stefansson-wrangel-09-31-128v

Chapter XII

The First Winter and the Second Summer

On January 1st, 1922, a council of all the members of
the expedition decided that they would discontinue the
separate trapping camp until there was more daylight,¹
for bears and foxes had now become very rare, the
weather was continually stormy, and between the inevi-
table twilight and the frequent difficulty of clouds and
snow the visibility was so poor that there was little
chance of seeing any of the few bears that came around.
With the team now reduced to five dogs, it was more
difficult to haul home firewood. Apparently driftwood
was scarce in the vicinity of the hunting camp, and this
is given by Knight as one of the arguments for discon-
tinuing it temporarily. It took too much out of the
dogs to be working them constantly, and they could save
groceries by letting the team stay in the warm house,
for a dog that is idle and comfortable needs only half
as much food as one that is working out in the cold.

During January there seems to have been no trapping,
but a number of foxes were secured, chiefly by shooting,
although the dogs killed some that came into camp.
There appear to be no ptarmigan on Wrangel Island,

¹ In the latitude of Wrangel Island in midwinter daylight appears in
a cloudless sky between 8 and 9 o’clock. By 10 A. M. it is light enough
for reading or shooting a rifle accurately and remains so till about 2 P. M.
On a cloudy day there is light for traveling but scarcely for reading or
accurate shooting. Dark objects may be seen at a distance but white
ones, such as polar bears, are almost indistinguishable in thick weather,
even at noon. On many days a reddish glow can be seen in the south over
the sun as it moves westward below the horizon.

210