Victoria Island

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use Canadian English Template:Infobox islands

Victoria Island (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at Template:Cvt Template:Ref in area, it is Canada's second-largest island. It is nearly double the size of Newfoundland (Template:Cvt), and is slightly larger than the island of Great Britain (Template:Cvt) but smaller than Honshu (Template:Cvt). The western third of the island lies in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories; the remainder is part of Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region. The population of 2,168 is divided between two settlements, the larger of which is Cambridge Bay (Nunavut) and the other Ulukhaktok (Northwest Territories).

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

File:VictoriaIslandMap.png

Closeup map of Victoria Island

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Inuinnaqtun name for the island is Kitlineq, with the local Inuit people called Kitlinermiut (Copper Inuit).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1826 John Richardson was the first European to see the southwest coast and called it "Wollaston Land".<ref name=Franklin1828>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1839, Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson followed its southeast coast and called it "Victoria Land".<ref name=Simpson>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Derek Hayes,"Historical Atlas of the Arctic", map 136</ref> In 1851 John Rae charted its entire south coast and connected the two "lands".<ref name=McGoogan>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

One of Roald Amundsen's men, Godfred Hansen, charted its east coast as far as Cape Nansen in 1905,<ref name="Amundsen">Template:Cite book</ref> and in 1916 and 1917 Storker T. Storkerson, of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Canadian Arctic Expedition, charted its northeast coast, sighting the Storkerson Peninsula.<ref name="Stefansson">Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2008 Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island. Their first attempt at the Template:Cvt trek in 2005 failed, so they returned and completed the remaining Template:Cvt in 2008.<ref name="IF">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geography

File:Victoria topo.png

Topography of Victoria Island

File:Arctic CopperNunavut.jpg

Large native copper specimen from the Saneraum Hills, Victoria Island

Viscount Melville Sound Template:Ref lies to the north, and the M'Clintock Channel Template:Ref and Victoria Strait Template:Ref lie eastward. On the west are Amundsen Gulf Template:Ref and Banks Island,Template:Ref which is separated from Victoria by a long sound called the Prince of Wales Strait.Template:Ref To the south (from west to east) lie the Dolphin and Union Strait,Template:Ref Austin Bay,Template:Ref Coronation Gulf Template:Ref and the Dease Strait.Template:Ref

The southern waterways, and sometimes the Prince of Wales Strait, form part of the disputed Northwest Passage which the Government of Canada claims are Canadian Internal Waters, while other nations state they are either territorial waters or international waters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Victoria Island is an island of peninsulas, having a heavily indented coastline with many inlets. In the east, pointing northwards, is the Storkerson Peninsula,Template:Ref which ends with the Goldsmith Channel,Template:Ref the body of water separating Victoria from Stefansson Island.Template:Ref The Storkerson Peninsula is separated from the island's north-central areas by Hadley Bay,Template:Ref a major inlet. Another, broad peninsula is found in the north, Prince Albert Peninsula.Template:Ref This ends at the Prince of Wales Strait. In the south, and pointing westwards, is the Wollaston Peninsula,Template:Ref separated from the island's central areas by Prince Albert Sound.

The highest point of Victoria Island is Template:Cvt in the Shaler Mountains Template:Ref in the north-central region. Located in the southeast, just north of Cambridge Bay, is Tahiryuaq (formerly Ferguson Lake)Template:Ref. With an area of Template:Cvt, it is the largest lake on the island.<ref>Ferguson Lake at the Atlas of Canada</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Climate

Victoria Island has a polar climate, with no month having an average temperature of Template:Cvt 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.<ref>Sunrise/Sunset/Sun Angle Calculator Template:Webarchive at the National Research Council (Canada)</ref>

Template:Cambridge Bay weatherbox

Template:Ulukhaktok weatherbox

Biology

The Dolphin-Union caribou herd locally known as Island Caribou<ref name="NWT">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="COSEWIC">Template:Citation</ref> 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.<ref name="NWT" /><ref name="AINA">Template:Citation</ref> 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.<ref>NWT Species at Risk Peary Caribou</ref>

Victoria Island contains the world's largest island within an island within an island.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Demographics

In the 2021 Canadian census the population of the island was 2,168; 1,760<ref name=YCB2021census>Template:Cite web</ref> in Nunavut and 408<ref name=YHI2021census>Template:Cite web</ref> in the Northwest Territories. Of the two settlements on the island the larger is Cambridge Bay,Template:Ref which lies on the south-east coast and is in Nunavut. Ulukhaktok Template:Ref is on the west coast and is in the Northwest Territories. Trading posts, such as Fort Collinson Template:Ref on the northwest coast, have long been abandoned.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>