stefansson-wrangel-09-32-004r

THE FIRST WINTER AND SECOND SUMMER 217

in 1914 except for the inevitable effects of wind and
weather. They saw “a few fairly fresh bear tracks, but
no bears.” Although this was about the coldest week
of the year, with the temperature ranging between -16°
and -42° the trip seems to have been made in comfort,
for that subject is not even mentioned.

In February the entire party lived together at the
main camp, but in March Crawford and Maurer again
began to spend part of the time at the “trapping camp.”
A few foxes were caught and tracks of bears were fre-
quently seen, but bad luck in not seeing the bears them-
selves began to be monotonous. Ravens were occasional
visitors, but there is no mention of other birds in Feb-
ruary or March.

March 22nd: “Crawford and I would like to make a
trip around the island, but the question is dog feed. I
am still cooking for them and could also do that while
traveling, although it would be a nuisance. We are
like Mr. Micawber, waiting for something to turn up;
and we are keeping a good lookout for bears.”

There was a slight turn in the hunting luck when on
April 16th three bears were seen and two of them
secured. April 26th they saw a bear with a cub, but
made the mistake of trying to get them with dogs instead
of by careful stalking. Two or three fairly good hunting
dogs will usually stop a bear on level ice, but not always.
In rough ice the rule is that the bear cannot be stopped
by dogs, and the danger is also correspondingly greater
to the dogs. In this case three dogs were sent after the
bear. One of them soon came back wounded, though not
seriously; the other two chased the bear several hours
and, although they were able to delay it some, Crawford
and Galle never caught up. They could doubtless have