Melville Bay

Melville Bay is a large bay on the coast of northwestern Greenland, north of the Upernavik Archipelago and opening into Baffin Bay. Known in Greenlandic as Qimusseriarsuaq, meaning “the great dog sledding place,” it reflects the long importance of over-ice travel in this remote Arctic region. Its English name honors Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, a head of the Admiralty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Bounded by Cape York and Wilcox Head, and including parts of the Upernavik Archipelago, the bay is marked by severe seasonal ice, year-round icebergs, and a 19th-century role as an important whaling ground.