McDougall Sound

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McDougall Sound is an Arctic waterway in Northern Canada's territory of Nunavut. It's located between southeastern Bathurst Island and western Cornwallis island. The sound's southern mouth opens to the Parry Channel, and beyond that, to the Barrow Strait. The sound's northern mouth opens to Crozier Strait.[1] The sound is populated by several smaller islands, the named ones including, Milne Island, Little Cornwallis Island, Wood Island, Neal Islands, Truro Island, and Baker Island.[2]

McDougall Sound is the namesake of George F. McDougall who explored the sound in 1851 while wintering with Capt. Horatio Austin's search team seeking the lost Sir John Franklin expedition.[3]

The sound is home to bearded seal.[4] Atlantic walrus (O. rosmarus rosmarus) have also been charted as far west as McDougall Sound.[5]

In his 1990 study of Palaeo-Eskimo people (who preceded the Inuit), Helmer describes three occupation periods in the McDougall Sound region: Transitional Period Dorset (ca. 3000 BP), Early Dorset (2500—2200 BP), and Late Dorset (ca. 1500—1000 BP), demonstrating abrupt ends to three sets of occupations by Palaeo-Eskimo hunters.[6] The University of Calgary's McDougall Sound Arctic Research Project continued this work.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cornwallis Island. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America (2000). Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
  2. ^ Map of McDougall Sound (sound), Nunavut, Canada. encarta.msn.com (2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
  3. ^ Bray, E. F. d., & Barr, W. (1992). A Frenchman in search of Franklin: de Bray's Arctic journal, 1852-1854. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 48-50. ISBN 0802028136. 
  4. ^ Stirling, I., Cleator, H., & Calvert, W. (1980). Underwater vocalizations as a tool for studying the distribution and relative abundance of wintering pinnipeds in the High Arctic. Pallister Resource Management Ltd.
  5. ^ Harington, C. R. (August 1966). "Extralimital Occurrences of Walruses in the Canadian Arctic" 47: 506-513. Journal of Mammalogy. OCLC 65831135. 
  6. ^ Helmer, James W. (1990-06-05). "The Palaeo-Eskimo Prehistory of the North Devon Lowlands" 44: 301-317. Arctic. 
  7. ^ Helmer, James; LeMoine, Genevieve (1995). McDougall Sound Arctic Research Project. ucalgary.ca. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.

Coordinates: 75°15′00″N, 097°30′00″W

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