William Baffin voyage. Baffin served as pilot of "Discovery", which left England under Captain Robert Bylot on 15 March. It carefully explored Hudson Strait in search of a Northwest Passage from the North Atlantic to the Far East. The accuracy of Baffin's tidal and astronomical observations on this voyage was confirmed when William Edward Parry passed over the same ground in 1821. Baffin again sailed as pilot of "Discovery" the next year. Leaving Gravesend on 26 March, he passed west of Greenland up the Davis Strait, discovering the large bay to its north which now bears his name, together with a series
Baffin Island in the middle of the island, has been retreating since at least the early 1960s, when the Geographical Branch of the then-Department of Mines and Technical Surveys sent a three-man survey team to the area to measure isostatic rebound and cross-valley features of the Isortoq River. Conversely, in the 1970s parts of Baffin Island failed to have the usual ice-free period in the summer. The island has been continuously inhabited by Inuit peoples for centuries. In September 2008, "Nunatsiaq News" reported that a team led by Dr. Patricia Sutherland of the Canadian Museum of Civilization had found archaeological remains of