stefansson-wrangel-09-18-044-001

December 18, 1924.

Dear Mrs. Galle:

The delay in answering your letter of November 29th
is due to my absence on a long lecture tour in the western part of the
United States.

You ask if there is any chance that the boys could have
seen the Maud in straits between Wrangel Island and Sibe ia. I do not
happen to have seen the newspaper account to which you apparently refer.
There is no reason why any ship might not drift westward between Wrangel
Island and Siberia. However, the Maud carries a wireless and has been
sending out news from time to time. I feel certain if they had any inform-
ation about the boys it would have been sent out long ago.

However, I understand the Maud is on her way back to
civilization. I suppose she is frozen in somewhere on the north coast of
Siberia and will not get out until next summer. Meantime they are sure
to have heard from the Siberians about everything that has happened on
Wrangel Island. They will doubtless send out information by letter or
wireless before them come out themselves if they learn anything of
importance.

I note you say towards the end of your letter that the
ship is still drifting. I have been told that the last information is that
she steamed through open water from the New Siberian Islands to Bear Island
and is presumably somewhere in the vicinity of Bear Island now. That means
she will try to come out through Bering Straits next summer.

The book is now at last going to press and will doubt-
less be out in late January or February.

Mrs. Harry Galle,
New Braunfels, Texas.