stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-040

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there." That was a good plan but like the good plan of camping on the north
side of the island made the previous winter, it was not carried out and the diary
does not tell us why not. But the inference read between the lines continues
to be that it was a precaution recognized as wise but not considered press-
ingly necessary since other easier ways of getting game would probably
develop.

On October 7th Crawford killed a seal and there were a few
secured later. Bears were not entirely absent, for tracks were occasionally
seen. Ducks continued to be secured by the hunters as late as the middle of
October. We have no complete record of how many were secured during the
summer but there must have been a good many hundred ducks and geese.

October 12th Knight says, "We have been living for some
time on walrus skin and a feed of seal meat would be most welcome, but it seems
not to be." Boiled walrus hide is considered by the Eskimos a great delicacy -
generally much preferred to the meat. Those of us who live in the North by
hunting usually come to have tastes agreeing with those of the Eskimos, and
that was evidently the way with Knight and the rest, for in another entry we
read, "For the last week or so we have bean eating the flippers and skin of
the two walrus killed some time ago, and mighty good eating it is, too."
Evidently both the walrus and the seal meat were preferred to ducks, for they
are complaining about not having seal meat at a time when they were securing
ducks.

On October 14th hunting conditions seemed to be improving
a little. One seal was killed and there were the fresh tracks of two bears.
Occasional tracks were seen later but the hunting luck continued bad. October
20th: "Early this morning the dogs set up a howl and Crawford and I rushed
out. A bear was running rapidly offshore about two hundred yards away. The
lead had opened during the night so that the bear would undoubtedly swim it, and