stefansson-wrangel-09-30-004-015

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not. Likely enough this is one of the subjects which was frequently
talked about but never got mentioned in any diary that is preserved
to us.

But what they probably had more in their minds than the
exploration of an unknown area to the north was the definite report
by Hadley, McKinlay and others who said that they had seen a large
new land to the northeast of Wrangell Island and had watched it from
Waring Point during the summer of 1914 while the snow gradually
disappeared from the slopes under the influence of the sun*. Maurer
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*The testimony of Hadley and McKinlay on this subject along with
McKinlay’s drawings of the land seen, was published in the Geograph-
ical Review of the American Geographical Society, ,1920.
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had not seen this land, for he had been at Rodger’s Harbor at the
time but he had heard all about it from the party who were at Waring
Point. Likely enough Galle may have feared that they were going to
steal a march on him, leaving him behind on the island while they
distinguished themselves by the discovery and exploration of a new
land.

We infer from the underscoring that Galle was especially
puzzled by Knight’s telling him that he wished he did not have to go
on this journey but that he had to. We can think of two reasons for
Knight’s saying that. It may have been that he felt he would rather
not leave the island but that he would have to be a member of any
party that left because of his greater experience in traveling
over moving ice. Or it may be that Knight had in mind the illness
of which he could already then feel the symptoms. That confirms
what Ada Blackjack has said about his having been frequently ill