IDNO

P.86489.PAT

Description

James Wordie standing beside an Inuit stone grave? on the shoreline of Eagle Beach.

Place

N America; Arctic; Canada; Nunavut; Baffin Island; Dexterity Bay; Eagle Beach [North West Territories]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

14 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 14.”
“514 & 515. In McCormick Bay.”
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.404-405 includes:
“Two hours beyond Maud Harbour we were off an opening which in the dark we judged should be Dexterity Harbour, and turning sharp right we crept in slowly for about 6 miles and came to anchor. Daylight showed that we were near the west point of a large island, on which about 1 mile to the west was a small basin which we called Lemming Harbour. From there we looked into the second gulf from its south side, and numerous openings lay to the west. Further, we were certainly not at Dexterity Harbour; the surroundings disagreed with the description given by Adams, who had emphasized the bar across the harbour mouth, and the mountain shapes could not be reconciled with those given in a photograph which we had found in Peary's ‘Northward over the Great Ice.’ This was our first check to an easy unravelling of the coastline, but the problem on this particular day was solved when in the afternoon we sailed south down the west side of a second island and turned left into a strait leading to the open sea with a protecting bar. We dropped anchor off a wreckage-strewn beach, further proof that we were at Dexterity Harbour, the wreckage being that of the Eagle, driven on shore in a gale in 1893. The harbour itself is really a strait about a miles in breadth, and whaling ships were accustomed to anchor either on the east or west side according to the wind, but preferably on the east side, where an Eskimo village grew up during the nineties. The captain and Robin took soundings across the bar and mapped the outer coastline by motor boat. On the west they reached Robin Point, which rises steeply inland, whereas the cape marking the east entrance to the harbour is low and widely rounded, being the seaward scarp of an outwash slope some 3-4 miles in depth, at the back of which the mountains rise to heights of about 2000 feet.” [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]