stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-026

- 26 -

Between February 26th and March 1st Maurer and Galle
made a trip twenty or twenty-five miles east along the coast to visit Rodger's
Harbor, the site of the main camp of the Karluk crew while they were on
Wrangell Island. The scene was familiar to Maurer and they found everything
as it had been left by our men in 1914 except for the inevitable effects of
wind and weather. They saw "a few fairly fresh bear tracks but no bears."
Although this was about the coldest week of the year, with the temperature
ranging between -16^o and -42^o, the trip seems to have been made in entire
comfort for that aspect is not even mentioned.

In March Crawford and Maurer again began to spend part of
the time at the trapping camp. A few foxes were caught and tracks of bears
were frequently seen, but bad luck in not seeing the bears themselves began
to be monotonous. Ravens were occasionally seen but there is no mention of
other birds in February or March.

March 22nd "Crawford and I would like to make a trip
around the island but the question is dog feed. I am still cooking for them
and could also cook for them while traveling although it would be a nuicance.
We are like Mr. Micawber, waiting for something to turn up, and we are keep-
ing a good lookout for bears."

There was a slight turn in the hunting luck when on April
16th three bears were seen and two of them secured, an old one and a cub.
April 26th they saw another bear with a cub but made the misatke of trying to
get them with dogs instead of by careful stalking. Two or three fairly good
hunting dogs will usually stop a bear on level ice but not always. In rough
ice the rule is that the bear cannot be stopped by dogs and the danger is also
correspondingly greater to the dogs. In this case three dogs were sent after
the bear. One of them soon came back wounded, though not seriously; the other