stefansson-wrangel-09-31-072v

108 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

quate to them, but grotesquely inadequate to the “sour-
doughs” and tradesmen of Nome. Before determining
the final form of the party, and indeed, while as yet I
expected the Canadian Government to finance the under-
taking, I had taken up with my old friend, Jafet Linde-
berg, of Nome, the question of getting Alaskan trappers
and prospectors to establish a colony on Wrangel Island.
Lindeberg made out some rough specifications as to what
the outfit must necessarily be. It began with several
thousand feet of lumber and included sheet iron, tar
paper, and the like. There would have to be canned
fruits and vegetables of all sorts, and beans, and syrup,
etc. When I showed the list to Knight and Maurer they
laughed over it and said that the only way they could
understand purchasing such an outfit in Nome and
freighting it to Wrangel Island would be if they were
spending other people’s money and wanted to do a little
grafting either for themselves or for their friends who
were merchants and the owners of freighting ships.
Knight said that if he embarked on such an undertaking
his idea would be to buy the goods with my money in
Nome and stop in Siberia to sell them again, so as not
to have the bother of carrying them to Wrangel.

When Lindeberg was making out the specifications
for the possible Wrangel Island colony he was not think-
ing of what he himself would have liked to take with
him, for he had tried the simple life in the early Alaska
days and preferred it to the more expensive and tedious
outfitting of later years. But he was setting down what
he knew the present-day Alaskans would consider neces-
sary for safety and comfort. Accordingly, when the
Silver Wave was being loaded by our men at Nome it
Itwas lumber and tar paper, canned fruit and bacon that