The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1961, Blaðsíða 25

23
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
by D. M. LeBOCRDAIS
For half a century, Vilhjalmur Ste-
fansson, now eighty years of age, has
been the outstanding exponent of the
significance, not only for Canada but
for the world, of the Far North. Ex-
cept for two short periods when he was
organizing further expeditions, his
whole time between 1906 and 1918
was spent gaining valuable knowledge
of Eskimo life and exploring the
practically unknown northern regions
of Canada.
He was the organizer and com-
mander of the Canadian Arctic
Expedition, 1913-1918, which in many
ways was the most important ever to
explore the Arctic. His account of that
expedition, The Friendly Arctic, pub-
lished in 1921, has become an Arctic
classic. In 1915 and 1916, he discover-
ed islands in the Perry Group (now
known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands),
with an area of approximately 4,358
square miles, marking the final phase
of an era that had begun with
Frobisher, Davis and Baffin,
This rounding-out of Can-
ada’s areal limits was an event
of historical import, yet (ex-
cept for an R.C.M.P. patrol
in 1929), no Canadian was to
set foot on any of these is-
lands until 1958, when Ray-
mond Thorsteinsson and E.
T. Tozer of the Geological
Survey of Canada carried out
a reconnaissance survey and
found that they form part
of a sedimentary basin hav-
ing excellent oil and gas pos-
sibilities-
A1 though Stefansson was
born in Canada (Girnli, Mani-
toba, November 3, 1879), a
circumstance of which he has
always been proud, his be-
coming an Arctic explorer
was an accident. In the course
of post-graduate work at Har-
vard he had been preparing
to join a British anthropo-
logical expedition in Africa
Stefansson and his wife at Dartmouth College, reading
congratulatory messages on his eightieth birthday