Between 1760 and Confederation, settlements in Lower and Upper Canada expanded into the Canadian Shield. In Lower Canada, the Saguenay River, the St. Maurice Valley, and the area north of Montreal were the main areas of settlement. In Upper Canada, settlement was attempted in the Ottawa-Huron tract, which extended eastward from Lake Huron into the Ottawa Valley. The Canadian Shield posed a challenge to settlement until population growth pushed the boundaries. In the early 19th century, the Shield provided a solution to ideological and economic dilemmas in the Canadian colonies, and settlement was encouraged. The settlement that developed in the Canadian Shield was based on resource extraction and shaped the landscape of the region. However, settlements in the Shield eventually declined due to poor conditions and new settlement solutions were found. The Canadian Shield influenced settlement in Lower and Upper Canada because it was a temporary solution during a difficult period of demographic and economic transition. The Shield highlighted the limits of settlement in the Canadian colonies and forced settlers to establish settlements in the interior northwest. Settlement in the Canadian Shield provided an outlet for the growing population. In the early 19th century, Lower Canada experienced a surge of labor, pioneer families, and capital from the transatlantic countries and eastern North America. Settlements began to expand northward; however, according to geography professor Cole Harris, settlements "dithered on the edges of the Canadian Shield" and "neither settlers nor the capital touched the Canadian Shield until the early 1850s." Although the Shield was not actually resolved, it prevented emigration until alternative solutions were found and allowed further exploitation of resources. As the edges of the Canadian Shield were pushed, settlers realized that Canada was limited and looked elsewhere for solutions. It could be said that the failure to settle the Shield contributed to the westward expansion. Works Cited: Galois, Robert M. “Rural Quebec: After the Conquest.” Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, November 3, 2011. Galois, Robert M. “Upper Canada: Agriculture and Rural Settlement.” Lecture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, November 10, 2011.Harris, R. Cole. The Reluctant Land: Society, Space and Environment in Canada Before Confederation. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.