stefansson-wrangel-09-27-025

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But we already knew the area to be had for sealing hunting since
we had already crossed it that spring, outward hound. Our
casual glances at the various patches of open water as we passed
had given us glimpses of one, two or three seals in a week -
enough perhaps to cause us to stop and hunt had we feared worse
conditions elsewhere, hut not enough to delay us when we felt
reasonably sure of better chances conditions ahead.

According to our general policy of living by hunting,
we had started northwest from Meighen Island some three weeks
before with only a little food in our sledges, and this was now
almost gone. For the second time on that five-year expedition
we went on rations - about half as much food as we needed. The
dogs also were put on half rations, their food consisting in large
part of wornout skin clothing. Even this eventually gave out
and before we reached land we had begun to feed them some new
skin clothes that we had been saving for next summer - waterproof
sealskin boots, etc.

As we struggled slowly towards shore the invalids became
weaker day hy day. The last two or three days before landing
Noice was unable to walk and had to he hauled on the sled. Knight
could not walk by himslef hut was able to stumble along holding
on to the back end of the sled for support. With grit such as few [possers], he even possers occasionally used the failing remnants of his great strength to help the sleds over bad places.The journey was hard enough ex-
perience for the Eskimos and me, but harder for the sick men, because of their
physical suffering and because of the gloom, approaching melan-
cholia, which is a symptom of their disease. But to hear Knight
tell it afterwards he must have worried less than I, and that
could mean only that he had a firmer confidence than I in the
theory on which we were working - that game would be found and
that fresh meat would cure the scurvy. Handicapped as we were by