GEO 605 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Mercy Bay, Coppermine River, Beechey Island
Document Summary
330 bc greek mathmatician, astronomer, and geographer pytheas sailed from. 874 ad- first viking settlements in iceland (by 930 ad 40000 norse in iceland) By 1500 viking settlements in greenland were abandoned (change in climate and conflict with newly arrived thule) Voyage 1-1576-mapped frobisher bay, baffin island- thought he found gold. Five of his crew were captured by inuit. An inuk was captured and taken to england. To this day largest expedition to the canadian arctic. Mapped southern greenland, across the davis strait, to cumberland sound. Sailed into hudson strait and into a huge expanse of water. Reached the southern coast of the bay and was forced to winter. First european to over winter since the vikings. 1616- robert bylot, and william baffin (their second voyage) By 1632 it was clear that there was no entrance to the nw passage in hudson bay. Practical route did not exist- for 200 years there wasn"t much in the realm of arctic.