stefansson-wrangel-09-32-027r



that I intend to take over, or perhaps a bear. We will
also have about five hundred pounds of seal fat and fiveL/yAy*'.L-,
or six gallons of bear oil. Although we realized that it
was very cold on our short trip, I was surprised last night
t dropped to -51°. The sun came all the way above the
rizon to-day.”

Applying some mo?
when the battle is over, we can write here a good deal of ”A .
pertinent comment on Knight’s entry and on the plans " ' ' y 'v'-
which were carried out. Had the main consideration
been safety, instead of the desire to communicate with me, ’*'*
the whole party should have remained on the island, most A ^ .
of them going on short rations while the hunting day- ‘'1

light was scanty, but allowing sufficient for hunting ■
strength to one or two of the most active. In the last
extremity the five dogs might have been killed, although
we know how repugnant that would have been especially
to Knight and Maurer, who had often sailed close to the
wind on previous expeditions without ever being com-
pelled to sacrifice a dog. The food supply which Knight
mentioned would have taken the^party, on such short
rations as are common enough in polar exploration, into
the good hunting period, as we know both from our gen-
eral arctic hunting experience and From itrforaiation
about the following spring given by Ada BlackjackX^I**^

The crucial thing seems to have been Knight’s faith in
sour seal oil as an antiscorbutic. Apart from that, he ,
would have realized that his disease would progress and

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