stefansson-wrangel-09-25-007-003

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not always. In rought 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. used. One of them soon came back wounded, though not
seriously; the other two chased the bear several hours and, although they were
able to delay it some, Crawford and Galle never caught up. They could doubtless
have shot the bear, but one does not fire at a great distance when bear and dogs
are almost in line and when each dog is worth ten times more than the bear.

April on Wrangell Island was stormy and snowy. Still, it was spring. On
the 28th the temperature rose to 40° F. in the shade, or eight degrees above
freezing. This would be about 60° in the sun. Parts of the land occasionally became bare through thawing but were
covered again by frequent snowfalls that are typical of an arctic April if you
are on a seacoast or on a small island.

On April 29th Galle went for a short trip inland from which he returned in
two days. "He camped the first night in the hills in a snowhouse after climbing
a peak 1950 feet high (by aneroid vbarometer). He was unable to see very far to
the north because of a ridge farther on. He then went to the other camp where
he found the tent slightly damaged by a bear which had made a hole in the roof
of the storm shed. In two different places he found where a female bear had
given birth to cubs. Saw a few bear and fox tracks, also several snow buntings."

About the middle of May the weather had become so persistently warm that the
winter camp was untenable any longer. It was leaking and the surroundings had
become boggy. On May 18th they pitched a tent about a hundred yards away and
moved to it. Such a camp as they had lived in is suitable only for extremely
cold weather. It was a relief to get into tents.

On May 25th, "shortly after breakfast a large bunch of geese flew up the
river bottom near our camp from the south and landerd on a bare spot. From this
time on the spring and summer were enlivened by great numbers of birds of various

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