Immediately south of Devon Island, across Lancaster Sound, ever so close to Baffin Bay, you will find both Baffin and Bylot islands. Then, after crossing the sound, and when you put you feet on the ground of either of these two islands, you will have arrived at the second ecoregion of the Arctic Mountains Geographic Region, the Baffin and Bylot Islands Mountains ecoregion.

Again, it must be said, that all of the mountain ranges found on these two islands are all part of the Arctic Cordillera, which includes all of the mountain range running along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Bylot Island, both in the Nunavut territory. The several ranges on these two island include: The Baffin Mountains, the Krage Mountains, the Hartz Mountains, the Bruce Mountains and the Everett Mountains.

These ice-capped mountains are some of the highest peaks of eastern North America, reaching a height of 5,003 to 7,041 feet (1,525 to 2,146 meters) above sea level. While the two islands are separated by the body of water called Eclipse Sound, these two islands are closely related. Further, these islands are also closely related to the other mountain ranges that make the much larger Arctic Cordillera mountain range.

If you are traveling by water craft and approaching these two island from Lancaster Sound, you will first enter through Navy Board Inlet and once between these islands, the main body of water is called Eclipse Sound, also called Tasiujaq by the Inuktitut. Previously, this sound when sailed by the Scottish explorer Sir John Ross, he had named this arm of the sea as Pond′s Bay, and the current hamlet located across Eclipse sound on Baffin Island, along that sound now shares that name, Pond Inlet.

Baffin Island, previously known as Baffin Land, is found in the territory of Nunavut. It is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is 195,928 square miles and its population, as of 2016 Canadian Census was 13,148.

The Inuktitut name for the island is Qikiqtaaluk, which means very big island (qikiqtaq means island and -aluk means very big). Norse explorers referred to it as Helluland which means stone land. In 1576, English seaman Martin Frobisher made landfall on the island, naming it Queen Elizabeth′s Foreland. Frobisher Bay is also named after him. The island is named after English explorer William Baffin, who, in 1616, came upon the island while trying to discover the Northwest Passage.

Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut and is located on the southeastern coast of Baffin Island (63.7399175, -68.5015277). Until 1987, the town was called Frobisher Bay, after the bay on which it is located, named for Martin Frobisher. However, that year the community voted to restore the Inuktitut name of their capital city.

To the south of Baffin Island is Hudson Strait, which separates Baffin Island from mainland Quebec. South of the western end of the island is the Fury and Hecla Strait, which separates the island from the Melville Peninsula on the mainland. To the southeast is Davis Strait and to the east is Baffin Bay, with Greenland beyond. The Foxe Basin, the Gulf of Boothia and Lancaster Sound separate Baffin Island from the rest of the Arctic Archipelago to the west and north.

The Baffin Mountains, part of the Arctic cordillera, rising along the northeastern coast of the island. The highest peak is Mount Odin, at 7,044 feet (2,147 m) and is located near the southeast end of the range (66.546944, -65.428889). Mount Asgard is located in Auyuittuq National Park, rises to 6,611 feet (2,015 m) and also found in the southeast area of the range (66.672222, -65.274444). Mount Thor, at 5,495 feet, also found in the Auyuittuq National Park (66.533333, -65.316667), has the claim of having the greatest sheer vertical cliff of any mountain on Earth, which is 4,100 feet.

The Barnes Ice Cap, located in central Baffin island covers close to 2300 square miles, contains the oldest ice in all of Canada, some of it being over 20,000 years old. It is a remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which covered much of Canada during the last glaciation period. Generator Lake is located at the southeastern end of the ice cap.

Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. Eclipse Sound to the southeast and Navy Board Inlet to the southwest separate it from Baffin Island. Parry Channel lies to its northwest. This island is 4,273 square miles in size, and measures 110 miles east to west and 68 miles north to south, which makes it one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic island, native Inuit from Pond Inlet and elsewhere regularly travel to Bylot Island. An Inuit seasonal hunting camp is located southwest of Cape Graham Moore.

Bylot island is protected by the Bylot Island migratory Bird Sanctuary and Sirmilik National Park, which national park extends across Eclipse Sound and includes the north part of Baffin Ilsand.

The mountains on Bylot island are the Byam Martin Mountains, which are part of the Baffin Mountains of the Arctic Cordillera. In addition to Angilaaq Mountain at 6401 feet, the highest on the island, Malik Mountain, Mount St. Hans, and Mount Thule are also notable.

On the west coast of Bylot island is Tay Bay which is a pristine shallow bay fed by melting glacers only a short distance inland. There are numerous glaciers which progress down from the ice caps, one of which connects with the waters of Baffin bay.

Vertical cliffs along the coastline are made up of Precambrian dolomite. The north shore of the island, facing Lancaster Sound, is a polar bear maternity den area. Beluga, bowhead whale, harp seal, narwhal, and ringed seal frequent the area.

The island is named for the Arctic explorer Robert Bylot, who was the first European to sight it in 1616. The whaling captain William Adams in 1872, was the first to prove the island to be of insular nature and not a peninsular of Baffin island.

Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name for Baffin Island and has been inhabited for several thousand years, first by the Dorset (who was one of the sons of Hazarmaveth), of whom were the ancestors of the Inuit, which people have lived on this island for possibly a thousand years.

In about 950 CE, Erik Thorvaldsson, also known as Erik the Red, was born in Norway. However, he left Norway as a child with his family when his father was exiled to Iceland. The family settled on the western part of Iceland where Greenland, about 175 miles to the west could easily be see. In 981 CE, Eric traveled across the Atlantic and later formed three settlements near the southwestern tip of this new land, naming it Greenland. Later in about 986 CE, Bjarni Herjólfsson, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was blown off course and sighted land southwest of Greenland and is believed to be the first European to see Baffin Island, and the first European to see North America beyond Greenland.

Around the year 1000 CE, some 15 years later, the now Norse Greenlanders, led by Leif Erikson, a son of Erik the Red, started exploring new areas. Baffin Island is thought to be Helluland, and the archaeological site at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island is thought to have been a trading post between the Norse and the native Inuit.

The Saga of Erik the Red, 1880 translation into English by J. Sephton from the original Icelandic Eiríks saga rauða: "They sailed away from land; then to the Vestribygd (western settlement) and to Bjarneyjar (the Bear Islands). Thence they sailed away from Bjarneyjar with northerly winds. They were out at sea two half-days. Then they came to land, and rowed along it in boats, and explored it, and found there flat stones, many and so great that two men might well lie on them stretched on their backs with heel to heel. Polar-foxes were there in abundance. This land they gave name to, and called it Helluland (stone-land)."

"Then they sailed with northerly winds two half-days, and there was then land before them, and on it a great forest and many wild beasts. An island lay in the south-east off the land, and they found bears thereon, and called the island Bjarney [Bear Island]; but the mainland, where the forest was, they called Markland [forest-land]. Then, when two half-days were passed, they saw land, and sailed under it. There was a cape to which they came. They cruised along the land, leaving it on the starboard side. There was a harbourless coast-land, and long sandy strands. They went to the land in boats, and found the keel of a ship, and called the place Kjalarnes [Keelness]. They gave also name to the strands, calling them Furdustrandir [wonder-shore], because it was tedious to sail by them. Then the coast became indented with creeks, and they directed their ships along the creeks."

Such an amazing story the above is!