Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the

Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...

that straddles the boundary between

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

and the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at in area, it is Canada's second-largest island. It is nearly double the size of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

(), and is slightly larger than the island of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

() but smaller than

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

(). The western third of the island lies in the

Inuvik Region The Inuvik Region or ''Beaufort Delta Region'' is one of five administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. According to Municipal and Community Affairs the region consists of eight communities with the regional office situate ...

of the Northwest Territories; the remainder is part of Nunavut's

Kitikmeot Region Kitikmeot Region (; Inuktitut: ''Qitirmiut'' ) is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the southern and eastern parts of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boothia Peninsula, together ...

. The population of 2,168 is divided among 2 settlements, the larger of which is in Nunavut and the other of which is in the Northwest Territories. The island is named after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, the Canadian sovereign from 1867 to 1901 (though she first became Queen in 1837). The features bearing the name "Prince Albert" are named after her consort,

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

History

Victoria Island was inhabited by the

Thule culture The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

, with five prehistoric ''

qamutiik A qamutiik ( iu, ᖃᒧᑏᒃ; alternate spellings ''qamutik'' (single sledge runner), ''komatik'', kl, qamutit) is a sled designed to travel on snow and ice, built using traditional Inuit design techniques. Adapted to the Arctic sea ice environ ...

'' (sleds) belonging to the Neoeskimo culture being found on the

Wollaston Peninsula The Wollaston Peninsula (previously, Wollaston Land) is a west-pointing peninsula located on southwestern Victoria Island, Canada. It is bordered by Prince Albert Sound to the north, Amundsen Gulf to the west and Dolphin and Union Strait to the ...

, dating to 1250–1573 CE. The

Inuinnaqtun Inuinnaqtun (; natively meaning ''like the real human beings/peoples''), is an indigenous Inuit language. It is spoken in the central Canadian Arctic. It is related very closely to Inuktitut, and some scholars, such as Richard Condon, believe th ...

name for the island is ''Kitlineq'', with the local Inuit people called ''Kitlinermiut'' (

Copper Inuit Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Ter ...

). In 1826 John Richardson was the first European to see the southwest coast and called it "Wollaston Land". In 1839,

Peter Warren Dease Peter Warren Dease (January 1, 1788 – January 17, 1863) was a Canadian fur trader and Arctic explorer. Biography Early life Peter Warren Dease was born at Michilimackinac (now Mackinac Island) on January 1, 1788, the fourth son of Dr. ...

and

Thomas Simpson Thomas Simpson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (20 August 1710 – 14 May 1761) was a British mathematician and inventor known for the :wikt:eponym, eponymous Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals. The attribution, as often in mathe ...

followed its southeast coast and called it "Victoria Land". A map published by John Barrow in 1846 shows a complete blank from these two lands north to "Banks Land" which is the north coast of

Banks Island Banks Island is one of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago. Situated in the Inuvik Region, and part of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, of the Northwest Territories, it is separated from Victoria Island to its east by the Prince of ...

. In 1851 John Rae charted its entire south coast and connected the two "lands". In 1850 and 1851

Robert McClure Vice-Admiral Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (28 January 1807 – 17 October 1873) was an Irish explorer of Scots descent who explored the Arctic. In 1854 he traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge, and was the first to ci ...

circumnavigated most of Banks Island, thereby separating it from the rest of Victoria Land. His men also charted the northwest and west coasts of Victoria Island. One of

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

's men, Godfred Hansen, charted its east coast as far as

Cape Nansen Cape Nansen ( da, Kap Nansen) is a headland in the Greenland Sea, east Greenland, Sermersooq municipality. This cape is named after Fridtjof Nansen. Cape Nansen is an important geographical landmark. Geography Cape Nansen is located to the northe ...

in 1905, and in 1916 and 1917 Storker T. Storkerson, of

Vilhjalmur Stefansson Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962) was an Arctic explorer and ethnologist. He was born in Manitoba, Canada. Early life Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Arnes, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had ...

Canadian Arctic Expedition Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, charted its northeast coast, sighting the Storkerson Peninsula. In 2008

Clark Carter Clark Carter (born 1984) is an Australian explorer and filmmaker. Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Carter is a member of the "Society for Human Performance i ...

and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island. Their first attempt at the trek in 2005 failed, so they returned and completed the remaining in 2008.

