Port Leopold, Prince Leopold Island and Elwin Bay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Port Leopold, Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.
Enlarge
Port Leopold, Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.
Prince Leopold Island, Nunavut, Canada.
Enlarge
Prince Leopold Island, Nunavut, Canada.

Port Leopold (73°50′59″N, °90′19″59) is the site of a former Hudson's Bay Company trading post at the far northeast corner of Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada. It is also the place where the English explorer James Clark Ross wintered in 1848 during his search for the missing Franklin expedition.

To the northeast of Port Leopold, in Barrow Strait, lies Prince Leopold Island (74°0′N 90°0′W), a ten by four mile (sixteen by six kilometre) wide Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Large colonies of murres and guillemots, northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes may be seen there. South of Port Leopold, a few miles further down the eastern coast of Somerset Island, lies Elwin Bay (73°31′59″N, 90°55′0″W), filled with the skeletons and bones of several hundred beluga left by whalers.