The island is named after Queen Victoria, the Canadian sovereign from 1867 to 1901 (though she first became Queen in 1837). The features bearing the name "Prince Albert" are named after her consort, Albert.
History
Victoria Island was inhabited by the Thule culture, with five prehistoric qamutiik (sleds) belonging to the Neoeskimo culture being found on the Wollaston Peninsula, dating to 1250–1573 AD.[7] The Inuinnaqtun name for the island is Kitlineq, with the local Inuit people called Kitlinermiut (Copper Inuit).[8]
In 1826 John Richardson was the first European to see the southwest coast and called it "Wollaston Land".[9] In 1839, Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson followed its southeast coast and called it "Victoria Land".[10] A map published by John Barrow in 1846 shows a complete blank from these two lands north to "Banks Land" which is the north coast of Banks Island.[11] In 1851 John Rae charted its entire south coast and connected the two "lands".[12] In 1850 and 1851 Robert McClure circumnavigated most of Banks Island, thereby separating it from the rest of Victoria Land. His men also charted the northwest and west coasts of Victoria Island.[13]One of Roald Amundsen's men, Godfred Hansen, charted its east coast as far as Cape Nansen in 1905,[14] and in 1916 and 1917 Storker T. Storkerson, of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Canadian Arctic Expedition, charted its northeast coast, sighting the Storkerson Peninsula.[15]
In 2008 Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island. Their first attempt at the 1,000 km (620 mi) trek in 2005 failed, so they returned and completed the remaining 660 km (410 mi) in 2008.[16][17]
Victoria Island is an island of peninsulas, having a heavily indented coastline with many inlets. In the east, pointing northwards, is the Storkerson Peninsula,map11 which ends with the Goldsmith Channel,map12 the body of water separating Victoria from Stefansson Island.map13 The Storkerson Peninsula is separated from the island's north-central areas by Hadley Bay,map14 a major inlet. Another, broad peninsula is found in the north, Prince Albert Peninsula.map15 This ends at the Prince of Wales Strait. In the south, and pointing westwards, is the Wollaston Peninsula,map16 separated from the island's central areas by Prince Albert Sound.
The highest point of Victoria Island is 655 m (2,149 ft) in the Shaler Mountainsmap17 in the north-central region. Located in the southeast, just north of Cambridge Bay, is Tahiryuaq (formerly Ferguson Lake)map18. With an area of 562 km2 (217 sq mi), it is the largest lake on the island.[19]
It was said by Andrew Hund in his book, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions, that the island resembles a stylized maple leaf, the predominant symbol of Canada.[20]
Climate
Victoria Island has a polar climate, with no month having an average temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) or higher, and is listed as ET on the Köppen climate classification. Summers are typically cool and rainy, with pleasant days and chilly nights. Winters are cold, dark, and long, with October being the snowiest month. Snowfall and frosts are possible all year round. Rainfall is usually limited to the summer months, when the temperature shortly rises above freezing for a few months before dipping back down for another 9 months of winter. Springs are typically sunny but still very chilly. Autumns are short and crisp, with more frequent cloud cover starting to appear during August and with September being almost constantly cloudy.
At Cambridge Bay, the sun is continuously below the horizon, polar night, from approximately 30 November to 11 January and above the horizon, midnight sun, 19 May to 22 July.[21]
Biology
The Dolphin-Union caribou herd locally known as Island Caribou[25][26] are a migratory population of barren-ground caribou, Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus, that occupy Victoria Island in Canada's High Arctic and the nearby mainland. They are endemic to Canada. They migrate across the Dolphin and Union Strait from their summer grazing on Victoria Island to their winter grazing area on the Nunavut-NWT mainland.[25][27] It is unusual for North American caribou to seasonally cross sea ice and the only other caribou to do so are the Peary caribou, which are smaller in size and population, and also occur on Victoria Island.[28]
In the 2021 Canadian census the population of the island was 2,168; 1,760[3] in Nunavut and 408[4] in the Northwest Territories. Of the two settlements on the island the larger is Cambridge Bay,map19 which lies on the south-east coast and is in Nunavut. Ulukhaktokmap20 is on the west coast and is in the Northwest Territories. Trading posts, such as Fort Collinsonmap21 on the northwest coast, have long been abandoned.[30]
^ a b"Atlas of Canada". Atlas.nrcan.gc.ca. 2009-08-12. Archived from the original on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
^ a b c d"Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), Nunavut". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
^ a b c"Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), Northwest Territories". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
^"Society-COPPER-ESKIMO". ukc.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
^Swann, Brian (2005). Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. p. 133. ISBN 0-8032-9340-2.
^SAVELLE, JAMES M.; DYKE, ARTHUR S.; Giguère, Nicole (2014). "Prehistoric Neoeskimo Komatiks, Victoria Island, Arctic Canada". Arctic. 67 (2): 135–142. doi:10.14430/arctic4383. JSTOR 24363693 – via JSTOR.
