stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-032

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- 32 -

I have been in northern islands of varying size, some the same latitude as
Wrangell and others five hundred miles farther north, and in these it has been
the rule, as it generally is in the western hemisphere, that June is warmer
than May and July warmer still. But the Wrangell summer of 1922, the latter
part of May was the warmest period of the summer. There were frequent snow
squalls in June and even in July with the temperature seldom more than ten
degrees above freezing and going down below freezing at night not infrequently.
Certainly the season must have been very different from that of 1921, for
when the party landed that year they saw only a little snow on the highest
of the distant mountains, but in 1922 there was snow continually visible on
the ridges inland and most of these ridges seem to have been constantly covered.

During the summer the party devoted most of its time to
hunting seals, geese and ducks, but they also made several exploratory jour-
neys. On June 28th, for instance, “Crawford with one dog to pack his
blankets started west this evening to look for a pass through the mountains.
I went a short way with him and saw several seals to the west on the ice."
Evidently Knight was leaving Crawford to tell the story of this trip in his
own diary, for the only further mention of this inland reconnaissance is under
head of July 3rd: "Maurer got one seal and killed another which slid into
its hole. I took a walk to the west and met Crawford coming home. Galle
spent the day on the ice and, although he saw several seals, he did not get
a shot. While duck hunting at the mouth of the river near camp I killed
another seal in the water with the shotgun, which immediately sank."

At this time the hunting was going very well. On July 4th
"Maurer got three seals. Galle killed five seals, three of which he secured,
total six seals. .....As a sealing place this is getting better all the
time."

Between July 7th and 12th Knight made a trip east along the

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