Bathurst Island (Canada)
| Bathurst Island | |
|---|---|
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| Waters | Arctic Ocean |
| Archipelago | Queen Elizabeth Islands |
| Geographical location | 75 ° 46 ′ N , 99 ° 47 ′ W |
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| length | 190 km |
| width | 150 km |
| surface | 16,042 km² |
| Highest elevation | Stokes Mountain 412 m |
| Residents | uninhabited |
| main place | Brooman Point Village (historic) |
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Bathurst Island is an island belonging to the Queen Elizabeth Islands group in the Canadian territory of Nunavut .
geography
The island is 16,042 km² and ranks 13th among the largest islands in Canada. Together with Cameron Island , Île Vanier , Massey Island , Alexander Island and Helena Island , it forms the Bathurst group of the Parry Islands . Its larger neighboring islands are Melville Island in the west, Cornwallis Island in the southeast and Devon Island in the east. In the south the island borders on the Viscount-Melville-Sound .
Bathurst Island is very indented. Inlets such as Bracebridge Inlet in the east and May Inlet and Young Inlet in the north cut deep into the island. This is relatively low, only a few areas rise above 300 m .
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Arctic Magnetic Pole was on Bathurst Island before shifting further north.
Flora and fauna
Because of the good nature of the soil, the vegetation is more abundant than on other arctic islands. This also benefits the animal world, for whose protection the Polar Bear Pass National Wildlife Area , which is 2636 km² in size, was established in the central part of the island . It has been designated as a Ramsar area since 1982 . It is an arctic wetland rich in vegetation, located in the valley between Bracebridge Inlet and Goodsir Inlet , with a vegetation of lichens , mosses, grasses, flowering plants and dwarf shrubs. Over 30 species of birds, mostly waterfowl, breed in the area, including Thor's grouse and Brent geese . On land mammals two come Lemming species , the Arctic fox , the wolf , the Peary caribou and musk ox before. In summer, polar bears roam the valley on their way to Graham Moore Bay in the southwest. Ringed seals and walruses live in the adjacent sea .
history
Bathurst Island was never permanently inhabited in historical times. In the east of the island, at Brooman Point and Markham Point , remains of the Palaeoeskimo settlements have been found. From a European point of view, the island was discovered on August 25, 1819 by Sir William Edward Parry while searching for the Northwest Passage and named after Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst . The south and west coasts were explored in 1851 by Horatio Thomas Austin's expedition to search for the missing John Franklin , the north coast two years later by Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. In 1906 Joseph-Elzéar Bernier (1852–1934) formally took possession of the island for Canada.
Web links
- Bathurst Island ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Atlas of Canada - Queen Elizabeth Islands ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Bathurst Island ( Memento from May 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in the island encyclopedia www.oceandots.com (English)
- ↑ Polar Bear Pass National Wildlife Area . Canadian Wildlife Service, ISBN 978-1-100-23212-6
- ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 70 ( limited preview in Google Book search).