stefansson-wrangel-09-31-121v

198 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

little. One bear is worth a hundred foxes. For showing
the value of the island, the observations of the men while
trapping (about tracks and other signs) were as valuable
as the skins actually secured, for what we wanted was
really only the information as to the abundance of ani-
mals that are commercially important valuable. "We wanted to
secure evidence of the value of the island; the value itself
we were not so particular to secure.

On November 7th: “Galle went to his traps and found
two gone [they had evidently been badly fastened and the
foxes caught had carried them off]. He got one fox.
Coming home in the dark he got temporarily lost and saw
a bear while wandering around trying to find his way
home. He did not shoot it, although we are rather short
of dog feed. He says that he did not know where he was,
so he let the bear go.” This was evidently felt by the
whole party as a misfortune, for the bears seen were much
fewer now than they had been earlier in the year. They
were at last beginning to be conscious of the importance
of getting and saving any meat that came their way.

Since the party had decided not to hunt until there was
ample snow for sledging the meat home, the exceptionally
late season was a misfortune to them. Apart from that,
their preparations for the winter seem to have gone
smoothly and much according to plan. The outer house
with the tent inside proved to be a comfortable dwelling
and there was plenty of dry wood for fuel, a circumstance
which Knight mentions frequently. He seems to have
continued to consider it almost too good to be true, for it
differed so much from his previous arctic experience.

Before they sailed north we had frequently discussed
the plans for the winter. It had been the experience of
our various expeditions and it has been the general ex-