^Lagacé, Robert O. (January 13, 1977). "Sixty Cultures: A Guide to the HRAF Probability Sample Files". Human Relations Area Files – via Google Books.
^Franklin, John (1828). Narrative of a second expedition to the shores of the Polar sea in the years 1825, 1826 and 1827, by John Franklin,... including an account of the progress of a detachment to the Eastward, by John Richardson. London: J. Murray. John Franklin 1826.
^Simpson, Thomas (1843). Narrative of the discoveries on the north coast of America: effected by the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company during the years 1836-39. London: R. Bentley. Thomas Simpson 1843.
^Derek Hayes,"Historical Atlas of the Arctic", map 136
^McGoogan, Kenneth (2003). Fatal passage: the true story of John Rae, the Arctic hero time forgot. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
^McClure, Robert (1856). Osborn, Sherard (ed.). The Discovery of the North-West Passage. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts.
^Amundsen, Roald and Godfred Hansen (1908). Roald Amundsen's "The North West Passage"; being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Gjøa" 1903-1907. London: A Constable and Co. ISBN 9781548724412.
^Stefansson, Vilhjalmur (1922). The Friendly Arctic: The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions. New York: Macmillan.
^"Clark Carter's Arctic Circle Adventures to appear on the big screen". if.com. IF. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
^"Aussie adventurers to try again with Victoria Island trek | CBC News". CBC News. 2008-01-14. Archived from the original on 2022-12-20.
^Beeler, Carolyn (4 September 2017). "Who controls the Northwest Passage? It's up for debate". PRI. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
^Ferguson Lake at the Atlas of Canada
^Hund, Andrew (2014). Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 725. ISBN 9781610693936.
^"Cambridge Bay (Composite Station Threads)". Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020 Data. Environment and Climate Change Canada. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
^"Cambridge Bay A *". Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010. Environment and Climate Change Canada. Climate ID: 2400600. Archived from the original on 2023-09-30. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
^"Uiukhaktok/Holman (Composite Station Threads)". Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020 Data. Environment and Climate Change Canada. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
^ a bGNWT, Species at Risk in the Northwest Territories 2012 (PDF), Government of Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, ISBN 978-0-7708-0196-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015, retrieved 31 October 2014
^"COSEWIC Assessment and Update Status Report on the Peary Caribou Rangifer tarandus pearyi and Barren-ground Caribou Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus Dolphin and Union population in Canada" (PDF), COSEWIC, May 2004, ISBN 0-662-37375-8, retrieved 1 November 2014
^Poole, Kim G.; Patterson, Brent R.; Dumond, Mathieu (December 2010), "Sea Ice and Migration of the Dolphin and Union Caribou Herd in the Canadian Arctic: An Uncertain Future" (PDF), Arctic, 63 (4): 414–428, doi:10.14430/arctic3331, retrieved 31 October 2014
^NWT Species at Risk Peary Caribou
^Wolchover, Natalie (January 24, 2012). "World's Largest Island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island Seen on Google Earth". LiveScience. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
^"Archives of Manitoba | Keystone Archives Descriptive Database". pam.minisisinc.com.
Geological Survey of Canada, J. G. Fyles, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski. Quaternary Geology of Wynniatt Bay, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2718. 1988.
Geological Survey of Canada, R. H. Rainbird, A. N. LeCheminant, and I. Lawyer. Geology, Duke of York Inlier, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 3304. 1997.
Geological Survey of Canada, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski. Preliminary Suficial Materials of Kagloryuak River (77F) and Burns Lake (77G), Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2883. 1994.
Gyselman, E. C., and L. K. Gould. Data on Amphidromous and Freshwater Fish from Central Victoria Island and Freshwater Systems Draining into Melville Sound and Elu Inlet, N.W.T., Canada. Winnipeg: Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, 1992.
Jakimchuk, R. D., and D. R. Carruthers. Caribou and Muskoxen on Victoria Island, N.W.T. Sidney, B.C.: R.D. Jakimchuk Management Associates Ltd, 1980.
McGhee, Robert. An Archaeological Survey of Western Victoria Island, N.W.T., Canada. Ottawa, Ont: National Museums of Canada, 1971.
Parmelee, David Freeland, H. A. Stephens, and Richard H. Schmidt. The Birds of Southeastern Victoria Island and Adjacent Small Islands. Ottawa: [Queen's Printer], 1967.
Peterson, E. B., R. D. Kabzems, and V. M. Levson. Terrain and Vegetation Along the Victoria Island Portion of a Polar Gas Combined Pipeline System. Sidney, B.C.: Western Ecological Services, 1981.
Rainbird, Robert H. Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Tectonic Setting of the Upper Shaler Group, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Ottawa: National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1991. ISBN 0-315-66301-4
Washburn, A. L. Reconnaissance Geology of Portions of Victoria Island and Adjacent Regions, Arctic Canada. [New York]: Geological Society of America, 1947.
External links
Media related to Victoria Island, Canada at Wikimedia Commons