stefansson-wrangel-09-25-004-015

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The next morning Kurraluk, McKinley, Mamen and I went
back for bear meat while the rest wore double-trlpping stuff towards the
beach. We got ashore in Wrangell March 12th, having had a fairly good road
the forty miles from the ridge. There was plenty of driftwood on the beach,
which was a bgodsend to us.

The next morning the Captain sent one of the Eskimos and
me out to look for the Mate’s and the Doctor’s parties but no sled tracks or
other signs were to be found anywhere on Wrangell Island. Big fires were
made with wet driftwood to cause smoke which they could see a long way if
they were there to see it. The Captain and one of the natives started
March 18th with fifty days’ rations for the men and thirty days’ for the
dogs, Me learned later they had a fairly easy trip, reaching natives and
traders in Siberia thirteen days after they left Wrangell Island.

Shortly after the Captain left, Mamen, Malloch and the
steward went to Rodgers Harbor to live through the summer. The native went
along to help them. About the end of March the native returned. On the
way back he killed a female bear and two cubs.
The next week the Eskimohe and I got two more bears and a
small cub.

As there did not seem to be much game near the shore, the
Eskimo and I went out to the edge of the landfast ice, forty miles from the
coast, and made camp. Next morning bright and early we went out to the
open water about three miles beyond the ridge and got five seals. For
two or three days after that the sealing conditions were bad, so the native
decided to go ashore with two seals and bring back a load of driftwood to
burn. He took the sled we had come with and two dogs, leaving one with me
to give me warning in case of the arrival of a bear. He intended to be back
in four days.