Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Quebec and Resolution Island off Baffin Island. The strait is about 450 mi (720 km) long. Its width varies from 150 mi (240 km) at its largest point, to a minimum of 40 mi (64 km).
Hudson Strait was discovered by the British explorer Henry Hudson in 1609 on board the British ship Discovery. Hudson Strait links the northern seaports of Manitoba and Ontario with the Atlantic Ocean. It could be an eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage were it not for ice in the Fury and Hecla Strait south of western Baffin Island. However, with the advent of Global Warming, and the continued melting of the Arctic ice cap, the Northwest Passage appears to be destined to become an important trade route between the Atlantic Ocean, Alaska, and northern Russia.
Read more about Hudson Strait: Extent
Famous quotes containing the words hudson and/or strait:
“He hung out of the window a long while looking up and down the street. The world’s second metropolis. In the brick houses and the dingy lamplight and the voices of a group of boys kidding and quarreling on the steps of a house opposite, in the regular firm tread of a policeman, he felt a marching like soldiers, like a sidewheeler going up the Hudson under the Palisades, like an election parade, through long streets towards something tall white full of colonnades and stately. Metropolis.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“We approached the Indian Island through the narrow strait called “Cook.” He said, “I ‘xpect we take in some water there, river so high,—never see it so high at this season. Very rough water there, but short; swamp steamboat once. Don’t paddle till I tell you, then you paddle right along.” It was a very short rapid. When we were in the midst of it he shouted “paddle,” and we shot through without taking in a drop.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)