stefansson-wrangel-09-32-057v

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318 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

A typical entry showing this is for August 23rd: “I go for short
walk ... I could see ice from high places on tundra pretty
sparsely strewn about two miles offshore; from there on an almost
solid mass as far as I could see, about eight or ten miles.”

While there are many expressions that can be interpreted to
show hope or expectation that the ice would go, there is not one
suggesting worry in case it did not go. Had they been concerned
about the food supply there would have been direct statements to
that effect, or at least indirect evidence, such as records of ener-
getic and tireless hunting especially whenever the weather was
particularly good. The opposite is the case, for the mention of
unusually good weather is generally accompanied by a statement
that most or all the party remained in camp. Typical entries
showing that are the following: August 25th, “Sun out all day,
snow disappears in a short time. Crawford prints pictures. All
stay in.” August 26th, “Weather good, sun out all day, wind
west-south-west. About six miles of young ice along beach. Hear
geese several times. Crawford develops films.” August 29th,
“Best day this year, calm most all day, sun out also though [tem-
perature] not over 36° . . . Crawford prints pictures when I
finish developing some films. Developed seven rolls . . .
Crawford and Knight see northern lights shortly after midnight,
stars visible some nights now.” September 29th, “Weather good
. . . all stay in; nothing attempted.” Several of these later
entries were written after the party had given up hope of a ship
coming in that year, as we know both from Knight and Galle.
This last entry mentions incidentally that the new “sea ice [is]
several inches [thick], enough to walk on.”

There is nothing in Lorne Knight’s narrative that is so clearly
confirmed by Milton Galle as the absence of worry during the
summer. We have already quoted entries showing that on the best
days most or all of the party usually remained in camp instead
of hunting energetically as they certainly would have done on the
good days had they been seriously concerned about a food shortage.
But more convincing still is the record of the hours of sleeping
and waking. The nights were already beginning to be dark late
in August and in September the dark periods were rapidly length-
ening, for by the 20th of that month the nights are almost as long
as the days. Yet we find that the habit of sleeping in the daytime

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