Baffin Island (Inuktitut: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ, Qikiqtaaluk, French: Île de Baffin, Old Norse: Helluland), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq mi) and its population is about 11,000 (2007 estimate). Named after English explorer William Baffin, it is likely that the island was known to Pre-Columbian Norse of Greenland and Iceland and may be the location of Helluland, spoken of in the Icelandic sagas (the Saga of Erik the Red (Eiríks saga rauða) and the Grœnlendinga saga).
Read more about Baffin Island: Geography, History, Wildlife, Climate, Sports and Activities
Famous quotes containing the words baffin and/or island:
“Brazil is bigger than Europe, wilder than Africa, and weirder than Baffin Land.”
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)