Baffin Bay

“ Baffin Land is separated from Greenland by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, from Ungava by Hudson Strait, from Keewatin and Melville Peninsula by Fox Channel and Fury-and-Hecla Strait, from Boothia Peninsula and North Somerset by the Gulf of Boothia and Prince Regent Inlet, and from North Devon by Lancaster Sound. Various names are given to various parts of the land—thus the north-western part is called Cockburn Land, farther east is North Galloway; on the extreme eastern peninsula are Cumberland and Penny Lands, while the southern is called Meta Incognita; in the west is Fox Land. ”

“ The large ice-fields which the whaler encounters in Baffin’s Bay, or on the seas between Spitzbergen and Greenland, constitute one of the marvels of the deep. There is a solemn grandeur in the slow majestic motion with which they are drifted by the currents to the south; and their enormous masses, as mile after mile comes floating by, impress the spectator with the idea of a boundless extent and an irresistible power. But, vast and mighty as they are, they are unable to withstand the elements combined for their destruction, and their apparently triumphal march leads them only to their ruin. ”

“ In the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called by Baffin Smith's Sound; this Sir John saw, but did not enter. It never has been explored. It may be an inlet only; but it is also very possible that by this channel ships might get into the Polar Sea, and sail by the north shore of Greenland to Spitzbergen. Turning that corner, and descending along the western coast of Baffin's Bay, there is another inlet called Jones's Sound by Baffin, also unexplored. ”

“ The first is called the “North-about Passage,” and lies along the Greenland coast; the second, or “Middle Passage,” only possible late in the season, is by entering the drift-ice in the centre of the bay; and the third, or “Southern Passage,” also only possible late in the season, along the west side of Baffin Bay. Once in the North Water, whichever route be attempted, all obstacles to an exploration of the unknown region may be considered at an end. From Cape York to Smith Sound the sea is always navigable in the summer months. ”

“ It is necessary here to interpolate a few remarks in explanation of the difficulties which beset the Baffin Bay route of Arctic exploration. Geographers assert, and the assertion seems confirmed by the experience of navigators, that a surface-current is constantly flowing down this bay, and carrying great fleets of icebergs and shoals of ice-floes into the Atlantic from its southern channels—Lancaster, Jones, and Smith Sounds. ”

“ Although vessels penetrate Baffin Bay and far into the Arctic Ocean, they are so few in number that days and weeks may pass without any two of them gaining sight of each other. A shipwrecked sailor afloat in the South Sea, on a spar, was as likely to be picked up by some trading ship as were Jack and his companions, by any of the whalers or ships in that high latitude. ”

“ A small party, such as you have planned, with modest aims, is better than a more pretentious expedition. Hall, Schwatka, Peary, were more successful in proportion to the money expended than the leaders of larger parties. An expedition such as yours ought to provide for a successful retreat. This you have done by placing your supply depot in the line of the Scotch whaling vessels which every year skirt the northern edge of the Baffin Bay ice pack, and commence their whale-catching off the mouth of Jones Sound. ”

“ It was on a [Pg 651] voyage undertaken in the next year, 1615, that Baffin, exceeding the northing of Davis, found lying before him the great expanse of Baffin's Bay, through which he proceeded till he found a northern exit in Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, under 78°. Baffin did all this with an accuracy which surprised Sir John Ross, who was the next to enter the bay, two centuries later. It was in these years of Hudson and Baffin that Napier invented logarithms and simplified the processes of nautical calculations. ”

“ Now into this sea the current sets from the Polar - 311 - Basin through the broader gateway above mentioned, known as Kennedy Channel; and the ice, escaping but slowly through the narrow Sound into Baffin Bay, has accumulated within the sea from century to century. The summer dismembers it to some extent and breaks it up into fragments of varying size, which are pressing together, wearing and grinding continually, and crowding down upon each other and upon the Greenland coast, thus producing the result which we have seen. ”

“ Concerning this project your committee unanimously concur as to the following propositions: ( 1 ) They believe that this expedition to a point lying in the path of the whalers who annually visit the western waters of Baffin Bay is thoroughly safe and practicable; that it is desirable for scientific purposes and for geographic'exploration; and that no part of the Arctic regions gives promise of greater opportunities for extensive discoveries, with a minimum of danger, hardship, and expense. ”

“ For as the annual clearing of the northern parts of Baffin’s Bay depends entirely on the time of the disruption of the ice, and the rate at which it is afterwards drifted to the southward by the excess of northerly winds, any circumstance tending to retain it in the bays and inlets to a later period than usual, and subsequently to hold it together in large floes, which drive more slowly than smaller masses, would undoubtedly produce the effect in question. ”

“ The Scotch whalers of Baffin bay cruise about in small steamers, and depend wholly upon their own white crew to man their boats. The American whalers and the stations depend more or less upon the Eskimos to form their boats’ crews.
The Scotch steamers are small, stout vessels, from 300 to 400 tons register. Those, British-built, are of hardwood throughout, while the Norwegian ships have hardwood frames and softwood planking. The timbers and planking in all are very heavy, and the sides are further strengthened by a sheathing of greenheart or ironbark, both exceedingly hard, tough woods. ”

“ These rocks form a considerable part of North Greenland, on the east side of Baffin's Bay, and constitute the rock of the country at the east side of the island of North Devon, which forms a portion of the coast-line of the west of Baffin's Bay, and the north side of the entrance into Lancaster Sound. ”

“ We reached Baffin’s Bay without incident. We took deep-sea-soundings as we approached its axis, and found a reliable depth of nineteen hundred fathoms: an interesting result, as it shows that the ridge, which is known to extend between Ireland and Newfoundland in the bed of the Atlantic, is depressed as it passes further to the north. A few days more found us off the coast of Greenland, making our way toward Fiskernaes, the harbour of which we entered on the 1st of July, amid the clamour of its entire population, assembled on the rocks to greet us. ”

