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William Baffin
William Baffin c.1584-1622, British arctic explorer. He was pilot on two expeditions (1615-16) sent out to search for the Northwest Passage under command of Robert Bylot, who was formerly with Henry Hudson. The first expedition vainly tried to find a channel in Hudson Bay N of Southampton Island....
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Donald Baxter MacMillan
Donald Baxter MacMillan 1874-1970, American arctic explorer, b. Provincetown, Mass., grad. Bowdoin College, 1898, and studied at Harvard. After a decade of teaching, he went on the expedition (1908-9) of Robert E. Peary to the North Pole. Later (1911, 1912) he made ethnological studies among the La...
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Sir John Ross
Sir John Ross 1777-1856, British arctic explorer and rear admiral. In 1818 he went in search of the Northwest Passage but turned back after exploring Baffin Bay. Financed by Sir Felix Booth, he commanded a second search expedition (1829-33), in the course of which he discovered Boothia Peninsula, t...
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Nunavut
Nunavut [Inuktituk,=our land], territory (2001 pop. 26,745), 772,260 sq mi (2,000,671 sq km), NE Canada. Formed from eastern portions (the former Baffin, Keewatin, and Kitikmeot regions) of the Northwest Territories , Nunavut has a western boundary that runs north from the Manitoba-Saskatchewan bo...
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Melville Bay
Melville Bay broad indentation of the western coast of Greenland, opening to the SW into Baffin Bay. The inland ice cap comes down to the coast, and glaciers discharge much ice into its waters.
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Sir Martin Frobisher
Sir Martin Frobisher , 1535?-1594, English mariner. He went to sea as a boy, and spent much of his youth in the African trade. He later gained the friendship of Sir Humphrey Gilbert , through whom he became interested in the Northwest Passage . Licensed by Queen Elizabeth I and backed by a group o...
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Davis Strait
Davis Strait c.400 mi (640 km) long and c.180 mi (290 km) wide at the narrowest point, between Greenland and Baffin Island, NE Canada, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Baffin Bay. Large amounts of ice and icebergs move south through the strait. The British explorer John Davis sailed through it in ...
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Baffin Island
Baffin Island 183,810 sq mi (476,068 sq km), c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) long and from 130 to 450 mi (210-720 km) wide, in the Arctic Ocean, Nunavut Territory, Canada. It is the fifth largest island in the world and the easternmost member of the Arctic Archipelago . Baffin Island is geographically and g...
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John Davis
John Davis 1550?-1605, English navigator. He made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1585, continuing the work of Martin Frobisher . On this voyage he discovered Cumberland Sound of Baffin Island and made explorations that prepared the way for his later voyages in 1586 and 15...
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Arctic Archipelago
Arctic Archipelago , group of more than 50 large islands, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, N Canada, in the Arctic Ocean. The southernmost members of the group include Baffin (the archipelago's largest island), Victoria, Banks, Prince of Wales, and Somerset islands; N of Viscount Melville and Lanc...
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