stefansson-wrangel-09-32-085v

370 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

A short time later, knowing , all would perish without outside
aid,⁹ Crawford, Galle and Maurer made another attempt to reach
Siberia. They never were heard from and have almost certainly
perished.

She Refused to Get Food

Knight lay in his tent, almost wholly dependent on the Eskimo
woman for his food. He appeared for a while to improve, Mr. Noice
said, for an entry in his diary tells of the woman remarking “the
red was coming back to his cheeks.” But other entries told of
the woman refusing to visit the traps, which were set near the
tent, of washing her hair and making beads ¹⁰ for herself when
Knight asked her to search for game.

Her own diary told of Knight asking her to visit the traps. “I
said notting,” she wrote, “because I had notting to say.” Knight’s
diary ceased March 21, 1923, the last entry being in a firm hand
and with no suggestion of death. Beyond this place, however, sev-
eral pages were torn from the book. The woman had started her
diary about two weeks before Knight’s stopped.

Later information also reveals that the woman knew how to
handle a rifle and was a good hunter, Mr. Noice said, although
she had claimed she could not shoot.

When the Noice expedition reached Wrangel Island late last
summer, Knight’s emaciated body, weighing only ninety pounds,
was found in his tent. Mrs. Blackjack was well and fat. The
party’s original food supply had not run out. There were twelve
pounds of hardtack, tea and blubber.

Mr. Noice said he intended to bring his disclosures to the atten-
tion of the Explorers Club and to start some kind of inquiry
which would establish the facts officially. He was uncertain how
this could be done, in view of the doubtful status of Wrangel
Island in international law. Mrs. Blackjack, according to his in-
formation, is in Seattle, Wash. [End of quotation from World.]

⁹ This statement is either wrong or merely ambiguous. Knight’s diary shows
that the idea of securing outside aid to bring to the Island was not the reason
for the journey on which the men were lost. Mr. Noice now acknowledges
this—see his statement in Chapter XIV. Especially its
paragraph beginning "as published, my
newspaper stories gave its impression", etc

¹⁰ This statement is not found in the portions of Knight’s diary, which were
returned by Mr. Noice in legible form to the relatives. If correct, it must be
based on one of the paragraphs erased by Mr. Noice, or on some other
evidence not as yet generally available.