“ The west coast of Greenland has not been explored beyond 72° latitude. Little or nothing, that can be relied on, is known concerning the sea of Davis or Baffin's Bay; the latter, indeed, being generally considered as imaginary, and having no other evidence for its existence, than the assertions, of a man conceived unworthy of credit. The whole distance from the coast of that bay, as commonly laid down, to the point where Hearne saw the sea, viz. in 69° latitude, being about sixty degrees of longitude, is totally unknown. ”

“ The most important island on the east side is Disco, to the north of Disco Bay, Greenland. During the greater part of the year this sea is frozen, but, while hardly ever free of ice, there are normally navigable channels along the coasts from the beginning of June to the end of September connected by transverse channels. The bay is noted as a centre of the whale and seal fishery. At more than one point a depth exceeding 1000 fathoms has been ascertained.
Baffin Land is a barren insular tract, included in Franklin district, Canada, with an approximate area of 236,000 sq. ”

“ Captain Ross gave the name of Arctic Highlands to the country inhabited by these Indians, and that of Prince Regent's Bay, to the place where the vessels had anchored. It is situated in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay, between the latitudes of 76 and 79 degrees north; and is bounded, towards the south, by an immense barrier of mountains covered with ice. The interior of the country presents an irregular group of mountainous land, declining gradually towards the sea, which it reaches in an irregular manner, the cliffs ranging from five hundred to one thousand feet in height. ”

“ Baffin’s Bay, Smith’s Sound, East Greenland, the South-East of Greenland, Austria Sound, are the principal places where they collect together and lie like fleets before the entrances of bays and gulfs. Under-currents of the sea take them not unfrequently in directions contrary to the drift of the field-ice, which depends only on upper-currents; and abnormal winds may sometimes carry them out to seas where they have been seldom or never seen. [4] This appears to be the case even with those met with on the north-west coast of Novaya Zemlya. ”

“ Icebergs we soon shall take our leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on which glaciers can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh water to the vessels; it will be all field, pack, and saltwater ice presently.
Now we are in Baffin’s Bay, explored in the voyages of Bylot and Baffin, 1615-16. When, in 1817, a great movement in the Greenland ice caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found comparatively clear ”

“ The explorers went on bravely till they were stopped by masses of ice. They thought they must be at the mouth of a large bay, and, seeing no prospect of a passage to the west, they turned back. When, two hundred years later, Parry sailed in Baffin's track he named this place Baffin Land "out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising navigator."
The Discovery arrived in Plymouth Sound by September, without the loss of one man—a great achievement in these days of salt junk and scurvy. ”

“ As soon as the boats returned, all sail was made to the westward, where the prospect began to wear a more and more interesting appearance. We soon perceived, as we proceeded, that the land along which we were sailing, and which, with the exception of some small inlets, had appeared to be hitherto continuous from Baffin’s Bay, began now to trend much to the northward, beyond Beechey Island, leaving a large open space between that coast and the distant land to the westward, which now appeared like an island, of which the extremes to the north and south were distinctly visible. ”

“ When one considers that Baffin circumnavigated the bay which bears his name, in 1616, in a craft of fifty-five tons, and when one examines a Viking ship of a thousand years ago and finds it a substantial clinker built boat, a hundred feet long with fine beam, one sees no reason why a twelfth century vessel could not make her way to Lancaster Sound.
May 28th. Wednesday. We had a day racing with the Bear. She managed to pass us just before we reached Browns Island, and hooked on to the floe some distance from us. After a little, the Narwhal joined us, and later the Cornwallis. ”

“ Ross reached 77 deg. 40 min. latitude, and more accurately determined the situation of Baffin’s Bay, which until then was believed to extend 10 deg. further to the east than it actually does. Although he sailed up Lancaster Sound, he did not advance far enough to ascertain if it was open, not having arrived there until October 1st, when danger from the ice obliged him to quit the coast. ”

“ We must pause here for a moment to record a modest but successful expedition carried out in the same season of 1852 by Captain Inglefield, who in the little Isabel, piloted by wonderful old Abernethy, went for a summer cruise up Baffin’s Bay. He reached the entrance of Smith Sound and saw that it was an important channel leading to the polar ocean—really Smith Channel. To the land on the west side, which was discovered by Baffin but not named by him, he gave the name of Ellesmere Island. ”

“ The navigation of the Polar seas, which is peculiar, requires in a particular manner an extensive knowledge of the nature, properties, and usual motions of the ice, and it can only be performed to the best advantage by those who have had long experience in working a ship in icy situations. It might be a material assistance to those employed in completing the examination of Baffin’s Bay, as well as productive of some interesting information in meteorological phenomena, were a vessel or two to remain in the northern part of this bay through the winter. ”

“ On the shores of Baffin's Bay, especially on the inner coast of Greenland, where the glaciers push their way down to the very brink of the water, and annually launch their southward-bound icebergs, we shall hardly expect to find a very abundant littoral fauna. On its western shore, where the ice does not advance so far, and a greater surface of rock is exposed, the circumstances are more favorable to the development of animal life. ”

“ Purchas first printed Baffin’s narrative of his first voyage, and Rundall re-edited it, supplying omissions from the original manuscript preserved in the British Museum. Markham reprints it, and adds a fac-simile of Baffin’s map of his discoveries; and he also gives a series of five maps from Fox’s down (the first is reproduced in the text) , to show the changes in ideas respecting the shape and even the existence of Baffin’s Bay. ”