Location Hudson Bay Highest elevation 549 m (1,801 ft) Region Qikiqtaaluk | Total islands 24 Territory Nunavut Elevation 549 m | |
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Major islands Booth Island, Bronson Island, Eddy Island, Gilmour Island, J. Gordon Island, Pattee Island, Perley Island Island group Canadian Arctic Archipelago | ||
The Ottawa Islands (Inuit: Arviliit) are a group of uninhabited islands situated in the eastern edge of Canada's Hudson Bay. The group comprises 24 small islands, located at approximately 60N 80W. The main islands include Booth Island, Bronson Island, Eddy Island, Gilmour Island, J. Gordon Island, Pattee Island, and Perley Island. The highest point is on Gilmour Island, which rises to over 1,800 ft (550 m). Located a short distance off the northwest coast of Quebec's Ungava Peninsula, they, like the other coastal islands in Hudson Bay, were historically part of the Northwest Territories, and became part of the territory of Nunavut upon its creation in 1999.
Contents
- Map of Ottawa Islands Baffin Unorganized NU Canada
- Geography
- Further coordinate readings
- Fauna
- References
Map of Ottawa Islands, Baffin, Unorganized, NU, Canada
Geography
The Ottawa Islands are situated on the barren and rocky east coast of Hudson Bay. By 1610 Hudson Bay had been explored and named by Henry Hudson in his quest for a Northwest Passage. It wasn't until 1631 when Luke Foxe (or Fox) on a voyage from "Vltimum Vale" (Cape Henrietta Maria), near 57° 40', indicated that "Mr. Hudson calls those islands by the name of 'Lancaster's Iles.' " According to historian T.H. Manning, there is no other record of Henry Hudson naming islands in that region. A little further north, near 58° 5', Capt. Foxe says "Wee came by a small Iland at clocke one, the highest I haue seene since I came from Brook Cobham; the deep 70 fathome. I named the Ile Sleepe." Foxe named the islands just north of Lancaster Isle, "Ile Sleepe". According to Manning, the name, having eventually changed to "Sleeper Island" or "The Sleepers", could be used "for the islands between and including Lancaster and Ottawa Islands."
Further coordinate readings
Fauna
The Ottawa Islands and the southwardly Belcher Islands are a breeding ground for "the Hudson Bay subspecies of the Common Eider". In 1765 commercial whaling of bowheads was started by Churchill-based sloops of the Hudson's Bay Company with some whales being harvested in the Ottawa Islands. By 1992 and 1993, hunters from Inukjuak failed to locate any walruses.