IDNO

P.86472.PAT

Description

View from the Isbjørn of the narrow fjord in Coutts Inlet with steep walls with striking clefts and joint faces rising to pinnacle peaks 2000-3000 feet in height.

Place

N America; Arctic; Canada; Nunavut; Baffin Island; Coutts Inlet [North West Territories]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

3 September 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:
“Royal Society Fjord [anchor sign] Sept. 3”
“773 Samson Post --?”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 6/3/2008]

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.402-403 includes:
“We returned to Craig Harbour to exchange personnel, left late on August 25, and next day passed the mouth of Lancaster Sound. ... We reckoned however that we would have time for a short reconnaissance in North East Baffin Land. We planned to try and fix Coutts Inlet (see folding-map following p. 480) more definitely, and also to locate a second fjord reported about 20 miles farther south, and known to Eskimo as Anaularealing. ...
Early on the 27th we were off the land at Cape McCulloch ... From our landfall we steamed south-east to the mouth of Coutts Inlet, of which there can be no doubt, as Ross has a drawing of its 3-mile-wide mouth, with Cape Antrobus on the south and the prominent headland which he named Cape Coutts on the north. By log Cape Coutts was 14 miles from our landfall at Cape McCulloch, and this is in keeping with Ross's figure of 13' difference in latitude.
By midday we were steaming up Coutts Inlet. Cape Antrobus on the left was then seen to be on a large island. Some 12 miles in there is a branch fjord to the north, which we did not enter; holding straight on we passed along a narrow fjord with steep walls rising to pinnacle peaks 2000-3000 feet in height. It was misty on the tops, but the clouds came and went, revealing striking clefts and joint faces, and in particular a precipitous overhang. We were to see many more of these characteristic features in succeeding days, features which closely paralleled the mountain forms seen at Eglinton Fjord in 1934. About 6 miles from the head of Coutts Inlet a change in the scenery began: glaciers were less frequent, the mountain heights lower, and gentler slopes became the rule. We had in fact passed through canyon country to a region of more gentle relief. The fjord ended 42 miles from Cape Coutts where a side glacier juts across from the north side. Marine terraces were prominent in the foreground, and beyond the glacier is a lake, about 2 miles in length. Parties went ashore, and three old Eskimo winter houses and some tent rings were examined, and reported on by Lethbridge as having probably been occupied comparatively recently, some of them within the last few years.” [JD 4/7/2007]

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]