Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

CHAPTER V.
THE ARCTIC ISLANDS.

Little is known of the interior of even the more southerly of the Arctic islands. Up to the present time exploration has been largely confined to their coasts, with only a few isolated lines run across their interiors. In this way, however, sufficient knowledge has been obtained to give a general idea of the geography, which will probably be greatly modified when future explorations have given more information.

Thanks to the work done by the numerous search parties for the unfortunate Franklin and his companions, the coast lines of many of even the most northern islands have been thoroughly explored. The work left undone by these parties has since been practically finished by the British expedition of 1875, and by the work of Greely, Peary and Sverdrup.

The physical features of the coasts visited by the Neptune have been described in detail in the narrative of the voyage, and need not be repeated here. All other information concerning the geography of these northern lands has been obtained from the printed records of earlier Arctic travellers, and is here used to give some general idea of the extent and physical condition of these islands.

The islands of the Arctic archipelago extend from the north side of Hudson bay and Hudson strait, in 62° N. latitude to 83° N. latitude, a distance of 1,500 miles. Their greatest extension westward is along the 73rd parallel, from the west side of Baffin bay to 125° W. longitude, a distance of 500 miles.

The islands have, for convenience, been divided into four natural groups, as follows:—

Group I.—The islands situated in the northern parts of Hudson bay and Hudson strait. These include the great island of Southampton, together with the smaller islands of Coats, Mansfield, Nottingham, Salisbury, Charles, Akpatok, Resolution and many other small ones still unnamed.

Group II.—Includes the islands lying between Hudson bay and Hudson strait, on the south, and Lancaster sound on the north, the western boundary of the group being Prince Regent inlet. The largest of all the islands, Baffin, belongs to this group. The only other island of considerable size is Bylot, while the remainder are small and fringe these two large islands.

Group III.—This contains the islands lying west of Prince Regent inlet and south of Lancaster sound, and its western continuation, Barrow strait. These islands are almost inaccessible, as they lie to the west and south of the ice-covered waters of Lancaster sound, the only channel by which they may be reached from the eastward; while the western islands of the group can only be reached by passing through the Arctic ocean from Bering strait, a long distance to the eastward of them. They are comprised of Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, North Somerset and King William islands.

Group IV.—The islands north of Lancaster sound and Barrow strait. Those include the great islands of Ellesmere and North Devon, whose eastern sides front on Baffin bay and Smith sound; the Parry islands—Cornwallis, Bathurst, Byam Martin, Melville, Eglinton and Prince Patrick—all on the north side of Barrow strait; the Sverdrup islands—Axel Heiberg, Ellef Ringnes, Amund Ringnes, King Christian and North Cornwall—situated to the west of Ellesmere and to the north of the Parry islands.