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Hamilton Inlet is a
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...
-like inlet of
Groswater Bay
Groswater Bay (Inuttitut: ''Kangerliorsoak''), also known by other names, is a bay in south central Labrador, Canada. Its Hamilton Inlet and Melville Lake extensions stretch inland.
Names
Groswater Bay's name is a compound formed from Fr ...
on the
Labrador
Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...
coast of the
Canadian province
Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...
of
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...
. Together with
Lake Melville
Lake Melville is an estuary of Hamilton Inlet (itself an extension of Groswater Bay) on the Labrador coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Comprising and stretching inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, it forms part of the ...
, it forms its province's largest
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...
, extending over inland to
Happy Valley-Goose Bay and primarily draining the
Churchill River and
Naskaupi River watersheds. Lake Melville is generally considered a part of Hamilton Inlet and extends west of the deep, narrow passage at the community of
Rigolet.
Names
It was given its present name in honour of
Charles Hamilton, commodore-governor of Newfoundland in the early 1800s and former namesake of the inlet's affluent, the Hamilton River (now the
Churchill). Inclusive of Groswater Bay, it has also been known as Ivucktoke (
Inuttitut
Inuttitut, Inuttut, or Nunatsiavummiutitut is a dialect of Inuktitut. It is spoken across northern Labrador by the Inuit, whose traditional lands are known as Nunatsiavut.
The language has a distinct writing system, created in Greenland in the 1 ...
: ''Aivitok''); Eskimo or Esquimaux Bay (, "Bay of the
Eskimos"); and St Louis Bay ().
History
In 1586, it was the scene of an
Inuit
Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
attack on the expedition of
John Davis which killed two and wounded others.
[Libraries and Archives Canada.]
John Davis, the Master Navigator
. Accessed 10 May 2012.
References
Citations
Bibliography
* .
External links
A map of Labrador showing Hamilton Inlet as excluding L. Melville"River Flow and Winter Hydrographic Structure of the Hamilton Inlet-Lake Melville Estuary of Labrador" which treats Hamilton Inlet as synonymous with Groswater Bay and exclusive of Lake Melville
Estuaries of Canada
Bays of Newfoundland and Labrador
Labrador
{{Labrador-geo-stub