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Article Excerpt
(Received 1 May 2008; accepted in revised form 31 October 2008)
ABSTRACT. Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk) is a seasonally inhabited island off the western Arctic coast of Canada. It was designated as a Yukon territorial park under the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1987) in recognition of its physical and cultural significance. The island was named by Captain John Franklin of the Royal Navy on 15 July 1826, during his second voyage of Arctic exploration. Unlike entries for other features named by Franklin along this coast, the journal record of this event does not indicate the specific person after whom he named the island. Franklin's journal and his published account state only that he wished to honour the name Herschel, borne most prominently by Sir William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus, Sir William's sister Caroline Herschel, who discovered eight comets, and Sir William's son Sir John Herschel, the brilliant polymath; in other words, he wished to honour this preeminent late Georgian scientific family.
Key words: Herschel Island, William Herschel, Caroline Herschel, John Herschel, John Franklin, Yukon Territory
RESUME. L'ile Herschel (Qikiqtaruk) est une ile de la cote Ouest de I'Arctique du Canada qui est habitee selon les saisons. Elle a ete designee en tant que parc territorial du Yukon en vertu de la Convention definitive des Inuvialuit (1987) en raison de son importance physique et culturelle. Cette ile a ete nommee par le commandant John Franklin de la Marine royale le 15 juillet 1826 dans le cadre de sa deuxieme expedition d'exploration de I' Arctique. Contrairement aux autres endroits ayant ete nommes par Franklin tout au long de cette cote, le journal de bord ne mentionne nullement en I' honneur de quelle personne I' ile a ete nommee. Le journal de Franklin de meme que son recit publie indiquent seulement qu'il voulait rendre hommage au nom Herschel, porte notamment par Sir William Herschel, qui a decouvert la planete Uranus, par la sceur de Sir William, Caroline Herschel, qui a decouvert huit cometes et par le fils de Sir William, Sir John Herschel, ce brillant homme. Autrement dit, il voulait honorer cette famille scientifique preeminente de la fin de l'epoque georgienne.
Mots cles: ile Herschel, William Herschel, Caroline Herschel, John Herschel, John Franklin, Territoire du Yukon
Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nicole Giguere.
INTRODUCTION
Herschel Island has an area of about 100 [km.sup.2] and lies in the southern Beaufort Sea, just north of the Yukon mainland (Fig. 1). The island is dominantly composed of perennially frozen marine sediments, which were glacially upthrust from the coastal plain to the east (Mackay, 1959). Workboat Passage, which separates the island from the mainland, is generally 5 to 6 km wide, but it narrows to between 1 and 2 km at its eastern end between Osborn and Catton (or Calton) points (NTS sheet 117 D; Nautical Chart 7661). The island was excavated from Herschel Basin, a depression of similar volume in the Yukon Coastal Plain, probably about 30 000 years ago during the Wisconsinan glaciation, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its farthest westerly extent (Mackay, 1959; Duk-Rodkin and Lemmen, 2000). The people of the area were called Nuvuraqmiut ("people of the Point") while there was a connection to the mainland, and Qikiqtaruqmiut ("people of the Island") after the connection was severed (Jean Tardiff from Roland Saruaq, in Nagy, 1994:29). The depth of water in Workboat Passage is just over 2 m (Nautical Chart 7661). Using the sea-level curve for the SE Beaufort Sea presented by Hill et al. (1985) and modified by Campeau et al. (2000), we may estimate that Herschel Island most likely became an island within the last 1600 [.sup.14]C years, and perhaps as recently as 650 years ago.
Herschel Island bears the Inuvialuktun name Kikiak-taryuak, meaning "island" (Chipman and Cox, 1924:42B), now transliterated as Qikiqtaruk (Yukon Government, 2007), and is a territorial park established in 1987 under the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. Pauline Cove, on the east side of the island, is one of the few natural harbours along the Yukon coast (Mackay, 1960). Captain John Franklin of the Royal Navy landed on Herschel Island on 17 July and 26 August 1826,...
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