stefansson-wrangel-09-32-004v

218 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

shot the bear, but one does not fire at a great distance
when bear and dogs are almost in line and when each
dog is worth ten times as much as the bear.

The method of hunting bears with dogs is inherited
from the old Eskimo period when no other way was
feasible, the weapons being bows and arrows. Even with
the most powerful modern rifles some Eskimos still use-
dogs. This seems especially true in eastern North
America and in Greenland, where the arctic explorers
have usually followed the Eskimo custom. It has been
the experience of my expeditions that any average hunter
can secure bears better without dogs than with them.

After a detailed account of the bear hunt, Knight
closes the entry: “After six hours the hunters returned
stating that the bear had kept on going regardless of
the dogs. They saw several fairly fresh bear tracks, but
the going was nearly impossible, for often they sank to
their waists, and to their knees at nearly every step.
Fed the last of the bear meat, and unless another bear
appears soon shall have to start cooking again.”

April on Wrangel Island was stormy and snowy. Still,
it was spring. On the 28th the temperature rose to 40°
F. in the shade, or eight degrees above freezing. Parts
of the land occasionally became bare through thawing,
but were covered again by the frequent snowfalls that
are typical of an arctic April if you are on a seacoast
or on a small island.

On April 29th Galle went for a short trip inland from
which he returned in two days. “He camped the first
night in the hills in a snowhouse after climbing a peak
1950 feet high [by aneroid barometer]. He was unable
to see very far to the north because of a ridge farther on.
He then went to the other camp, where he found the