The Caniapiscau River () is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the Koksoak River in

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; ) is an area in Canada which comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homelan ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. In

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

the name of the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

means ''rocky point''. Starting from Lac Sevestre ( south-west from

Fermont Fermont (; ) is a mining city in Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada, near the Quebec-Labrador border about from Labrador City on Route 389, which connects to the Trans-Labrador Highway (Newfoundland and Labrador Route 500). It is the seat o ...

) on the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

, the Caniapiscau River flows northward through a wide, timbered

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

until it makes a sharp turn at its confluence with the

Rivière aux Mélèzes The Rivière aux Mélèzes (also previously known as the Larch River and in Inuktitut as Kuuvik) is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. It forms the western part of the large basin of the Koksoak River. The other main tributary of the Koksoak is ...

(Larch River). At this point (called Kanniq Confluence), the river becomes the Koksoak River. The total length of the Caniapiscau River is . Since 1985, the headwaters of the Caniapiscau River have been diverted into the La Grande

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

complex. The headwaters of the Caniapiscau River, representing about 45% of the total flow, now drain into the

La Grande River La Grande River (, ; ; both meaning "great river") is a river in northwestern Quebec, Canada, rising in the highlands of the north-central part of the province and flowing roughly west to its drainage at James Bay. It is the second-longest rive ...

James Bay James Bay (, ; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is politically part of Nunavut. Its largest island is Akimiski Island. Numerous waterways of the ...

. The

Caniapiscau Reservoir The Caniapiscau Reservoir () is a reservoir on the upper Caniapiscau River in the Côte-Nord administrative region of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the largest body of water in Quebec and the second largest reservoir in Canada. The ...

, which covers about , or about nine times the size of the natural Lake Caniapiscau, fills a depression in the highest part of the

. The total catchment basin is about . Important variations in the water flow of the Caniapiscau River from 1981 to 1984, during the period when the Caniapiscau Reservoir was being filled, may have contributed to the death by drowning of 9,600 migratory woodland caribou in September 1984 at Chute du Calcaire (about 1.5% of George River herd). The Caniapiscau River basin has no permanent inhabitants, although

from the James Bay region as well as southern

hunters Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

do travel to the area by

bush plane A bush plane is a general aviation aircraft used to provide both scheduled and unscheduled passenger and flight services to remote, undeveloped areas, such as the Canadian north or bush, Alaskan tundra, the African bush, or savanna, Amazon rainf ...

and via the Trans-Taiga Road. From time to time, the river is visited by canoeists.Du Sable-Caniapiscau-Koksoak canoe trip 2009
/ref>

Etymology

In 1820, James Clouston, an employee of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, went down the river to its mouth and named it Caniapuscaw River in his diary and map. In 1828, explorer William Hendry identified it as Canniappuscaw. In 1898, the geologist Albert Peter Low used Kaniapiskau, and by the middle of the 20th century, the current spelling came in use. The

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

call the river ''Adlait Kuunga'' or ''Allait Kuunga'', meaning "Indian River". It was also known as Wauguash River.

Falls and canyons

Caniapiscau River has several spectacular

canyons A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

and

waterfalls A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

: * Chute de Facolli - * Chute Chambeaux - * Upper Gorge - * Gorge d'en Bas (Lower Gorge) - * Eaton Canyon - * Chute au Granite - * Chute aux Schistes - * Chute de la Pyrite - * Chute du Calcaire - * Manitou Gorge -

Tributaries

*Rivière Bras de Fer *Rivière du Sable *Goodwood River *Rivière Sérigny *Rivière Pons *Rivière Beurling *Rivière de la Mort *Rivière Châteauguay *Swampy Bay River *Situraviup River *Forbes River

References

{{Commons category Rivers of Nord-du-Québec James Bay Project Nunavik