Yol xxYr - The Arctic Circle

of the Porsild hcne, helped il ttre tr:toring of the dtildren. It
was second nature for tLre boys to acguire the use of the native
tongue, to reacLr proficiency in skills practiced by the Green-
Landers: to be resourceful and self-re1iant. Thris nmst have been
a period of happlz boYhood.
Those vitro krew Er1ing Porsild as a friend saw in him a man of matny
talents. Tlrere was adniration for him as a person; he becane knorrn
internaLionally as a rntu::alist; he was a gifLed lingnrist; a
traveller of renown, a scholarly scientist. It is given to very
fer^r writers not raised in our langruage to attain the rmsteqz of
Enqlish prose that is eviderced in the writings that flcnnted from
lr-is pen. The "bare bone statistics" list an inpressive nunber of
pr:blications pertainirq to tlre flora and fauna of Canada.
Dr. Porsildrs nane is inmutably associated wittr the Western Arctic
both in ttre field of oploration and the classification of ttre
northern flora; the genesis of vfrrich had its beginning in the 192O's
rarlren he was enployed by the Departrnent of the Tnterior to undertake
a suryey of potential reindeer range in the tr:u:dra and treeline
area of ttre Norttr West Territories.
Ttren began the Reindeer Saga, vfiich, in essence, made the Porsild
brothers scnettring of a legend in tlreir own lifetjJre to tlre people
of the lbrth. For a period of ttrree years the Porsilds, trarae[ing
by dogteam, on foot, or by canoe, traversed the shoreline of the
Beaufort Sea and the adjacent countqz from Ncne to the Irhckenzie
River. Ttrey spent an entire season circunnavigating Great Bear Lake.
These are enor:rrpus distances spent in collecting botanical specinens
and v^rriting official reports.
The Dcminion Governnent acted on this sur:\zey by the pr:rchase of
reindeer frqn herds in Alaska, and Taplanders were engaged to deliver
the animals to a selected area lying innediately east of ttre delta
of the Madcenzie Riirer. A.E. Porsild stayed with tlre reindeer
project until 1937 vrtren he was appointed Dcrninion Botanist at
Ottawa. !'ihen he left the reindeer station wh-ich he, personally, had
built, ttre reindeer project was a Eoing @ncern.
For the folloiring thirty yea-rs u'rtil his retirsnent in 1967, the
name Porsild was swpnlntcus with tlre National Herbarir-un. Hor,lever,
ttrere was an interim war:tiJre senrice as Canadian Consul in Greenland.
lhis diplcrnatic assigrrrent was a period of high interest to
him, and Canada was fortunate in tr,aving sucLr a well qr:alified
representatj-ve to the Danish Goverrunent in tlpse critical war years.
Many will recalI the dangerous, yet essential, oploits of tLre
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