Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/17
The territory of the Iglulik Eskimos lies between lat. 63° and 74° N. and long. 74° and 92° W. It comprises the west side of Roes Welcome from the mouth of Chesterfield Inlet to Repulse Bay, Southampton Island, Melville Peninsula and northern Baffin Land (Cockburn Land) to about long 74° W. This area is inhabited or fairly regularly traversed by the members of the tribe. This does not mean that these journeys do not occasionally extend beyond these limits, but simply that this is the exception, not the rule.
History of Discovery. As regards the history of its discovery this territory is divided into two parts, it having been discovered from the south, from Hudson Bay, and from the north, from Baffin Bay.
Hudson Bay was discovered by Henry Hudson in 1610, but it is not probable that he reached the west coast. This was first reached by Thomas Button, who in 1613 navigated the coast from Pt. Nelson to about lat. 65° N. In 1615 Bylot and Baffin saw the west coast of Southampton Island, and Jens Munk (1619–20) has probably sailed part of the way up the west coast of Roes Welcome, as on his chart there are two fjords which were not previously marked, presumably Chesterfield Inlet and Ranken Inlet. Luke Fox (1631) did not achieve much beyond Button's discoveries, C. Middleton being the first to do so, he having in 1742 reached Repulse Bay and ascertained that Southampton Island was an island.
In the meantime, northern Baffin Land had long been discovered. Baffin was the first to see the coasts of this land (1616) and John Ross was the first to land there (on Bylot Island); he discovered Ponds Inlet (1818) which, however, he thought was a bay.
The discovery and exploration of this region must, more than to anyone else, be credited to W. E. Parry, one of the greatest names in the history of discovery. On his first voyage (1819–20) Parry discovered most of the great fjords on the north coast of Cockburn Land: River Clyde, Navy Board Inlet, Admiralty Inlet, as well as