stefansson-wrangel-09-32-027v

258 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

that the only safety would be in having at least one able
hunter to go out when spring came to get fresh meat for
the same sort of cure which we had worked on Knight
himself when he had scurvy in 1917. Of course, every-
one thought at this time that the journey to Siberia would
almost certainly prove successful after the sledge load
had been lightened so as to make it practicable to go
directly south through the rough ice. Such success could
have no bearing on Knight’s own safety, however, for
there is no mention or suggestion anywhere that the
party bound for the south had any intention of returning
from Siberia, or of returning that winter at all. Every
mention says simply that they were going by way of
Siberia to Nome, which is nearly a thousand miles by the
route they would travel. They could not get to Nome
except so late that the only means of return travel is by
ship, and in an ordinary season no ship can reach Wrangel
Island before July or more likely August. That would be
too late for bringing remedies to a man already sick with
scurvy in January, and Knight understood that well.

Evidently (as we shall see from later entries) Knight
expected the cure to be worked either by the seal oil or
the foxes and polar bears which he would secure before
he got too weak. We have in the diary no record of dis-
agreement on this point by any member of the party.
Our only knowledge of that is from Fred Maurer’s letters
to his wife, from which she has inferred that he was op-
posed to leaving the island and did so merely as a matter
of good discipline and subordination to the commander
and membership of the party.

From unselfish motives, not desiring to worry all the
men, Knight had told only Crawford of his scurvy symp-
toms and had undoubtedly convinced Crawford who had