The Littleton Islands, ( Greenlandic: ''Pikiuleq'') are a group of two small coastal islands, the largest of which is Littleton Island. They are located in the

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In ...

municipality, off NW

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

Geography

Littleton is a group of two rocky islets. * Littleton Island ''(Littleton Ø)'', the main island, lies approximately from NW

’s coast in the Hatherton Bay,

Smith Sound Smith Sound ( da, Smith Sund; french: Détroit de Smith) is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait. On the ...

area. *McGary Island ''(McGary Ø)'' is a much smaller islet, separated from the northwestern shore of the main island by a narrow sound. Littleton and the nearby area are one of the largest breeding grounds in Greenland for the

common eider The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It bree ...

and have been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

History

In July 1853, during the Second Grinnell Expedition on the brig ''Advance'' Kane built a

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

on Littleton Island. Kane named one of the adjacent islets Hans Island after

Hans Hendrik Hans Hendrik ( kl, Suersaq, i=no; 2 June 1832 – 11 August 1889) was a Kalaallit interpreter, Arctic explorer, and the first Inuk to publish an account of his travels. He was born in the southern settlement of Fiskenæsset. Expeditions ...

, the native Greenlandic helper he had with him on the trip. The islet lies about south of the island today called

Hans Island Hans Island ( Inuktitut and kl, Tartupaluk, ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; da, Hans Ø; french: Île Hans) is an island in the very centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait in the high Arctic region, split between the Canadian territory of ...

—that this is part of the Littleton Island cluster is testified by Kane mentioning

Edward Augustus Inglefield Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield (27 March 1820 – 4 September 1894) was a Royal Navy officer who led one of the searches for the missing Arctic explorer John Franklin during the 1850s. In doing so, his expedition charted previously unexpl ...

, who named Littleton Island. Later in the expedition Christian Ohlsen died on the Littleton Island on 12 June 1855.Kane, Elisha Kent (1857). ''The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin.'' Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.

References

External links

Explanatory notes to the Geological map of Greenland
{{Greenland-geo-stub Uninhabited islands of Greenland

Geography

History

See also

References

External links