[14] The Foxe Basin,[19] the Gulf of Boothia[20] and Lancaster Sound[21] separate Baffin Island from the rest of the Arctic Archipelago to the west and north.

[33]In September 2008, the Nunatsiaq News, a weekly newspaper, reported that Patricia Sutherland, who worked at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, had found archaeological remains of yarn and cordage [string], rat droppings, tally sticks, a carved wooden Dorset culture face mask depicting Caucasian features, and possible architectural remains, which indicated that European traders and possibly settlers had been on Baffin Island not later than 1000 CE.

So, as Sutherland said, if you believe that spinning was not an indigenous technique that was used in Arctic North America, then you have to consider the possibility that as "remote as it may seem," these finds may represent evidence of contact with Europeans prior to the Vikings' arrival in Greenland.

[8]Sutherland's research eventually led to a 2012 announcement that whetstones had been found with remnants of alloys indicative of Viking presence.

"[29] ...the date received on Sample 4440b from Nanook clearly indicates that sinew was being spun and plied at least as early, if not earlier, than yarn at this site.

We feel that the most parsimonious explanation of this data is that the practice of spinning hair and wool into plied yarn most likely developed naturally within this context of complex, indigenous, Arctic fiber technologies, and not through contact with European textile producers.

[...] Our investigations indicate that Paleoeskimo (Dorset) communities on Baffin Island spun threads from the hair and also from the sinews of native terrestrial grazing animals, most likely musk ox and arctic hare, throughout the Middle Dorset period and for at least a millennium before there is any reasonable evidence of European activity in the islands of the North Atlantic or in the North American Arctic.A long-running debate disputes whether the Vikings taught indigenous peoples in the Canadian Arctic how to spin yarn when the invaders arrived in the region around 1,000 years ago.

The team found that some of the spun yarn dates back at least 2,000 years, long before the Vikings arrived in the area.

This shows that the indigenous peoples in the Canadian Arctic developed yarn-spinning technologies without any help from the Vikings, the scientists said.William W. Fitzhugh, director of the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian Institution, and a senior scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, wrote that there is insufficient published evidence to support Sutherland's claims, and that the Dorset were using spun cordage by the 6th century.

[40] In 1992, Elizabeth Wayland Barber wrote that a piece of three-ply yarn that dates to the Paleolithic era, that ended about 10,000 BP, was found at the Lascaux caves in France.

Kinngait is situated on Dorset Island, which is located a few kilometres from the south eastern tip of the Foxe Peninsula.

It is 1,079 km2 (417 sq mi) and is classified as Category IV (Habitat/Species Management Area) under the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In the winter, lemmings dig complicated tunnel systems through the snow drifts to get to their food supply of dry grasses and lichens.

Female polar bears may travel 10–20 km (6.2–12.4 mi) inland to find a large snow bank where they dig a den in which to spend the winter and later give birth.

[72] Red foxes can be found predominantly in the southernmost areas of Baffin Island, away from the harshest of winter weather, though some individuals may forage and explore elsewhere.

The Arctic foxes can usually be found where polar bears venture on the fast ice close to land in their search for seals.

They also are known to take ground-nesting birds and their eggs and chicks, such as ducks, geese, ptarmigan, seagulls, shorebirds and even snowy owls, on occasion.

On Baffin Island, Arctic foxes are sometimes trapped by Inuit, but there is no longer a robust fur industry.

Baffin Island is one of the major nesting destinations from the Eastern and Mid-West flyways for many species of migrating birds.

In summer, some ringed seals keep to a narrow territory about 3 km (1.9 mi) along the shoreline but may move out into the open water.

They migrate in large pods consisting of a hundred or more seals to within 1–8 km (0.62–4.97 mi) of the shoreline, which they then follow, feeding on crustaceans and fish.

Narwhals, which are known for the males' long, spiralling single tusk, can also be found along the coast of Baffin Island in the summer.

Found throughout the Arctic range, one group of bowhead whales is known to migrate to the Foxe Basin, a bay on the western side of Baffin Island.

Baffin Island lies in the path of a generally northerly airflow all year round, so, like much of northeastern Canada, it has an extremely cold climate.

This brings very long, cold winters and foggy, cloudy summers, which have helped to add to the remoteness of the island.

Spring thaw arrives much later than normal for a position straddling the Arctic Circle: around early June at Iqaluit in the south-east but around early- to mid-July on the north coast where glaciers run right down to sea level.

[81] Sea ice surrounds the island for most of the year and only disappears completely from the north coast for short, unpredictable periods from mid- to late June until the end of September.

[82] Most of Baffin Island lies north of the Arctic Circle—all communities from Pangnirtung northwards have polar night in winter and midnight sun in summer.