stefansson-wrangel-09-25-004-022

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-22-

sick people might have been still living at that time to hold them back.

Hadley considered that the entire party from the Karluk
could have "had a picnic" on Wrangell Island for one or several years if the
following things had been done; The big Eskimo walrus hunting boat (umiak)
which had been placed on board the Karluk for such an emergency, should have
been brought ashore after the shipwreck. Doing this would have necessitated
throwing away perhaps a thousand pounds of provisions and petroleum. This
Hadley considered would have been of no consequence, for the petroleum was
unnecessary in any case as there was abundant driftwood for fuel on Wrangell
Island, and the food thrown away would have been negligible because unlimited
quantities of walrus meat and fat could have been secured with the skin-boat.
The hunting, or at least the use of ammunition, should have been confined
to only a few of the party who either knew already how to use rifles or
showed themselves capable of learning quickly. But as a matter of fact,
thousands of rounds of ammunition were fired off by anyone who wanted to,
the target in many cases being distant birds on the wing.

It has been the rule on all exploratory journeys of my
various expeditions when we have been living entirely by hunting that no
shot was ever fired at an animal smaller than a wolf. Thus we have been able
to maintain for more than ten years an average of over a hundred pounds of
meat (live weight) for every bullet fired. Hadley thought this average could
have been excelled at Wrangell Island if a skin-boat had been available and
if the shooting had been restricted to a few of the most capable men.

To the reader unfamiliar with polar conditions and even
to those polar explorers who are used to living on provisions brought from
home, the story of the Karluk party on Wrangell Island seems one of
unrelieved and inevitable tragedy. Out of twenty-five persons involved
eight lives had been lost during the sixty-mile journey from the shipwreck

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