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230 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

them. I stayed with the dory while the others sneaked
up. All three fired nearly together, killing two.

Galle was then sent home for an axe, lantern, etc., as dark
was coming on. . . . Had just finished the large walrus
when Galle returned to a cake as near as he could get
to us, perhaps two hundred yards.”

Then follows a long description of the difficulties they
had with the heavy boat and the slowly shifting ice cakes
which occasionally met so that one could step across and
then separated, leaving water channels between. Again
they were greatly handicapped by the clumsy dory, which
was so heavy that they could not lift it out to drag over
the ice. Long after dark they got to camp with, appar-
ently, two or three hundred pounds of meat. The next
day the ice was still in approximately the same place.
After a great deal of hard labor they were able to get
most of the meat ashore. That day they used the sledge,
hauled by man power, for moving the meat from one to
another of the small, milling ice floes. At one time the
sledge, with about three hundred pounds of meat, was
upset and all but fifty pounds of the load spilled into the
water. Knight is not very clear as to the total amount
secured, but he mentions that he estimated one of the
loads at six hundred pounds, “although Crawford does
not think it was so much.” It seems they may have
saved anything from half a ton to a ton of meat and fat.

Scattered through the next several entries there are ref-
erences to the snorting walrus that could not be seen.
There is no complaint about these being unreachable
because of the weight of the dory; but, to one familiar
with the conditions, that situation is obvious.

During my difficulties in financing the relief operations
the summer of 1922 I worried that the sea might be open

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