An Archaeological Site on the North Coast of Ellesmere Island

In July 1965, at the end of a long walk westward from Alert, I marked down an Eskimo site on the south side of the well-developed delta terrace at the mouth of the Wood River, 82°30' N, 63°07' W. In setting and lay-out it resembled sites of the Independence I and II cultures that we found at Tanquary Fiord in 1963 .... It was not until August 1972 that I was able to revisit the delta of the Wood River.... The Eskimo site is 11.5 m above sea level ... and lies 3 m from the edge of the delta terrace and about 60 m from the sea. The level terrace, composed mainly of shingle and gravel with scattered flat rocks and small boulders, ends above the foreshore in a steep bank, the material of which is more or less at angle of rest and lightly vegetated. The distinctive feature of the site is the central hearth, which measures 260 cm in length by 69 cm in breadth. It is oriented at right angles to the shore so that the entrance of the tent ring faces the sea, and it is formed in the usual way of flat slabs (in this case 3 in number) of fissile rock set on edge in the ground. Outside the central hearth only 4 rocks define the tent ring .... About 6 m to the north of this main structure there is a rough circle (1.5 m in diameter) of small boulders, and a similar feature 35 m to the south; the latter comprises 6 boulders with maximum dimensions of 35 cm set on the arc of a rough circle about 2 m in diameter. The site is protected to the south by a cliff in bedrock to a height of about 100 m. In the middle of the central hearth, with minimum disturbance of the floor, we made a small collection of charcoal and charred bones for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal ... has yielded an age of 1070 ±270 yr BP .... The discovery of the Wood River site raises the question of how many others remain to be discovered on the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Very little is to be seen at the surface, and it is likely that similar sites in the Alert area to the east have escaped notice, although by now they may have been destroyed by the passage of vehicles. On the long coast of northern Ellesmere Island no other archaeological sites have been found but then few people have had the interest and opportunity at the right time of year to look for them. ... Two further comments are offered with diffidence, since I am not an archaeologist. First, the radiocarbon age of the charcoal, if it can be accepted as a maximum age for occupation of the site, belies what appeared to be a distinctive feature of the Independence culture, namely the central hearth. Can it be that this was a feature that persisted to the end of the Dorset period in certain areas? Secondly, on the question of the movement north of these Eskimos, they may all have crossed the plateau southwest of the Grant Ice Cap from the Lake Hazen area and then followed the valley of the Wood River to its mouth, thus by-passing the Robeson Channel coast. From excavations in 1958, Dr. M. S. Maxwell concluded that hunters from the south visited the Lake Hazen area during the period from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. However, sites of both Independence and Thule cultures have since been found at the head of Tanquary Fiord .... Thus, although Maxwell found no evidence that Eskimos had made the passage from Tanquary Fiord to Lake Hazen, it now seems certain that immigration came from that direction at some time, thus completely by-passing the Smith Sound route

Some Canadians in the Antarctic

The note shows that individual Canadians have been involved in every phase of Antarctic exploration and research from 1898 to the present time.Key words: Antarctic, expeditionsMots clés: antarctique, expéditio

The Rolls on the Ellesmere Ice Shelf

Surface rolls are characteristic features of both the Ellesmere ice shelf and the floating ice islands derived from it. These surface features are described and their origin and evolution discussed. Various theories of origin are considered which involve such forces as pressure from the polar pack, movement of glaciers, temperature variations, tidal movements and wind. Of these, wind action appears the most likely to have caused the rolls, and it is suggested that their development was analogous to the formation of seif dunes in desert. "They should be regarded as fossil snow dunes that have been perpetuated by the annual drainage of melt-water.

Postglacial Uplift at Tanquary Fiord, Northern Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories

Constructs a postglacial uplift curve for the upper part of Tanquary Fiord from radiocarbon ages of marine shells and peat. Data show the head of the fiord to be clear of glacier ice by at least 6500 yr BP. During 6500-5000 yr BP isostatic uplift was at a rate of about 3.5 m/century and subsequently about 25 cm/cent.On a construit, à partir d'échantillons de coquillages marins et de tourbe datés au radiocarbone, une courbe du relèvement postglaciaire pour la partie supérieure du fiord de Tanquary, dans le nord de l'île d'Ellesmere. Les données montrent que la partie amont du fiord était libre de glace il y a moins de 6,500 ans. Entre 6,500 et 5,000 av.p., le relèvement isostatique s'est produit au rythme d'environ 3,5 m par siècle : par la suite, le rythme a été d'environ 25 cm/siècle

Stratified Water of a Glacial Lake in Northern Ellesmere Island

Antoinette Bay constitutes the central arm of Greely Fiord and extends 40 km. east-northeastward from its junction with Tanquary Fiord in about 80°50'N, 79°W. A large tidewater glacier, flowing northwestward from the Mer de Glace Agassiz to the southeast, has blocked off the head of the bay (or, more properly, fiord) and separates it from the long narrow lake that is the natural extension of the fiord to the east. We visited Antoinette Bay and the lake on June 2 and 3, 1963 during the course of an oceanographic traverse over the sea-ice from the field station of the Defence Research Board at the head of Tanquary Fiord. Antoinette Bay is a typical steep-sided fiord; a single sounding, taken 10 km. from its mouth, showed no bottom at 240 m. The lake, which is unnamed, was visited on the chance of finding interesting structural and temperature conditions in the lake water. ..

On the Oceanography of the Nansen Sound Fiord System

Summarizes exploration of the fiord system of northwest Ellesmere and northeast Axel Heiberg Islands, from discovery in 1883 to 1962, and describes in detail results of oceanographic surveys in 1962. Temperature and salinity data are graphed and analyzed. Water warmer than -10C below 100 m is believed to be derived from the Atlantic water intermediate layer in the Arctic Ocean. A persistent inversion at 40 m in the Tanquary and other upper fiords is theorized as being due to trapping of direct solar insolation. Conditions conductive to this are discussed