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THE FIRST WINTER AND SECOND SUMMER 215

sea ice] from the island, the fact that the meat is on the
north side of the island will save a great deal of hauling
over the mountains or around the coast. Also I think
that there should be two camps of two men each [to
prevent the party from getting on each other’s nerves by
being constantly together]. Another reason is that if
Mr. Stefansson does not or can not come next summer, we
will have all fall to haul the meat to this camp and with
the meat that will be put up here this will go a long way
to tide us over the winter. Should Mr. Stefansson decide
not to stay on the island, it will be a small matter to go
by ship and pick up the meat, which will be on a point
or some other place which a ship can reach easily. I have
talked this over with Crawford and he agrees with me on
this as a good plan.”

I think this excellent plan may have come indirectly
from Maurer, although it is here mentioned as being
discussed by Knight and Crawford, for this had been the
method adopted by Hadley the spring of 1914 after
Maurer and the other shipwrecked men of the Karluk
landed in Wrangel Island. To the north of Wrangel the
ice is aground for about forty miles from shore. Hadley
crossed this stretch (see “Hadley’s Narrative” ante) and
camped at the meeting edge of the floe and the moving
pack, where bears were numerous and where sealing was
occasionally possible—whenever the wind was right. The
scarcity of polar bears on Wrangel Island itself in the
spring could be legitimately presumed to mean that they
were abundant out at the floe edge thirty or forty miles
beyond. Knight never tells us exactly why this plan
was not carried out, but we can read it between the lines.
It was still the same confidence in the island as such
a good game country that precautions which might be