northernmost part of the sea passage connecting Baffin Bay, an inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, with the Lincoln Sea, a portion of the Arctic Ocean, to the north. The channel is 11–18 miles (18–29 km) wide between Ellesmere Island, Can. (west), and northwest Greenland (east); and it extends northward for 50 miles (80 km) from the Hall (Hall, Charles Francis) Basin to the Lincoln Sea. For brief periods during the summer the channel is open to navigation. In 1871 favourable ice conditions enabled the American explorer Charles F. Hall to navigate to latitude 82°11′ N, longitude 61° W, then the farthest northern point reached by a vessel. Many other expeditions using the Robeson Channel followed.