The new bones, which form the current 19ft (5.8m) arch, are from a bowhead whale which was killed legally by native Inuits in 1996.

The country's largest aboriginal land claim settlement was agreed on Dec. 16 by the federal government of Canada and representatives of the native Inuit.

While Franklin and McClure attempted to explore the passage by sea, Rae explored by land, using dog sleds and employing techniques he learned from the native Inuit.

However, Nunavut has a large net loss from migration, due to many native Inuit leaving the territory for better economic opportunity elsewhere.

It is so common among the native Inuit who dominate the local population that grandfathers are known to light up with their grandchildren during breaks from hunting.

The total length of the river is about 377 kilometres, but there are several main channels in the upper reaches of the river, most of them unnamed and hardly sighted even by the native Inuit.

While he mapped and botanized, he also collected the folklore of the native Inuit.

There he married a native Inuit and took on their customs and way of living, in the process he became a quite skilled hunter, dog sledge driver and observer.

He spent three winters in the Arctic, learning from the native Inuit much about polar clothing, travel and dog-handling that would later prove invaluable.

Indians and native Inuit, all anxious for their share of the wealth, flocked to the cities, abandoning their homelands and customs.