stefansson-wrangel-09-32-064v

330 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

Mr. Knight his trap line map. When I went out the first day I only
found about six or seven of the traps, but later on, about three or
four days afterwards, I found the rest, but there was no fox in any
of them. I trapped for about a month, but I never caught a fox.
When I was out I was afraid of meeting a polar bear, and every
little while I would turn and look around to see if one was in
sight, and if there had been one I would have fainted, for I only
had a snow knife with me and I didn’t know what to do to defend
myself, for I never carried a rifle when out on the trap line.

I went out every day for I knew I had to get something to eat,
for Knight was sick and we had nothing in the tent. I just got
weak from tramping around and I thought I would give it up, but
one day I noticed some fox tracks around one of the traps so I dug
the trap out of the snow, for in setting the fox traps up there you
bait them and then cover them with a little snow. But I guess I
covered them too much and that is the reason why I didn’t get any
fox. Then I baited it again and just left it on top of the snow,
didn’t cover it up at all. The next morning I got up and looked out
and I saw a fox. I didn’t know for sure if it was in the trap or
not, but I dressed and went over and sure enough it was a white
fox in my trap and that was the first one I had caught, and that
was on the 22nd of February, 1923. After that I caught some more.
In March I caught quite a few; one day I caught three.

Later in the spring, around April, the foxes got very scarce and
I couldn’t trap any more at all. After I couldn’t get any more
foxes Knight became worse. He got very faint every time he
moved. I forgot to tell you that none of us had ever eaten a white
fox before (we came to Wrangel Island) but I remembered of read-
ing in a book that the people up north said that they were very good
to eat, so when we caught the first one we tried it, and liked it very
much.

Around about May, I think, I took a walk across the other
direction towards the small islands in the harbor, and a seagull flew
over my head. I had brought a shotgun with me this time, one
that belonged to Knight, and I took a shot at it with my gun and
killed it. I took it home and made some broth with it for Knight,
for he could eat very little. That was the first bird I ever shot
with a shotgun. I have shot them with a twenty-two rifle down
home but never with a shotgun.