stefansson-wrangel-09-31-119v

196 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

do some geological work.” But the next day’s entry tells
that the party returned late that evening and that “it was
blowing so hard in the mountains that they could not
climb the highest of them.” It is to be inferred from the
same entry that, while sea ice was beginning to form, it
was not yet stable enough to be safe or suitable for
hunting.

On November 6th we read that “dog feed is getting
low” and a few days later that they are cooking up
groceries for the dogs. From various entries of that sort
during the winter it appears that the amount of supplies
taken to Wrangel Island must have been a great deal in
excess of what we had planned together before they sailed
north. It had been our feeling then that full rations of
groceries for six months would be all that it was reason-
able to carry towards the two-year program of a party
who believed that they could be self-supporting indefi-
nitely by hunting. In other words, we considered that
supplies for even six months were luxuries and, as lux-
uries, were about all they should reasonably allow them-
selves. At that time they had been saying that they
preferred to spend what money we had for phonographs,
of which they were all fond, and for candies and choco-
late, to which some of them were partial.

There had been two motives for planning that fox
trapping should be carried on energetically throughout
the winter. We were not quite certain of getting Gov-
ernment support next year, so that any money we could
earn might be needed towards our expenses, and we de-
sired to demonstrate that an occupation of the island
could be made profitable along such old-fashioned lines
as have been followed by the Hudson’s Bay Company
and other traders in the Arctic. Not that we were much