IDNO

P.86465.PAT

Description

Two musk oxen running away from the photographer on a grassy plain with blooms of cotton grass.

Place

N America; Arctic; Canada; Nunavut; ?Devon Island; ?Capre Sparbo [North West Territories; Cape Hardy]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

22 - 25 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 22 - 25”
“Cape Hardy (Sparbo).”
“690 - 693. Carmichael & the Captain went to examine the Musk-Oxen.”
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 pp. 400-401 includes:
“Our plans did not include any long stay in Jones Sound, and our visit was primarily in order that we should make ourselves known at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police post at Craig Harbour, which, since the evacuation of Bache, is now the most northerly official station in Canada. The detachment consisted of Corporal Hamilton and Private McWhirter, and they had had with them as visitor for the winter Robert Bentham who was making geological and topographical maps of southern Ellesmere Land. Jones Sound however was clear of ice, and the intention of staying only a few hours was reconsidered. Paterson was left at the post with Corporal Hamilton to study the two Eskimo families from Ponds Inlet, who were with the Police, and we in exchange took on board McWhirter and Bentham and crossed in the night to the south side of the Sound, to Cape Sparbo, or to give it its older name, Cape Hardy. ...
Musk oxen were very common both east and west of the Cape. We counted up to at least eighty head in a 3-mile radius, and the total number in the area is no doubt considerably in excess of this figure. The pasture ground is good, in a region of raised beaches with occasional shallow lakes; both ground and weather seemed much more moist and humid than in East Greenland, and one had to revise the usual view that musk oxen require a particularly dry climate. As elsewhere in Canada musk oxen are under strict Government protection.” [JD 30/11/2006]

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]