stefansson-wrangel-09-15-044-002

-2-

glad to get them safely on the boat. Best wishes.

February 8th.

Dear V.S.

I have just come up from Ada's cabin where I have been
sitting and talking to her for an hour or more. She is still feeling ill.
She was on deck an hour or two, but went down again and stayed in bed as she
seems to feel better there. She spoke a little of Wrangell. Maurer, she
said, "Was a good rustler - the best shot, all the boys said." Galle and
Crawford, too, got each a polar bear. Knight and Galle were talking about
coming back next year as partners and trapping.

She said each of the three seals she shot had their heads
shot away - "you must shoot their heads," she told me, or they'll fall into the
water.

Noice had not written her. She seemed a little put out
about it. She talks quite a lot about Nome and living in Nome - sometimes
about Wrangell, I don't press her much about that - thinking there is time to
get the story gradually, and as I do not know what is in the paper she dictated
I feel that it is best to let her come to it naturally. I tell her about you
from time to time. She seems to think it is nice for you to give her the trip.
She seems also worried about money matters - I think she has very little in
Seattle bank and she doesn't seem to be sure what she has in Nome. She just
told me Noice sold her fox skins in Nome (I think). I asked if the money was
in the bank and she said Noice told her so.

She is a curious mixture, frugal in some ways - a supreme
confidence in what anyone tells her about money - she ddoesn't want to spend
much or carry anything with her, which I told her was right, to keep her money
in the bank. Bennett told me the money you gave him was gone - then he added
"it is in the bank."