Smith Sound ( da, Smith Sund; french: Détroit de Smith) is an uninhabited

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

sea passage between

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 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with

Kane Basin Kane Basin ( da, Kane Bassin; french: Bassin (de) Kane) is an Arctic waterway lying between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Smith Sound to Kennedy Channel and forms part of Nares Strait. It is approximatel ...

and forms part of the

Nares Strait , other_name = , image = Map indicating Nares Strait.png , alt = , caption = Nares Strait (boxed) is between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry ...

. On the Greenland side of the sound were the now abandoned settlements of

Etah Etah is a municipality city which is also the headquarters of Etah District of the Uttar Pradesh state in India.Etah district is a part of the Aligarh Division and is located at the midpoint of the Delhi-Kanpur Highway(NH 91) Known as G.T Road ...

and

Annoatok Annoatok or Anoritooq, located at , was a small hunting station in Greenland on Smith Sound about north of Etah. It is now abandoned. History Annoatok was used as a base by Frederick Cook during his Arctic expedition of 1908–09, when he cla ...

History

The first known visit to the area by Europeans was in 1616 when the ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

'', captained by

Robert Bylot Robert Bylot () was an English explorer who made four voyages to the Arctic. He was uneducated and from a working-class background, but was able to rise to rank of master in the English Royal Navy. Voyages Robert Bylot First voyage, 1610� ...

and piloted by

William Baffin William Baffin ( – 23 January 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to find a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first Euro ...

, sailed into this region. The sound was originally named ''Sir Thomas Smith's Bay'' after the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

diplomat Sir

Thomas Smythe Sir Thomas Smythe (or Smith, c. 1558 – 4 September 1625) was an English merchant, politician and colonial administrator. He was the first governor of the East India Company and treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620 until envel ...

. By the 1750s it regularly appeared on maps as ''Sir Thomas Smith's Sound'', though no further exploration of the area would be recorded until John Ross' 1818 expedition. By this time it had begun to be known simply as ''Smith Sound''. In 1852

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 ...

penetrated a little further than Baffin, establishing a new furthest north in North America.

References

. ffprint no. 37–38. ambridge: University Press 1949. * Grist, Alexander, and Marcos Zentilli. 2005. "The Thermal History of the Nares Strait, Kane Basin, and Smith Sound Region in Canada and Greenland: Constraints from Apatite Fission-Track and (U Th Sm)/He Dating". ''Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences''. 42: 1547–1569. * Kroeber, A. L. ''The Eskimo of Smith Sound''. ew York: Knickerbocker Press 1900. * Peary, Robert E. ''Northward Over the "Great Ice" A Narrative of Life and Work Along the Shores and Upon the Interior Ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897 : with a Description of the Little Tribe of Smith-Sound Eskimos, the Most Northerly Human Beings in the World, and an Account of the Discovery and Bringing Home of the "Saviksue," or Great Cape-York Meteorites''. London: Methuen, 1898. Straits of Greenland Sounds of Qikiqtaaluk Region Bodies of water of Baffin Bay Ellesmere Island Canada–Greenland border International straits {{Greenland-geo-stub

History

References

Further reading