Cape Wolstenholme
| Cape Wolstenholme | |
| Peninsula | |
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Province | Quebec |
| Region | Nunavik |
| Coordinates | 62°34′55″N 77°30′30″W / 62.58194°N 77.50833°WCoordinates: 62°34′55″N 77°30′30″W / 62.58194°N 77.50833°W |
| Height | 300 m (984 ft) |
 Location of Cape Wolstenholme (4) and Erik Cove (6). Click on image for full legend.
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Cape Wolstenholme (Inuit: Anaulirvik) is the extreme northernmost point of the Canadian province of Quebec. Located on the Hudson Strait, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) north-east of Quebec's northernmost settlement of Ivujivik, it is also the northernmost tip of the Ungava Peninsula, which is in turn the northernmost part of the Labrador Peninsula.
Its 300 metres (980 ft) high rocky cliffs dominate the surroundings and mark the entrance to the Digges Sound. Here the strong currents from Hudson Bay and the Hudson Strait clash, sometimes even crushing trapped animals between the ice floes.
The cape is the nesting place of one of the world's largest colonies of thick-billed murre.
A 1,263 square kilometres (488 sq mi) area alongside the Hudson Strait and including the cape itself is being considered for becoming a park. It currently is a national park reserve, which is a temporary status until the territory obtains legal status.
On Henry Hudson's last mission in 1610, he mapped the coast and named the cape "Wolstenholme" to honour Sir John Wolstenholme (1562-1639), an English merchant who sponsored the expedition and was interested in finding the Northwest Passage. Shortly after, mutineers from Hudson's expedition clashed with local Inuit on nearby Digges Islands, the second recorded encounter between Europeans and Inuit. (The first was in 1606 when the expedition of John Knight came under attack on the coast of northern Labrador. Knight and three others from the crew of the Hopedale disappeared after going ashore in a boat. The remaining eight crew members waited for Knight and his party, but the following day came under attack by a large number of hostile natives. They managed to drive off the natives and eventually found their way to the safety of open water off the coast.) In 1697, Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his crew, in search of commercial opportunities in Hudson Bay, conducted the first commercial trades with Inuit at Cape Wolstenholme.
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