Melville Bay

Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay.

Its Kalaallisut name, Qimusseriarsuaq, means "the great dog sledding place".

[1] The bay was named after Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, (1771 - 1851) head of the Admiralty.

Melville Bay is delimited by Cape York in the northeast and Wilcox Head, the western promontory on Kiatassuaq Island in the south.

Melville Bay is free of fast ice between mid August and the end of September on average.

An Inuit hunting boat in southern Melville Bay. Late morning fog and icebergs in the background.
Aerial view of Wilcox Head
View of two ships in Melville Bay by Edward Augustus Inglefield .
1869 photograph of a steamer and a party of hunters in Melville Bay.