stefansson-wrangel-09-30-004-016

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after his hard journey across Skele ton River when he had to swim
on his way back. But that interpretation is opposed by Knight’s
on own frequent statements that when he knew he had scurvy he knew also
that the scurvy could he cured with raw meat. He would thus have
no reason for leaving the island in search of a medicine for that
disease. Knight himself tells us in his diary that he felt the s
scurvy symptoms in November and discussed them with Crawford at the
time. Perhaps that may be a slip of memory on Knight’s part and
that he really felt the\illness already in September.

When everything in Milton Galle’s fragmentary notes has
been deciphered, interpreted and pondered over, we are left with
an intensified feeling of what a pity it is that he did not leave
behind on Wrangell Island at least one of his two apparently almost
duplicate diaries, and what a pity it is that Crawford and Maurer
left nothing. Still, we\may well be glad that this was so. It is
only our curiosity that is balked, and we have for recompense the
knowledge, made clearer than it could be through a mere inference
from an understanding of arctic conditions, that none of the party
were obsessed with any fear that serious accident or death would
meet them between Wrangell Island and Nome. Had the danger been
even seriously considered, certainly duplicates would have been
left behind. Had the danger been thought great, the members would
have left all their most valued records behind, both for the safety
of the information and to lighten their loads, for in a desperate
situation every pound of burden may count. As we have said elsewhere,
death must have come with the suddenness of a railway wreck or a
shipwreck and not anticipated except as we all anticipate dangers
whenever and however we travel by land or sea.