Geography

Viscount Melville Sound Viscount Melville Sound is an arm of the Arctic Ocean in the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut and the Inuvik Region, Northwest Territories, Canada. Forming part of the Parry Channel, it separates Victoria Island and Prince of Wales Island from the Qu ...

lies to the north, and the

M'Clintock Channel M'Clintock Channel (also spelled McClintock Channel) is located in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. The channel, an arm of the Arctic Ocean, divides Victoria Island from Prince of Wales Island. This channel is named after Sir Francis McClintoc ...

and

Victoria Strait Victoria Strait is a strait in northern Canada that lies in Nunavut off the mainland in the Arctic Ocean. It is between Victoria Island to the west and King William Island to the east. From the north, the strait links the M'Clintock Channel and the ...

lie eastward. On the west are

Amundsen Gulf Amundsen Gulf is a gulf located mainly in the Inuvik Region, Northwest Territories, Canada with a small section in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. It lies between Banks Island and Victoria Island and the mainland. It is approximately in length ...

and

, which is separated from Victoria by a long sound called the

Prince of Wales Strait The Prince of Wales Strait is a strait in the Northwest Territories of Canada separating Banks Island to the northwest from Victoria Island to the southeast. It extends from Viscount Melville Sound in the northeast to Amundsen Gulf in the southwe ...

. To the south (from west to east) lie the

Dolphin and Union Strait Dolphin and Union Strait lies in both the Northwest Territories (Inuvik Region) and Nunavut (Kitikmeot Region), Canada, between the mainland and Victoria Island. It is part of the Northwest Passage. It links Amundsen Gulf, lying to the northwest, ...

, Austin Bay,

Coronation Gulf Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with Dease Strait and thence Queen M ...

and the

Dease Strait Dease Strait is an east–west waterway between the mainland's Kent Peninsula and Victoria Island in Nunavut, Canada. It is part of the Northwest Passage. At its eastern end, approximately wide, is Cambridge Bay; to the west it widens to approxi ...

. The southern waterways, and sometimes the Prince of Wales Strait, form part of the disputed

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

which the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

claims are

Canadian Internal Waters Canadian Internal Waters is a Canadian term for the waters "on the landward side of the baselines of the territorial sea of Canada." Definition The baselines are defined as "the low-water line along the coast or on a low-tide elevation that is situ ...

, while other nations state they are either

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...

. Victoria Island is an island of peninsulas, having a heavily indented coastline with many inlets. In the east, pointing northwards, is the Storkerson Peninsula, which ends with the

Goldsmith Channel Goldsmith Channel is a waterway in the Provinces and Territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Nunavut connecting Parry Channel and M'Clintock Channel. Broadest in the northwest, the island-filled channel narrows as it progresses to the southeas ...

, the body of water separating Victoria from

Stefansson Island Stefansson Island is an uninhabited island in the Arctic Archipelago in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It has a total area of , making it the 128th largest island in the world, and Canada's 27th largest island. The island is locat ...

. The Storkerson Peninsula is separated from the island's north-central areas by

Hadley Bay Hadley Bay (, ) is an Arctic waterway in the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located in western Viscount Melville Sound, by northern Victoria Island. It is east of Wynniatt Bay, and north of the community of Cambridge Bay Cambridge ...

, a major inlet. Another, broad peninsula is found in the north,

Prince Albert Peninsula Prince Albert Peninsula is located on northwest Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is separated from Banks Island by the Prince of Wales Strait. Two large waterways, Richard Collinson Inlet and Minto Inlet are to the north a ...

. This ends at the Prince of Wales Strait. In the south, and pointing westwards, is the

, separated from the island's central areas by Prince Albert Sound. The highest point of Victoria Island is in the

Shaler Mountains The Shaler Mountains are a mountain range that cross the Northwest Territories-Nunavut border on north-central Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary ...

in the north-central region. Located in the southeast, just north of Cambridge Bay, is

Tahiryuaq Tahiryuaq, formerly Ferguson Lake, (Inuinnaqtun: ') is located on southern Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, in northern Canada. It drains westward into Iqaluktuuq (meaning "place of big fish") which is a segment of the Ekallu ...

