stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-051

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sealing conditions were bad (the wind blowing on shore, closing
up the leads), so the native decided to go ashore with two seals
and bring back a load of driftwood to burn, so that we should not have
to waste good food as we were doing by using seal fat as fuel for
heat and cooking. 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.

That night I slept in my sleeping-bag and the dog
was fastened to the sled just outside the door. About four A.M. I
was awakened by his barking, and that meant a bear. I tried to get
out of my white drilling bag, but the more I struggled the harder I
stuck. Finally, when I got out to my gun I saw the bear and two
small cubs disappearing over a ridge. I swore, "No more sleeping-
bags for me," and for about ten days I slept on top of the bag, but
no bears. Then one night it felt pretty cold and there being no
bears, I got into the sleeping-bag. Of course, the same thing
happened, even to the hour of four A.M. I finally freed myself
from the bag in time to get one shot as the bear was disappearing
over a ridge. I then cut the dog loose to see if we could stop
the bear. It had been snowing and was pretty dark and both the
dog and I had several hard falls in the pursuit. The rough going
did not seem to bother the bear and he got away.

The native had now been away twice as long as he said
but I decided to give him four or five more days. It was blowing
hard from the south, and I knew that when the wind dropped there
would be open water beside the ridge, with plenty of seals. But
I was beginning to worry about the native, so I set out on the four-
teenth day. I got to the beach at seven A.M. and found everybody
asleep. It seemed the native had loaded up with wood as he had
said he would and had started for my camp when he got severely snow-