stefansson-wrangel-09-32-026v

256 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

a comfortable feeling of being well informed. That is
a harmless deception, perhaps, to play on the reader in
ordinary circumstances. But what a man like Knight
with his life at stake needs to be told is that while oils
do contain certain vitamins, they are unlikely to contain
that particular vitamin called “C,” which cures scurvy⁵

January 20th: “Home again. Broke camp at 8 A. M.
and arrived at 12:45, finding the three people comfort-
ably living in the large 10x12 tent. They have only
caught one fox since we left and Maurer did that. Saw
several old tracks of foxes to-day and one or two new
ones. No bear tracks. Very cold and clear. Wonder-
ful going. Saw the sun to-day” [its first appearance
after the mid-winter twilight].

On January 21st: “The woman is busy making cloth-
ing. It has been decided that Crawford, Maurer and
Galle will attempt in a few days to go to Nome via
Siberia. I will remain here as camp keeper for the rea-
son that I think I would be unwise to attempt the said
trip [because of illness]. See my,entry for January 12th.
The only objection to this plan as far as I am concerned
is that I will be left alone with the native woman. But
one of the things about this country is that circumstances
sometimes demand actions that would be reprehensible
‘on the outside.’ I am sure that anyone looking at this
case clearly will see that there is nothing else to be done.
It is impossible for two men to make the trip, I think,
with only five dogs, and as grub is short here, it is essen-
tial for the party to split. It is very likely that Stefans-

⁵ This paragraph may be in general correct, but after it was printed I have
re-read all Knight says about seal oil as an antiscorbutic and have come to
feel that perhaps he did not have real faith in it but merely thought of
it as the one thing they had which might have curative value. This is the
interpretation of the entries that is favored by his family.