stefansson-wrangel-09-32-062r

FRAGMENTARY PAPERS OF MILTON GALLE 325

expedition north or northeast from Wrangel Island. The edge
of the unexplored in that direction was only sixty or seventy miles
away, and there had been some talk among us that they might
make a journey out in that direction the latter part of the winter
1921-1922. I have therefore been surprised both that they did not
make such a journey and that Knight’s diary has no discussion
of why they did not. Likely enough this is one of the subjects
which was frequently talked about but never got mentioned in any
diary that is preserved to us.

But what they probably had more in their minds than the ex-
ploration of an unknown area to the north was the definite report
by Hadley, McKinlay and others who said that they had seen a
large new land to the northeast of Wrangel Island and had
watched it from Waring Point during the summer of 1914 while
the snow gradually disappeared from the slopes under the influence
of the sun.¹ Maurer had not seen this land, for he had been at
Rodgers Harbor at the time, but he had heard all about it from
the party who were at Waring Point. Likely enough Galle may
have feared that they were going to steal a march on him, leaving
him behind on Wrangel Island while they distinguished themselves
by the discovery and exploration of a new land.

We infer from the underscoring that Galle was especially puz-
zled by Knight’s telling him that he wished he did not have to go
on this journey but that he had to. We can think of two reasons
for Knight’s saying this. It may have been that he felt he would
rather not leave the island but that he would have to be a member
of any party that left because of his greater experience in travel-
ing over moving ice. Or perhaps Knight had in mind the illness
of which he could already then feel the symptoms. That would
confirm what Ada Blackjack says about his having been fre-
quently ill after his hard journey across Skeleton River when he
had to swim on his way back. But that interpretation is op-
posed by Knight’s own frequent statements that when he knew

¹The testimony of Hadley and McKinlay on this subject along with McKin-
lay’s drawings of the land seen, was published in the Geographical Review of
the American Geographical Society, 1921. We are reprinting the paper
in the appendix of this book to show the reader what foundation Galle
had for his inferences, and what ideas about new land to the northeast,
which they might be able to explore, were in the minds of the rest of the
party.