stefansson-wrangel-09-30-007-016

16

As with the ducks, in May and August beluga whales were seen going
toward the northeast and returning to the southwest. The seal and the
polar bear, of course, were always present, the seals in undiminishing
numbers. The polar bears, however, seemed to get fewer in the latter
part of the summer. When returning to shore I found a reason for this,
as we met with numbers of them. At the time of the freeze-up they evi-
dently came south to hunt on the large expanses of young ice near shore.
From my observations it has been proved that the sea, in the latitudes
where we drifted through the summer, teems with life of many different
species. With my own eyes I have seen different kinds of fish both in
the water and in the stomachs of seals which we had caught. Amphipods
and a species of jellyfish commonly known as "whale feed” seemed abundant
in the water and also were found in the stomachs of the seals. From
what I have seen of conditions in that part of the Arctic Ocean, I know
that there is no scarcity of food for the seal, the whale or the polar
bear and so, of course, no scarcity of food for man.

THE LEGEND OF THE WESTERN CURRENT

When I made up my mind to drift instead of going to Prince Patrick
Island it was because I believed in the existence of a westward current
in the Beaufort Sea which might prevent me from getting there. I had
studied all the obtainable data on the subject and it pointed to the
existence of a current in a westward direction. Our task now was to
prove or disprove this current. We really expected to be carried into
the area north of Siberia. We had fond hopes even, if the drift were
fast swift enough, of landing on the New Siberian Islands or the Franz Josef
Islands.

Once can therefore, can can easily imagine how disappointed we were to find
that for three months, from April 14 to July 13, we drifted steadily