Smith Sound

{{Short description|Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada}} {{about||other sounds|Smith Sound, Newfoundland and Labrador|and|Smith Sound (British Columbia)}} {{Infobox body of water | name= Smith Sound | image= Map indicating Smith Sound, Nunavut, Canada.png | caption = Smith Sound, Nunavut, Canada.{{legend|#ffff66|Nunavut (mostly Ellesmere Island)}}{{legend|#ffffcc|Greenland}} | coords= {{coord|78|25|N|74|00|W|type:waterbody_scale:2000000|notes=<ref name=OAPGF>{{Cite cgndb|OAPGF|Smith Sound}}</ref>|name=Smith Sound|display=inline,title}} | rivers= |pushpin_map=Canada Nunavut | oceans=[[Kane Basin]] / [[Baffin Bay]] | countries= Canada, [[Greenland]] | length={{cvt|50|km}} | width={{cvt|40|km}}<ref>[[GoogleEarth]]</ref> | area= | frozen=Most of the year | islands=[[Pim Island]], [[Littleton Island]] | cities= Uninhabited }}

'''Smith Sound''' ({{langx|da|Smith Sund}}; {{langx|fr|Détroit de Smith}}) is an [[Arctic]] sea passage between [[Greenland]] and [[Nunavut]]'s northernmost island, [[Ellesmere Island]]. It links [[Baffin Bay]] with [[Kane Basin]] and forms part of the [[Nares Strait]]. On the Canadian side it extends from [[Cape Sabine]] in the north to Cape Isabella in the south.<ref name=OAPGF/>

On the Greenland side of the sound were the now abandoned settlements of [[Etah, Greenland|Etah]] and [[Annoatok]].<ref name="cold">{{cite book|last=Ehrlich|author-link=Gretel Ehrlich|first=Gretel|title=This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland|publisher=Random House|pages=26–7,141,239,348|year=2001|isbn=978-0-679-75852-5}}</ref>

==History== The first known visit to the area by Europeans was in 1616 when the ''[[Discovery (1602 ship)|Discovery]]'', captained by [[Robert Bylot]] and piloted by [[William Baffin]], sailed into this region. The sound was originally named ''Sir Thomas Smith's Bay'' after the English diplomat Sir [[Thomas Smythe]]. By the 1750s it regularly appeared on maps as ''Sir Thomas Smith's Sound'', though no further exploration of the area would be recorded until [[John Ross (Royal Navy officer)|John Ross]]' 1818 expedition. By this time it had begun to be known simply as ''Smith Sound''.

In 1852 [[Edward Augustus Inglefield]] penetrated a little further than Baffin, establishing a new furthest north in North America.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Blake, W. 1999. "Glaciated Landscapes Along Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland". ''Annals of Glaciology''. 28: 40–46. * Elton, Charles S. ''Movements of Arctic Fox Populations in the Region of Baffin Bay and Smith Sound''. The [[Polar Record]]. [Offprint], no. 37–38. [Cambridge: University Press], 1949. * Grist, Alexander, and Marcos Zentilli. 2005. "The Thermal History of the Nares Strait, Kane Basin, and Smith Sound Region in Canada and Greenland: Constraints from Apatite Fission-Track and (U Th Sm)/He Dating". ''Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences''. 42: 1547–1569. * Kroeber, A. L. ''The Eskimo of Smith Sound''. [New York: Knickerbocker Press], 1900. * Peary, Robert E. ''Northward Over the "Great Ice" A Narrative of Life and Work Along the Shores and Upon the Interior Ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897 : with a Description of the Little Tribe of Smith-Sound Eskimos, the Most Northerly Human Beings in the World, and an Account of the Discovery and Bringing Home of the "Saviksue," or Great Cape-York Meteorites''. London: Methuen, 1898.

[[Category:Straits of Greenland]] [[Category:Sounds (geography) of the Qikiqtaaluk Region]] [[Category:Bodies of water of Baffin Bay]] [[Category:Ellesmere Island]] [[Category:Canada–Greenland border]] [[Category:International straits]]