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tried to come or not. They discussed what they would do if no ship came and decided as early as the spring of 1922 (as we know from Crawford's letter to me) that in such case two of them would remain on the island while two crossed over to Siberia and Alaska to telegraph me their report from Nome and to ask for instructions as to the further maintenance of the colony on Wrangell Island.

After the sporadic thaws of April and the steadier warmth of May, summer came slowly. In 1921 Knight had been surprised at the monotony of sunshine and warmth; now he was equally impressed with the continued fogs and the snow flurries that were more frequent during the summer than they had been in 1917 when he had spent June to September four hundred miles farther north than Wrangell.

Compared with 1921 bears were scarce in 1922. Still, there was seldom a week without one or more being seen, and several were secured. The sealing, on the whole, was good. As noted above, Maurer who applied himself steadily to the hunt, got twenty-six. That the others were not equally productive was apparently because they were more occupied with exploration and reconnaissance work. They no longer refrained from trying to secure any big animals that came around, but there is no sign in Knight's diary that they were worried about food for the winter and putting special stress on the hunting for that reason.

When planning the expedition in 1921, we had agreed that during its second winter (1922-23) the party on Wrangell were to decide whether they would all remain there in the expectation of a ship the summer 1923 or whether two would remain while the other two crossed by sledge to Siberia and Nome to telegraph their report to me and ask for instructions - we had been confident that by then the Canadian Government would have taken the enterprise off our hands.

On September 18, 1922, Knight writes: "All hands have

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about given up hopes for a ship this year, "and there follows logically the entry for September 22: "Crawford and I are starting to figure on a trip across the ice to Siberia next spring and thence to the nearest wireless station, very likely Nome, but possibly Anadyr Bay south of East Cape. We have only five dogs, but good ones; and a rather rickety sled which I intend to overhaul as soon as we move to our new winter camp. We will have another opportunity to demonstrate 'living off the country" which has never failed yet as far as the Stefansson expeditions are concerned."

The same situation is stated in a letter addressed to me by Allan Crawford, which is the only other record of the same plan that has been saved from the general tragic destruction. Crawford's letter is dated January 7, 1923: "My decision to leave here (Wrangell Island) was made last year with advice of Knight and on consideration of orders received from you (Stefansson) and the desirability of giving you news. In fact, as early as last spring (1922) I considered it." This means that the plan had been in the minds if not on the lips of the party four or five months before Knight recorded it in his diary, and therefore eight or nine months before it was carried out. Indeed, (as said above), the plan had really been formed by us before they sailed in 1921.

Perhaps the most fundamentally misleading of all the many newspaper misstatements pretending to be based on the records of the expedition, is the one to the effect that the journey on which Crawford, Galle and Maurer were lost was from Wrangell to Siberia, planned and undertaken on the spur of the moment to secure food or help; on the contrary, every reference to it in Knight's diary says that the journey was to be from Wrangell to Nome, Alaska, via Siberia for the purpose of sending out a report to me

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(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 January 15th, 1923. 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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sixty or seventy days, for we have about made up our minds to go to Nome instead of Anadyr Bay. We have thought that Stefansson might be wintering on the mainland south of us, and I think that if he is we will see him (that he will arrive at Wrangell) by January 1st. If he should not come till later, we will have to take a chance and go, for very likely if he is wintering on the mainland we will hear of him and his ship and will go there. If one can go by hunches, my hunch tells me that Stefansson did not come north this summer and that we are doing the right thing in making the trip."

The entries during the latter half of November and early December are generally repetitions of three items. Trapping was going on energetically and a fox was caught every now and then; bear tracks were occasionally seen but no bears were secured; the seamstress was “busy making skin clothing for Crawford and me” for the proposed trip to Nome.

To those familiar with the "inside stories" of many polar expeditions, a remarkable and creditable thing is that in a diary obviously frank, even to a fault, there are no disagreements or recriminations unless those words be applied to three or four entries during the first few weeks of the expedition. In the account of the voyage from Nome to Wrangell Knight mentions that Galle was not doing his full share of the work, but later he explains that this was because of seasickness. A few days after landing (September 25, 1921) we are told, "there seems to be some friction between Maurer and Galle but I will do my best to ease matters between them, for a small party like this should run smoothly." From that date to the end of the diary there is not a word of trouble between any of the four men or any suggestion that they disagreed on policy. Neither is there a hint that Knight thought any of the others were doing less than their share of the work or striving less faithfully for the success of the party. There are some

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entries the first year to the effect that the Eskimo woman was gloomy and not doing her sewing as rapidly as other Eskimo women with whom Knight was familiar. But the tenor of these comments changes the second year and the farther the diary goes the more frequent are the grateful and even enthusiastic comments upon Ada Blackjack's improvement both in the work she did and in her cheerfulness while doing it. On December 12th, 1922, for instance, Knight says: "The woman is doing wonderful work and is a great deal better than a year ago." By then she had almost finished a clothing outfit for Crawford and Knight for their proposed journey to Nome and they were evidently very well satisfied with it.

As December advanced bear tracks were frequently seen but the bears themselves were more elusive than ever. This is partly explained by the numerous entries of "cloudy," "cloudy and warm," etc. At 72° North Latitude, it is only on cloudless days that there is daylight enough at this time of year for reading or shooting four or five hours around noon. On a cloudy day a white thing like a polar bear is very difficult to see.

In the entry for Christmas Eve, 1922, we have the first suggestion that the party felt the danger of provisions running short. "We are celebrating by having an extra hard bread or so apiece."

We have incorporated into this article in full every mention contained in the diary that relates to the proposed trip to Nome. On December 25th the subject comes up again. "l finished the complete set of dog harness for the trip and Crawford is busy making ridgepoles and uprights for the tent" - doubtless the tent which they intended to carry with them to use if they had to camp where there was insufficient snow for building a snowhouse. The next day, "Crawford working on the tent and I brought the sled indoors and made several repairs on it. Hope to finish it to-morrow. Snowing hard, so the trappers stayed in camp to-day." Before that time the