(formerly Ferguson Lake). With an area of , it is the largest lake on the island. It was said by Andrew Hund in his book, ''Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions'', that the island resembles a stylized maple leaf, the predominant symbol of Canada.

Climate

Victoria Island has a

polar climate The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month in a polar climate has an average temperature of less than . Regions with polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area. Most of ...

, with no month having an average temperature of or higher, and is listed as ''ET'' on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. Summers are typically cool and rainy, with pleasant days and chilly nights. Winters are cold, dark, and long, with October being the snowiest month. Snowfall and frosts are possible all year round. Rainfall is usually limited to the summer months, when the temperature shortly rises above freezing for a few months before dipping back down for another 9 months of winter. Springs are typically sunny but still very chilly. Autumns are short and crisp, with more frequent cloud cover starting to appear during August and with September being almost constantly cloudy. At Cambridge Bay, the sun is continuously below the horizon,

polar night The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnig ...

, from approximately 30 November to 11 January and above the horizon,

midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, t ...

, 19 May to 22 July.

Biology

The

Dolphin-Union caribou Dolphin and Union Caribou, Dolphin and Union caribou herd, Dolphin-Union, locally known as Island Caribou, are a migratory population of barren-ground caribou, ''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus,'' that occupy Victoria Island in the Canadian Arct ...

herd locally known as Island Caribou are a migratory population of

barren-ground caribou The barren-ground caribou (''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus''; but subject to a recent taxonomic revision. See Reindeer: Taxomony.) is a subspecies of the reindeer (or the caribou in North America) that is found in the Canadian territories of ...

, ''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus'', that occupy Victoria Island in Canada's

High Arctic High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

and the nearby mainland. They are endemic to Canada. They migrate across the

from their summer grazing on Victoria Island to their winter grazing area on the Nunavut-NWT mainland. It is unusual for North American

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

to seasonally cross sea ice and the only other caribou to do so are the

Peary caribou The Peary caribou (''Rangifer arcticus pearyi'') is a subspecies of caribou found in the High Arctic islands of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Canada. They are the smallest of the North American caribou, with the females weighing an av ...

, which are smaller in size and population, and also occur on Victoria Island. Victoria Island contains the world's largest island within an island within an island.

Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sl ...

the population of the island was 2,168; 1,760 in Nunavut and 408 in the Northwest Territories. Of the two settlements on the island the larger is

Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay (Inuinnaqtun: ''Iqaluktuuttiaq'' Inuktitut: ᐃᖃᓗᒃᑑᑦᑎᐊᖅ; 2021 population 1,760; population centre 1,403) is a hamlet located on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest settl ...

, which lies on the south-east coast and is in Nunavut.

Ulukhaktok Ulukhaktok (Kangiryuarmiutun (Inuit language) spelling ''Ulukhaqtuuq'' () and known until 1 April 2006 as ''Holman'' or ''Holman Island'') is a small hamlet on the west coast of Victoria Island, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, ...

is on the west coast and is in the Northwest Territories.

Trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

s, such as

Fort Collinson Fort Collinson was a trading post operated by the Hudson's Bay Company (Post Number B.405) located on Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is situated on the Prince Albert Peninsula on the north side of Walker Bay, just nort ...

on the northwest coast, have long been abandoned.

List of places by population

Notes

*The

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

says that Victoria Island has an area of .Victoria Island at the UNEP
/ref> However, the

Atlas of Canada The Atlas of Canada (french: L'Atlas du Canada) is an online atlas published by Natural Resources Canada that has information on every city, town, village, and hamlet in Canada. It was originally a print atlas, with its first edition being publishe ...

indicates the island is .

Maps

*Viscount Melville Sound - *M'Clintock Channel - *Victoria Strait - *Amundsen Gulf - *Banks Island - *Prince of Wales Strait - *Dolphin and Union Strait - *Austin Bay - *Coronation Gulf - *Dease Strait - *Storkerson Peninsula - *Goldsmith Channel - *Stefansson Island - *Hadley Bay - *Prince Albert Peninsula - *Wollaston Peninsula - *Shaler Mountains - *Tahiryuaq - *Cambridge Bay - *Ulukhaktok - *Fort Collinson -

References

External links

{{Authority control Inhabited islands of Kitikmeot Region Islands of the Northwest Territories Borders of Nunavut Borders of the Northwest Territories Geography of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region