stefansson-wrangel-09-25-007-002

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attitude towards every the vicissitudes of their adventurous isolation.

The party maintained two winter camps about twelve miles apart and visited
back and forth between them. The houses were comfortable, fuel was abundant,
and for the outdoors work every man was so well dressed that there is not a single
entry that winter showing any discomfort from cold.

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 hasd 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 temperatures ranging from-16° to -42°, the trip seems
to have been made in comfort, for that subject is not even mentioned.

In February the entire party lived together at one of the camps, but 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
occasional visitors, 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 s till cooking for them and could also do that
while traveling although it would be a nuisance. We are like Mr. Micawber,
waiting for something to turn up; and we are keeping a good lookout for bears".

There was a slight turn in the hunting luchk when on April 16th three bears
were seen and two of them secured. April 26th they saw a bear with a cub but
made the mistake of trying to get them it with dogs instead of by careful stalking.
Two or three fairly good hunting dogs will usually stop a bear on level ice, but