Their forefathers came from Brittany, the Hebrides, Galway, Cornwall, Lorraine and Donegal. They were hardy highland crofters, potato farmers, vine growers from sunny Mediterranean shores, tin miners, lowland smallholders, scarred veterans of history-making battles upon land and sea and quill-pen clerks from musty offices in London, Dublin, Paris and Glasgow. They came by a long, arduous sea voyage from the old world and made their way by boat and on foot up the wild Ottawa Valley. There they cleared the land, sold tall pine timbers for floating down river, laboriously removed the huge stumps, dragged the rocks to one side and built their log cabins. With the passing of the years they grew rich crops, constructed substantial barns and farmhouses, gathered into prosperous villages, then thriving towns. From either side of the main river they spread, up the winding tributaries, their choice in place names leaving their origins indelibly marked on the map of Canada. Renfrew, Aylmer, Chapeau, Mattawa, New Liskeard, Deux Rivieres, Pembroke, Fitzroy, Arnprior, these are some of the names studding the area today and settled by families bearing such surnames as Smaggus, McGilligan, Boudreau, Moriarity, McCann, Kelly, Riopelle, Ellis and Toffelmire - all names found in the region's telephone directories at the present time. Now, with sophisticated electronic industries and vast nuclear-power developments growing alongside the traditional businesses of agriculture and forestry, the present people of the valley, but an hour's journey by scheduled daily air flight from Montreal and Toronto, can look ahead to a new period of expansion. Yet, happily, this lovely valley, with its fertile meadows, rolling wooded hills, clear lakes and streams, and with the big, beautiful Ottawa River itself as a majestic centrepiece, will for a long time to come remain a panorama of scenic splendor enriched by the warmth of its fine and likeable people.