The upper reach of a river first discovered in 1868 was named Rivière La Roncière-le Noury in honour of Admiral Baron Adalbert Camille Marie Clément de La Roncière-Le Noury, commander of the Mediterranean Squadron, and president of the Société de Géographie.

[4][5] It initially flows west-southwest, passing into the Northwest Territories along the southern edge of the Melville Hills within the Settlement Region of the Inuvialuit,[6] just south of the Tuktut Nogait National Park boundary.

The river empties into Amundsen Gulf's Darnley Bay, 14 kilometres (9 mi) east of the Inuit hamlet of Paulatuk.

Flora along the river is characterized by typical tundra vegetation such as sedge and lupine meadows, and some willow patches along the lower Hornaday.

[11] The Rivière La Roncière-le Noury was discovered in 1868 by Émile Petitot, a French Missionary Oblate and a notable Canadian northwest cartographer, ethnologist, and geographer.

[12] However, in the same year, his accounts and maps were published in Paris, where he was awarded a silver medal by the Société de Géographie.

[3] It was not until 1949 that aerial photography by the Royal Canadian Air Force produced a Topographical Survey showing the 190-kilometre (120 mi) Hornaday.

[3] But the photographs were not used to create Canada's 1952 Geographical Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys map as, again, the Hornaday is charted as a short stream.

[16] J. Keith Fraser of the Geographical Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys ascertained that the Roncière did in fact exist; it was now known as the Hornaday.

They include markers, rock alignments, hearths, hunting blinds, meat-drying areas, and artifacts, such as komatik parts.