The island is named afterQueen Victoria, the British sovereign from 1837 to 1901. The features bearing the name "Prince Albert" are named after her consort,Albert.
Victoria Island was inhabited by theThule culture, with five prehistoricqamutiik (sleds) belonging to the Neoeskimo culture being found on theWollaston Peninsula, dating to 1250–1573 AD.[7] TheInuinnaqtun name for the island isKitlineq, with the local Inuit calledKitlinermiut (Copper Inuit).[8]
In 1826John Richardson was the first European to see the southwest coast and called it "Wollaston Land".[9] In 1839,Peter Warren Dease andThomas Simpson followed its southeast coast and called it "Victoria Land".[10] A map published byJohn Barrow in 1846 shows a complete blank from these two lands north to "Banks Land" which is the north coast ofBanks Island.[11] In 1851John Rae charted its entire south coast and connected the two "lands".[12] In 1850 and 1851Robert McClure circumnavigated most of Banks Island, thereby separating it from the rest of Victoria Land. His men also charted the northwest and west coasts of Victoria Island.[13]
In 2008Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island. Their first attempt at the 1,000 km (620 mi) trek in 2005 failed, so they returned and completed the remaining 660 km (410 mi) in 2008.[16][17]
Victoria Island is an island of peninsulas, having a heavily indented coastline with many inlets. In the east, pointing northwards, is the Storkerson Peninsula,map11 which ends with theGoldsmith Channel,map12 the body of water separating Victoria fromStefansson Island.map13 The Storkerson Peninsula is separated from the island's north-central areas byHadley Bay,map14 a major inlet. Another, broad peninsula is found in the north,Prince Albert Peninsula.map15 This ends at the Prince of Wales Strait. In the south, and pointing westwards, is theWollaston Peninsula,map16 separated from the island's central areas by Prince Albert Sound.
The highest point of Victoria Island is 655 m (2,149 ft) in theShaler Mountainsmap17 in the north-central region. Located in the southeast, just north of Cambridge Bay, isTahiryuaq (formerly Ferguson Lake)map18. With an area of 562 km2 (217 sq mi), it is the largest lake on the island.[19]
It was said byAndrew Hund in his book,Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions, that the island resembles a stylized maple leaf, the predominantsymbol of Canada.[20]
Victoria Island has apolar climate, with no month having an average temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) or higher, and is listed asET on theKöppen climate classification. Summers are typically cool and rainy, with pleasant days and chilly nights. Winters are cold, dark, and long, with October being the snowiest month. Snowfall and frosts are possible all year round. Rainfall is usually limited to the summer months, when the temperature shortly rises above freezing for a few months before dipping back down for another 9 months of winter. Springs are typically sunny but still very chilly. Autumns are short and crisp, with more frequent cloud cover starting to appear during August and with September being almost constantly cloudy.
At Cambridge Bay, the sun is continuously below the horizon,polar night, from approximately 30 November to 11 January and above the horizon,midnight sun, 19 May to 22 July.[22]
TheDolphin-Union caribou herd locally known as Island Caribou[25][26] are a migratory population ofbarren-ground caribou,Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus, that occupy Victoria Island in Canada'sHigh Arctic and the nearby mainland. They are endemic to Canada. They migrate across theDolphin and Union Strait from their summer grazing on Victoria Island to their winter grazing area on the Nunavut-NWT mainland.[25][27] It is unusual for North Americancaribou to seasonally cross sea ice and the only other caribou to do so are thePeary caribou, which are smaller in size and population, and also occur on Victoria Island.[28]
Beyond caribou, Victoria Island supports a richlichen flora that underpins tundrafood webs. A 2018–2019 survey around Cambridge Bay and the nearby Wellington Inlier documented 237 lichen species (186 collected during the survey and 51 from earlier records), including 35 not previously reported from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Lichens, which are a major winter food formuskox and caribou, are especially common in drier habitats on rock and organic soils. Species turnover is high at local scales (only three species were found across all six surveyed areas, while about 40% occurred at a single locality) and distributions are governed mainly by water availability andbedrock chemistry:lime-rich tills around Cambridge Bay favourcrustose communities, whereas the older, moreacidic rocks of the Wellington Inlier support a different suite with relatively morefoliose andCladonia species. The flora shows littleendemism, likely because much of the landscape has been ice-free for only about 5,000 years; with ongoingArctic warming and "greening", continued monitoring is warranted to track any shifts in species and cover.[29]
In the2021 Canadian census the population of the island was 2,168; 1,760[3] in Nunavut and 408[4] in the Northwest Territories. Of the two settlements on the island the larger isCambridge Bay,map19 which lies on the south-east coast and is in Nunavut.Ulukhaktokmap20 is on the west coast and is in the Northwest Territories.Trading posts, such asFort Collinsonmap21 on the northwest coast, have long been abandoned.[30]
^Hund, Andrew (2014).Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 725.ISBN9781610693936.
^Türk, Roman; Hogg, Ian D.; Cox, Erin R.; Sancho, Leopoldo G.; Williamson, Scott N.; Vandenbrink, Bryan; Green, T.G. Allan (2024). "Lichen Diversity at Cambridge Bay and Vicinity, Southern Victoria Island, Nunavut, Canada".Evansia.41 (4):87–112.doi:10.1639/0747-9859-41.4.87.
Geological Survey of Canada, J. G. Fyles, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski.Quaternary Geology of Wynniatt Bay, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2718. 1988.
Geological Survey of Canada, R. H. Rainbird, A. N. LeCheminant, and I. Lawyer.Geology, Duke of York Inlier, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 3304. 1997.
Geological Survey of Canada, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski.Preliminary Suficial Materials of Kagloryuak River (77F) and Burns Lake (77G), Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2883. 1994.
Gyselman, E. C., and L. K. Gould.Data on Amphidromous and Freshwater Fish from Central Victoria Island and Freshwater Systems Draining into Melville Sound and Elu Inlet, N.W.T., Canada. Winnipeg: Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, 1992.
Jakimchuk, R. D., and D. R. Carruthers.Caribou and Muskoxen on Victoria Island, N.W.T. Sidney, B.C.: R.D. Jakimchuk Management Associates Ltd, 1980.
McGhee, Robert.An Archaeological Survey of Western Victoria Island, N.W.T., Canada. Ottawa, Ont: National Museums of Canada, 1971.
Parmelee, David Freeland, H. A. Stephens, and Richard H. Schmidt.The Birds of Southeastern Victoria Island and Adjacent Small Islands. Ottawa: [Queen's Printer], 1967.
Peterson, E. B., R. D. Kabzems, and V. M. Levson.Terrain and Vegetation Along the Victoria Island Portion of a Polar Gas Combined Pipeline System. Sidney, B.C.: Western Ecological Services, 1981.
Rainbird, Robert H.Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Tectonic Setting of the Upper Shaler Group, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Ottawa: National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1991.ISBN0-315-66301-4
Washburn, A. L.Reconnaissance Geology of Portions of Victoria Island and Adjacent Regions, Arctic Canada. [New York]: Geological Society of America, 1947.
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