Lake Ha! Ha! (, ) is a

waterbody A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rare ...

tributary of the Ha! Ha! River. It is located in the municipality of

Ferland-et-Boilleau, Quebec Ferland-et-Boilleau () is a municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (, ''The Fjord of the Saguenay iver') is a regional county municipality in the Sag ...

, in the

Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (, ''The Fjord of the Saguenay iver') is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is Saint-Honoré, which is also its most populous municipality. It is named for the ...

(MRC), in

administrative region Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in

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, ...

, located in the

Saguenay River __NOTOC__ The Saguenay River (, ) is a major river of Quebec, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. ...

valley, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The southeastern portion of the petit lac Ha! Ha! is served by route 381, which separates the lakes petit lac Ha! Ha! and lake Ha! Ha!. The bridge passes over the waterbody at the peninsula attached to the north shore and then the route goes northwest to serving the northwestern part of the lake Ha! Ha!. The landscape of this lake, surrounded by mountains, attracts nature lovers. Forestry is the main economic activity of the sector; recreational tourism activities, second. The surface of Lake Ha! Ha! is usually frozen from late November to early April; however, safe ice movement is generally from mid-December to late March.

Geography

The main hydrographic slopes near Lake Ha! Ha! are: * north side: Huard Lake, Ha! Ha! River, Hamel Arm, rivière des Cèdres, Papinachois Creek, Brébeuf Lake, Éternité Lake; * east side: John Creek,

Malbaie River The Malbaie River in the Charlevoix region empties into the Saint Lawrence River at La Malbaie. Until 1985 the river was used to transport logs downstream. It flows through a steep valley known as Les Hautes Gorges. A sugar maple and American e ...

, Pin Creek; * south side: Ha! Ha! River, Pierre River, Viper Lake, Cinto Lake, Rivière à Mars Northwest; * west side: Pierre River, rivière à Mars. The Ha! Ha! Lake consists of length of with a crescent-shaped open to the north-east of which the southeastern extremity stretches eastward between mountains. Its maximum width is ; its altitude is ; and its area is . The Ha! Ha! Lake is crossed on to the northwest by the current of Ha! Ha! River to the dam at its mouth; while the current of the Pierre River flows northward on . The Ha! Ha! Lake supplies itself from the outlet of Huard Lake (coming from the northwest), a creek (coming from the east), a creek (coming from the south), Ha! Ha! River (coming from the southeast), two unidentified streams and the Pierre River (coming from the West). The dam at the mouth of the lake is located at: * south of the village center of Boileau, Quebec; * southwest of Huard Lake; * south-east of the confluence of the Ha! Ha! River and the Baies des Ha! Ha! (Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean); * south-east of downtown

Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the St. ...

; * northwest of downtown

Baie-Saint-Paul Baie-Saint-Paul (; 2021 Population 7,371; UA population 4,308) is a city in the Province of Quebec, Canada, on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River. Baie-Saint-Paul is the seat of Charlevoix Regional County Municipality. The city i ...

. From the dam at the mouth of the lake, the stream flows down the Ha! Ha! River on to the northwest, across the Baie des Ha! Ha! (Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean) on northeasterly, then go east on the

on to

Tadoussac Tadoussac () is a village municipality in La Haute-Côte-Nord RCM (Regional County Municipality), on the north shore of the maritime section of the estuary of St. Lawrence river, in Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada. Geography Tadoussac is ...

where this last river flows into the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

Toponymy

The specific "Ha! Ha!" generates several interpretations according to the sources consulted. A popular interpretation associates it with an exclamation indicating irony or onomatopoeia of laughter. It is generally recognized by historians that it is rather a descriptive denomination. This specific derives from the French word haha, meaning "an unexpected obstacle on a path". This term identifies a ditch at the end of an alley that blocks a passage. This term is used in the military vocabulary because it describes a ditch located at the postern or at the entrance of a fortification, thus preventing the passage. In addition, the recollect Gabriel Sagard (baptized Théodat) published the Dictionary of the Huron Language (Paris, 1632), following a ten-month stay of the brother in Huron, from 1623 to 1624, in which is listed the noun Háhattey, meaning "road, lane or address".Work: Names and places of Québec, work of the "Commission de toponymie du Québec" published in 1994 and 1996 in the form of a printed illustrated dictionary, and under the name of a CD-ROM produced by the company Micro-Intel, in 1997, from this dictionary. The toponym ''Lake Ha! Ha!'' was formalized on December 5, 1968, by the

Commission de toponymie du Québec The Commission de toponymie du Québec (, ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicizing Québec's place names and their origins according to th ...

Geography

Toponymy

References

See also