IDNO

P.86287.PAT

Description

Photograph from hill top of opposite island with a table-top plateau summit.

Place

N America; Arctic; Greenland; ?Qaanaaq; ?Cary Islands [Thule]

Cultural Affliation

Inuit; Inughuit [historically Polar Kalaallit; Polar Eskimo]

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

5 - 13 August 1937

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: Same image mounted in James Wordie’s 1937 album with the number and caption:
“August 5 -13.”
“437. Northston Bay, Umanak, & Wolstenholme fjord from the land south west of Thule.”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/3/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: J. M. Wordie; H. Carmichael; E. G. Dymond; T. C. Lethbridge, ‘An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937’ in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5. (Nov., 1938), pp. 385-418.
Text on p.393 includes:
“Two particular physiographic features characterize the [Cary Island] group. The first the presence of terraced boulder beaches stepping up like the treads of a staircase to 140 feet or more above sea-level. ... The second feature is the persistent table-top appearance of the island summits. On Middle Island the height is about 375 feet. This must be regarded as either a peneplain or a plain of marine denudation, but it is not a re-exposed Pre-Cambrian surface, as the intruding dolerite sills have shared in the levelling off. It may represent an erosion surface between the Thule sandstone and overlying Cambrian beds: Dr. Koch postulates such an event, but, though such may be the case, I think it more likely from evidence on Ellesmere Land that the Cary Islands summit plain is of later date. The two features - the uniform summit level and old cliffs fronted by raised beaches - produce a tower type of scenery which is very characteristic of the group”. [JD 8/3/2007]

P.86084.PAT to P.86583.PAT were found wrapped in the card now numbered C446/1/.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/2/2007]