Péribonca

River in southern-central Québec, Canada. Rising in the Otish Mountains, it flows about 480 km/300 mi south before entering Lake Saint-Jean; it is the largest river feeding the lake. Engineering works in the 1950s created two reservoirs, and the river is a productive hydroelectric power source. The small agricultural settlement of Péribonka is situated near the mouth of the river. The area is popular with tourists.

In 1912 the French writer Louis Hemon came to work on a farm in Péribonka while gathering material for his romantic pastoral novel Maria Chapdelaine (1916).