Southampton Island

Southampton Island lies at the northern entrance to Hudson Bay, separated from the mainland by the waters of Roes Welcome Sound. Its inhabitants, the Sallirmiut, hunted seals and walrus along its shores. In 1613 the English navigator Thomas Button reached the island during his search for a passage through the Arctic. More than two centuries later, William Edward Parry's expedition visited its northern coast, and George Francis Lyon met Sallirmiut at their winter settlement in 1824.