Yol xxYr - The Arctic Circle

"Ferrlr Ccrmand". Indeed, 'War Belcrr Zelr.o", is the story of the
Army Air Forcesr battle for ttre vital Far }lcrtJ: East. A.E. Porsild
in performing his duties played an important role as internedia:12,
vlfiich dsnanded judgrnent, tact, and 1=rception, elements so necessa4r
in easing ttre jangle of tensions tlrat were an everyday occurrene
in tlrose troricled tines. Out of ttr-is period of senrice to Canada
carre a publication entitled Greenland at ttre Coo=.=rcr€, pr,rblished
in "Arctic", Journal of the , giving his
obsenations on Greenland and its future prospects.
A.E. Porsild and lris colleagues at thre National- Herbarir-un won
pulclic attention in ttre early days of World War If wLren incendiary
balloons @an arriving on the West Coast. Canadian and Arnerican
iltelligence wanted to krsr,.i where ttrey cane from. Attaclred to one
of the balloons was a fragnent of rzegetable rnatter vitrich wtren sent
to tlre Herbarir-rn was identified as of a plant fmn a restricted
habitat---it on-ly grew ir a certain portion of ttre Jatrxnese Islands.
Itris was a rernarkable piece of detection: vrhen, later, he was
honoured with tlre award of MBE for his \^,ork as a sleutJr, he fett
the distinction to be sorewtnt jarrirg to his serse of nodesty.
On his return to Canada frcm Lris mission to Greenland he was asked
by Dr. Ctrarles Camsell to W to Russia to attend the 22Oth Jubilee
lbeting of tl.e Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. Officially, te
was to go as a delegate of ttre Canadian Ceograplrical Society, of
wttidl he was a fellcnr. Dr. Camsell w:ished that he keep tlre interests
of tlre Departnent of Mines and Resources in rnind and to nrake r:seful
ontacts with Russian Scientific institutions. Follovsing the
neetings held at Mosccr^r and Leningrad, he was then to visit Finland
and Sueden to studlr nethods of forest nwragenent and a&ninistration
of natural resources.
The accor-u-rt of this "Journey Ttrror,rgh SiJoeria to luloscow" is a si>ctypage
docr-mentation by A.E. Porsild, now in the keeping of the
Natioral l{rseun of Carnda. Arpther version, r,rith ilh:strative
coloured photographs, has been published in the Canadian Geographical
Journal.
Thris is a splendid pieoe of nanrative writing describing tlre long
flight fr:om O'Etawa to lbscsrv. His fellcxrr delegates frcrn Canada
r^rere P:ofessor H.A. Innis, University of 1loronto, and Dr. Hans Selye
frcrn McGiIl Uniraersity.
the flight frcrn Fairbarjks was condr.rcted by tlre Soviet Air Force,
the jourtey interspersed with freqrent stogrovers in Siberian
settlenents. The reason I &^,e11 on this is that vitrile the author's
description of places and people are extrenely inforrnative and
interesting, they tend, a1so, to be nDSt revealing of the qr:ality
of rnind and ctraraster of the rairiter himself . He is nost discerning
2T