Belcher Islands

The archaeological evidence present on the islands indicates that they were inhabited by the Dorset culture between 500 BCE and 1000 CE. Centuries later, from 1200 to 1500, the Thule people made their presence on the islands. The first European to encounter the islands was English sea explorer Henry Hudson, the namesake of Hudson Bay, who sighted the islands in 1610. In 1670, the islands and the entirety of Hudson Bay drainage basin were designated by the English king, Charles II, as Rupert's Land, managed by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The islands are likely named after Captain James Belcher, an HBC employee in the early 18th-century, or after Royal Navy Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (1799–1877). came into the hands of Robert Flaherty, and cartographers began to represent them more accurately. Circa 1933, the Hudson's Bay Company opened a fur trade post, which served as an outpost of the Great Whale River post until 1935, when it became a full post. In 1948, the HBC closed its Belcher Islands post. In 1999, when Nunavut was separated from Northwest Territories, the Belcher Islands were included within Nunavut, along with most islands in Hudson Bay. ==Geology==

s in the Belcher (Sanikiluaq) Islands . These rocks are about 2 billion years old. The width of the bottom of the photo is about 5 metres. General geology The geologic units of the Belcher Group, which forms the Belcher Islands, were deposited during the Paleoproterozoic. Combined with other Paleoproterozoic units that occur along the edge of the Superior Craton, the Belcher Group forms part of the Circum-Superior Belt. From youngest to oldest, the Belcher Group is composed of: • Loaf Formation (molasse) • Omarolluk Formation (flysch) • Flaherty Formation (flood basalt) • Kipalu Formation (iron formation) • Mukpollo Formation (sandstone) • Rowatt Formation (shallow water carbonate) • Laddie Formation (deep marine red bed) • Costello Formation (carbonate slope deposit) • Mavor Formation (stromatolite reef complex) • Tukarak Formation (shallow water carbonate) • Fairweather Formation (shallow water carbonate) • Eskimo Formation (flood basalt) • Kasegalik Formation (sabkha) The oldest part of the Belcher Group, the Kasegalik Formation, was deposited between 2.0185 and 2.0154 billion years ago. The Kasegalik Formation also contains the oldest unambiguous Cyanobacteria microfossils. Much of the Belcher Group strata were deposited under intertidal to shallow-water conditions, although the Mavor Formation formed a platform margin stromatolite reef complex, and the overlying Costello and Laddie formations represent slope and deep basin deposits, respectively. Soapstone The occurrence of very high-quality soapstone in the Belcher Islands supports a locally significant carving industry. These soapstone occurrences formed when sedimentary rocks of the Belcher Group were intruded by Haig sills and dykes approximately 1.87 billion years ago. ==Flora==

Several species of willow (Salix) form a large component of the native small shrubbery on the archipelago. These include rock willow (Salix vestita), bog willow (S. pedicellaris), and Labrador willow (S. argyrocarpa), as well as naturally occurring hybrids between S. arctica and S. glauca. Trees cannot grow on the islands because of a lack of adequate soil. ==Fauna==

The main wildlife consists of belugas, walrus, caribou, common eiders and snowy owls all of which can be seen on the island year round. There is also a wide variety of fish that can be caught such as Arctic char, cod, capelin, lump fish, and sculpin. The historical relationship between the Sanikiluaq community and the eider is the subject of a feature-length Canadian documentary film called People of a Feather. The director, cinematographer and biologist Joel Heath, spent seven years on the project, writing biological articles on the eider. In 1998, the Belcher Island caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) herd numbered 800. ==References==