Baffin Island, the most south-easterly and the largest on the Canadian archipelago, with its breathtaking landscape, the hospitality of the Inuit people and the numerous opportunities for an unusual holiday ("Baffin has adventure for every taste"), is clearly doing all it can to attract tourists. Nevertheless - some might say fortunately - it can hardly be said that it suffers from invasions of visitors. The only way to get to it is by air, and that is rather expensive, the cost of living is high and the climate very "unfriendly", not to mention the hordes of insects which descend on the unfortunate traveler in summer; all in all, perhaps somewhere for the specialist.
Baffin Island covers an area of 507,451 sq. km (195,930 sq. mi.), making it the fifth largest island in the world (Spain, for example, is 497,500 sq. km (192,085 sq. mi.)). In the east it is separated from Greenland by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, to the south lies the Hudson Strait and to the west Foxe Basin. The coastline and land surface varies considerably: on the eastern coast, very similar to Norway with its steep fiords and small offshore islands, lies a long, narrow Alpine-like mountainous zone which reaches a height of 2591 m (8504 ft) in the Auyuittuq National Park on the Cumberland peninsula. The southern foothills form highlands, while to the west lie flat lowlands.
Climate
In Nunavut, the Canadian Arctic extends as far as St James' Bay in the south of Hudson Bay; as a result Baffin Island lies in the permafrost region with a summer lasting from early June to the end of August with temperatures above 0°C (32°F). As the distance North to South measures some 1300 km (800 mi.) between latitudes 73° 309 and 61° 309 and extends beyond the Arctic Circle, there are marked climatic differences; while in Lake Harbour the average temperature in March does not fall below 222°C (8°F), this is the maximum in Arctic Bay. All in all the climate is High Arctic; even Frobisher Bay, situated 230 km (143 mi.) south of the Arctic Circle, is free of ice only in July and August, and Iqaluit has an annual average of 29°C (16°F) (July average min. 2.5°C (36°F), max. 9°C/48°F).
History
People of the Dorset culture came to the Cumberland Peninsula around 1500 bc, and in the 12th-13th c. the Thule culture spread to Baffin Island. It is possible that Vikings came here in the 10th-11th c.; the "Helluland" of Viking legend could be Baffin Island. Baffin Island got its name from the English seafarer William Baffin, but it was "discovered" by Martin Frobisher (1539-94) who landed in Frobisher Bay in 1567 when searching for the North West Passage. He brought back to England from the Meta Incognita Peninsula some ore which he thought to be gold, but it turned out to be iron pyrites, or "fools' gold". The first permanent settlements here were those of whale-catchers, pursuing a trade which prospered until early in the 20th c. The first mission stations were set up by Anglicans on Cumberland Sound. The Hudson's Bay Company first came here to Lake Harbour in 1911, and ten years later the first police station was built.
Settlements
About 10000 people live permanently on Baffin Island, a quarter of whom are white and three-quarters Inuits, who have given up their nomadic existence and settled along the coast. The main administrative town is Iqaluit on Frobisher Bay; mention should also be made of Cape Dorset, Lake Harbour, Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Nanisivik and Arctic Bay.
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