stefansson-wrangel-09-29-064

208-B

proceed to Nome. Which is nearly a thousand miles by the route they would travel. They could not get to Nome before May at the earliest. before
May. Thereafter the only means of travel is by ship, and in an
ordinary season no ship can reach Wrangell Island before July. That would be too
late for bringing remedies toa man already sick with scurvy in January.

Evidently (as we shall see from later entries) Knight
expected the cure from scurvy to be worked either by the seal oil
or the foxes and polar hears which he would secure before he got
too weak. We have in the Knight's diary no record of disagreement
on this point with this by any member of the party. Our knowledge Our only
knowledge of that is from Fred Maurer's letters to his wife from
which she has inferred that he was opposed ax to leaving the island
and did so merely as a matter of good discipline and subordination
to the commander and membership of the party. It is easy now to see that if Fred
Maurer had stayed on the island all would have been well there, for he
would have secured not only the bears which Ada Blackjack saw and
feared to approach but also doubtless many other animals of which
she saw no sign.

It is true, of course, as Knight points out, that three
men were better than two for the journey to Nome Siberia, for They could
ease the sledge over the fractured ice, thus protecting it from
damage. Since we know with reasonable certainty however that the tragic
end came through drowning it may be fairly reasonably said that under
those circumstances it eventually made no difference whether the party were
two or three.