stefansson-wrangel-09-29-050

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the Arctic where one may expect sleet once or twice in each mid-winter, no
matter what part of the Arctic it is.

To those familiar with the "inside stories" of many arctic and
antarctic expeditions, one of the most remarkable and creditable things about
the Wrangell Island story is that in a diary obviously frank, even to a fault,
there are no disagreements or recriminations after the first few days on the
island. 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 due to 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." Evidently this was smoothed over, for there is not a word later 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 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 numerous
entries of "cloudy," "cloudy and warm," etc. At 72° North Latitude, it is only