The Wollaston Peninsula (previously, Wollaston Land) is a west-pointing peninsula located on southwestern

Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the List of islands by area, eighth-largest island in the world, ...

, Canada. It is bordered by

Prince Albert Sound Prince Albert Sound (Inuit: ''Kangiryuak'') is a Northern Canadian body of water located in the Inuvik Region of southwestern Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. It is an inlet of Amundsen Gulf. The sound separates the Wollaston Peninsula ...

to the north,

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 ...

to the west and

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, ...

to the south. Most of the peninsula lies in

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'' ...

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 ...

but a smaller portion lies within 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. ...

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 ...

. The peninsula is long, and between wide. Its westernmost point is

Cape Baring Cape Baring is a Canadian Arctic headland in the Northwest Territories. The most westerly point of the Wollaston Peninsula, it is located on Victoria Island, protruding into the Amundsen Gulf. The cape is the ancestral home of Kangiryuarmiut, a ...

. In 1826, its south coast was seen by John Richardson and his surveyor

Edward Nicholas Kendall Edward Nicholas "Ned" Kendall, R.N. (October 1800 – 12 February 1845) was an English hydrographer, an officer in the Royal Navy, and polar explorer. During one of his Arctic expeditions, Kendall became the first known European to sight Woll ...

, and was named Wollaston Land, in honour of the English chemist

William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingo ...

, who discovered the elements

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

and

rhodium Rhodium is a chemical element with the symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a very rare, silvery-white, hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. It is a noble metal and a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring isoto ...

. In 1851, John Rae went along most of its coast and proved that "Wollaston Land" was connected to that was called "Victoria Land" to the east.

References

Peninsulas of the Northwest Territories Peninsulas of Kitikmeot Region Victoria Island (Canada) Geography of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region {{KitikmeotNU-geo-stub