ISLANDS OF GROUP III.
As has been already stated, the islands of this group can only be reached with considerable difficulty on account of their position. Little is known of them beyond the outline of their shores, and even these have not been fully traced in the case of the more western islands.
North Somerset, separated from the northern part of Baffin by Prince Regent inlet, is the best known of the group, and its northern and eastern shores have long been resorts of the whalers in their search for the valuable Right whale in the adjoining waters. The less valuable white whales are often abundant along these shores, and are taken by the whalers when the larger whales cannot be obtained. The greatest length of this island is from north to south, being 140 miles, while its extreme breadth in the northern part is about a hundred miles. In shape it somewhat resembles a ham with the shank to the southward, where the narrow Bellot strait separates it from Boothia peninsula, a northern extension of the continent, remarkable for containing the North Magnetic Pole within its area. The northern coast of North Somerset is formed of limestone cliffs; these are lower and less abrupt than on the northern Baffin coast, while the bays indenting them are wider and not so long as is usual on such coasts. Along the eastern side the cliffs rise nearly 1,000 feet directly from the sea. To the south, along this shore, the cliffs gradually decline, until the low lands about Creswell bay are passed, when the country again becomes high and the coast bold. The western side of the island, facing on Peel sound, is occupied by a wide strip of Archæan rocks, and the physical character corresponds to that of other like areas. This coast never rises above the 1,000 feet contour, and towards the south is considerably lower. There does not appear to be any continuous ice-cap upon North Somerset, and the glacial conditions are confined to isolated snow patches, with small glaciers in some of the larger valleys. These glaciers do not discharge icebergs.
Prince of Wales island is separated from North Somerset by the narrow channel of Peel sound and Franklin strait. It is irregular in shape, being broken by a number of large bays. The greatest length, 175 miles, is from north to south, while the broadest part is 125 miles across. The northeast corner is occupied by crystalline rocks, the remainder being of limestone. In no place does the elevation of the interior plain exceed 500 feet.
King William island lies to the southward of Prince of Wales island in an angle formed by the northern coast of the continent and Boothia peninsula. It is described as a low barren island of limestone, of triangular shape, with a base seventy miles long on the northwest side, the other sides having each a length of nearly one hundred miles. The island is noted for the discovery on its shores of the bodies of several of the ill-fated members of Franklin’s expedition, together with the record of Franklin’s death and the crushing of the ships in the heavy ice off the northwest coast of the island.
Victoria island is the third largest of the Arctic archipelago, its area being 74,400 square miles. Only the western and southern shores of this great island have been explored, and practically nothing is known of its interior. It is 450 miles long from northwest to southeast, and is over 300 miles across in the widest part. With the exception of a small area in the northwest, it is formed of Silurian limestone. The island is generally level, the greater part of it being well below an elevation of 500 feet.
Banks island is the most western of this group; it is separated from Victoria by the narrow Prince of Wales strait. Its greatest length from northeast to southwest is about 250 miles, while the average breadth is about 120 miles. The island is formed largely of the softer rocks of the Carboniferous, and is considerably higher than those to the eastward, the greater part of the interior being above 1,000 feet, while in the southern part the plateau reaches an altitude of 3,000 feet. The soil from the Carboniferous rocks being richer and deeper than that on the bare limestone islands, supports a good growth of arctic vegetation, and in consequence the valleys leading to the coast are the feeding grounds of large bands of musk-oxen, barren-ground caribou and arctic hares, this abundance of animal life being in marked contrast to that on the barren limestone islands. The lowlands bordering the sea in the northwest part of the island are formed of Miocene-Tertiary deposits, containing numerous trees allied to those now covering the wooded northern parts of the mainland, far to the southward. The presence of these trees shows that, in the period before the Ice-age, the climate of these northern islands must have been much warmer than at present.