stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-016

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Samara Cary at Dec 13, 2023 09:16 PM

stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-016

- 16 -

being three or four camps, each with one man, but I had suggested they
should start with two men in each of two camps and then change partners
occasionally. If that did not work, they would establish more camps. For
daily activity there was the hunting and the trapping of foxes. In the Arctic
an Eskimo who hunts and traps for a living ordinarily leaves his family in the
morning and returns to it at night. But the white trappers in the North
will have "a line of cabins", sometimes as many as seven or eight houses
ten to fifteen miles apart. If this is in the interior of some land, the
houses are arranged in a great circle; but if it is on a coast, they are
naturally in a line. The trapper leaves a cabin in the morning and sleeps
in the next one that night, reaching the third the next day, and so on. Each
cabin has a stove or fireplace and is equipped with a cooking outfit and
bedding. Since this is the method regularly/and safely
followed by many dozens of
experienced trappers, there is no reason why it should not be safe and practical
for explorers, and it is only people who have no experience of the country who
think that the risk involved is any important argument against it. To us who
do such things every day, the journeys between the cabins seem no more
dangerous than a taxi ride in the city.

What actually happened was that a trapping camp was estab-
lished about fifteen miles away from the main camp and occupied at first by
Crawford and Maurer, leaving Knight and Galle at the main base. Whenever one
or both of the men in either men wished, they could walk to the other, visit
on the way all the traps they had set, and watch as they went for polar bears.
The chance of getting bears at this season is not very great, however, for
although The noon twilight is ample for seeing dark objects at a distance of
several miles,but it is usually difficult to see bears which are white against
a white background. Still, if one is constantly 0n the watch he is likely
some time or other to meet a bear at close quarters.

stefansson-wrangel-09-25-006-016

- 16 -

being three or four camps, each with one man, but I had suggested they
should start with two men in each of two camps and then change partners
occasionally. If that did not work, they would establish more camps. For
daily activity there was the hunting and the trapping of foxes. In the Arctic
an Eskimo who hunts and traps for a living ordinarily leaves his family in the
morning and returns to it at night. But the white trappers in the North
will have "a line of cabins", sometimes as many as seven or eight houses
ten to fifteen miles apart. If this is in the interior of some land, the
houses are arranged in a great circle; but if it is on a coast, they are
naturally in a line. The trapper leaves a cabin in the morning and sleeps
in the next one that night, reaching the third the next day, and so on. Each
cabin has a stove or fireplace and is equipped with a cooking outfit and
bedding. Since this is the method regularly/and safely
followed by many dozens of
experienced trappers, there is no reason why it should not be safe and practical
for explorers, and it is only people who have no experience of the country who
think that the risk involved is any important argument against it. To us who
do such things every day, the journeys between the cabins seem no more
dangerous than a taxi ride in the city.

What actually happened was that a trapping camp was estab-
lished about fifteen miles away from the main camp and occupied at first by
Crawford and Maurer, leaving Knight and Galle at the main base. Whenever one
or both of the men in either men wished, they could walk to the other, visit
on the way all the traps they had set, and watch as they went for polar bears.
The chance of getting bears at this season is not very great, however, for
although The noon twilight is ample for seeing dark objects at a distance of
several miles,but it is usually difficult to see bears which are white against
a white background. Still, if one is constantly 0n the watch he is likely
some time or other to meet a bear at close quarters.