BELCHER ISLANDS

archipelago in southeastern Hudson Bay, north of the mouth of James Bay, Baffin region, Nunavut territory, Canada. The islands, low-lying and striated, cover a total area of about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km), of which 1,118 square miles (2,896 square km) is land. The group, first sighted by the English navigator Henry Hudson in 1610 and named for Sir Edward Belcher, who commanded an Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, was not explored and mapped until 1915. Large deposits of iron ore underlie the Belcher and neighbouring Nastapoka islands. The sparse population is served by the trading post of Sanikiluaq (pop. 631), which has an airstrip.