stefansson-wrangel-09-32-019r

THE SECOND WINTER AND THE TRAGIC END 243

bear till he is on top of you. Indeed, a bear is hard to
make out against a snow background on a cloudy day
even in spring with the sun high in the sky behind the
clouds. But on clear, moonlit nights you can see a bear
plainly at half a mile, and for that reason you could stand
watch for them at night and secure any that came in
good weather. Yet we have in Knight’s diary what
seems at first glance a puzzling combination of two op-
posed facts: they wanted to get bears, yet they never
stood watch for them and always learned of their presence
in one of three ways—by someone going out accidentally
and seeing one, by the dogs “raising a bear howl” or by
tracks in the snow next morning. The explanation, as
always, is optimism. Knight in his past experience with
Storkerson and me had so often seen provisions dwindle
to a few pounds that he could not see any great cause
for worry when there were a few hundred pounds still
on hand. In general his feelings were evidently shared
by the rest, although they recognized the food shortage
as one more reason why the trip to Nome should be made,
and soon—to transfer two of the men, and especially the
dogs, to Siberia and later to Alaska where food would
be abundant. The three on the island with no dogs, could
then get along by securing less than a third of the game
needed for five people and five dogs.

On December 27th: “The sled and tent in good shape
and all that is left for us to do is to get our outfit to-
gether. We would like to get started soon, but the ground
is covered with about six inches of floury snow and we
intend to wait for a blow to pack it.”

December 31st, after weather that had usually been
good for two months, we have “a howling gale from the
east. As Crawford was building a fire this morning the