Boothia Peninsula

 

(bū'thēə) , 12,483 sq mi (32,331 sq km), Nunavut Territory, Canada; the northernmost (71°58′N) tip of the North American mainland. It is almost an island, being connected with the mainland only by the narrow Isthmus of Boothia. Topographically and in climate it is like the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. A narrow strait separates it in the north from Somerset Island. To the east the Gulf of Boothia separates it from Baffin Island. It is virtually uninhabited except for a few hundred settlers at Spence Bay and Thom Bay. The peninsula was discovered and explored (1829–33) by John Ross, the British explorer, and named for a patron of the expedition, Sir Felix Booth. Near the southwest end the expedition of Sir John Franklin, the British explorer, ended in tragedy. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, explored the peninsula in 1903–5.

Boothia Peninsula (formerly Boothia Felix) is a large peninsula in the Canadian Arctic, south of Somerset Island. The northern part, Murchison Promontory, is the northernmost point of mainland Canada, and thus North America.

The peninsula was named by the Scottish explorer John Ross in 1829 after Felix Booth, the patron of Ross's second expedition. Ross encountered a large Inuit community whom he described as living in "snow cottages" (i.e. igloos) and immortalized in Ross's painting North Hendon[1].

The north magnetic pole was at one point located here by Ross.

References

• This article incorporates text from The Modern World Encyclopædia: Illustrated (1935); out of UK copyright as of 2005.

Coordinates: 70°26′N, 94°24′W

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