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The lake-dotted countryside around Montreal offers a range of recuperative pleasures for the city-dweller, starting with the largely wilderness stretch of the Outaouais to the west, 135km northwest of Montreal and extending along the north side of the Ottawa River. Once the domain of Algonquin tribes, the region was not developed until the 1800s, when it became an important centre for the lumber industry. While the bulk of the activities in the region are of an outdoorsy nature - hiking, canoeing, snowmobiling, cycling and cross-country skiing - Montebello and the lush farmland of the Cantons-de-l'Est (Eastern Townships), east towards the US border, are worth visiting for their atmosphere and historical heritage. Even Hull , formerly Ottawa's dull cousin, is now a draw thanks to the Musee Canadien des Civilisations , Quebec's finest museum. Extending along the north side of the St Lawrence from the Ottawa River to the Saguenay are the Laurentians - one of the world's oldest ranges - where five hundred million years of erosion have moulded it into a rippling landscape of undulating hills and valleys. Immediately north of Montreal, the more accessible Lower Laurentians are dotted with whitewashed farm cottages and manor houses, but settlement in the Upper Laurentians did not begin until the 1830s, when the construction of the P'tit Train du Nord railway tracks let in the mining and lumber industries. When the decline in both industries left the area in a depression, salvation came in the form of the recreational demands of the growing populace of Montreal. The region is now one of North America's largest ski areas, with the number of resorts increasing annually.
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