aux Meules.