stefansson-wrangel-09-25-008-008

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- 8 -

(Stefansson) and to carry out the plans as formulated before the party
sailed north.

A number of seals and polar bears were secured during the
autumn. Two walrus had been killed earlier, but some of the meat had been lost
accidentally - about a thousand pounds, or perhaps half, was saved. The diary
shows that while the hunt was not being neglected, neither was it being
stressed. An example is that on the exploratory journeys where Knight had
accompanied me in earlier years, at least one man always stood watch outside
while the others slept so that bears that came in the night should not
escape. This precaution was never taken by the Wrangell party. There are
dozens of entries showing that bears came in the night and escaped because no
one was watching. It must be remembered here that for five months of the
year the "night" has daylight, and that many of the winter nights have
moonlight bright enough to see a polar bear at half a mile. Not once in
two years of this frankest of diaries do we find even an entry to the effect
that "we ought to stand night watch to get more bears." This was not
"laziness" (as newspaper commentators have charged), for the energy of the
party in other directions disproves that; it was not incompetence (as also
charged), for the routine of "standing watch and watch" is simplicity itself
and Knight had been under it for years on my 1913-18 expedition. The explanation
is that we use this method only when we fear scarcity of food, and the
Wrangell party had no such fears.

On November 1st Knight writes: "There is considerable
clothing to be made for Crawford and me if we go . . . Crawford and I have
just about made up our minds to make the trip, and the time of starting
depends on several things - ice conditions, dog feed, weather, etc., but we
are hoping to get started about . We think that if the
weather is good and going on the ice not too bad, Nome should be reached in

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