Return Islands

Return Islands in Detail.

extend 13 mi., on Beaufort Sea coast, NE of Gwydyr Bay, Arctic Plain.

The original name "Return Reef" was applied to a single sand island NE of Gwydyr Bay, by Franklin (1828, p. 166), Royal Navy (RN), on August 18, 1826, "we quitted Return Reef* * * and began to retrace our way towards the Mackenzie." Leffingwell (1919, p. 89) wrote, "The local usage, starting with the later explorers, has been to apply the term Return Reef to the chain of sand islands * * *. The term Return Islands has been adopted for this chain on the writer's map." John Kelly's Eskimo vocabulary, 1885-89, lists the Eskimo name "Oo-lik-to-me," meaning "at Oliktok." See Oliktok Point.