stefansson-wrangel-09-32-009r

THE FIRST WINTER AND SECOND SUMMER 225 animals could be relied upon to supply fresh meat in the fall. [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]]’s account of the weather the summer of 1922 reads strangely. Either it must have been a very excep- tional summer in [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel Island]] or else [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel Island]] has a very exceptional kind of [[Arctic regions|arctic]] climate. I have been in northern islands of varying size, some the same latitude as [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel]] and others as much as five hundred miles farther north, and in these it has been the rule, as it generally is in the northern hemisphere, that June is warmer than May, and July warmer still. But the [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel]] summer of 1922, the latter part of May was the warmest period of the summer. There were frequent snow squalls in June, and even in July, with the tem- perature seldom more than ten degrees above freezing, and going down below freezing at night not infrequently. Certainly the season must have been very different from that of 1921, for when the party landed that year they saw only a little snow on the highest of the distant moun- tains, but in 1922 large patches of snow were constant on the ridges inland. During the summer the party devoted most of the time to hunting seals, geese and ducks, but they also made several exploratory journeys. On June 28th, for instance, “[[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]], with one dog to pack his blankets, started west to look for a pass through the mountains. I went a short way with him and saw several seals to the west on the ice.” Evidently [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] was leaving [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] to tell the story in his own diary, for the only further mention of this inland reconnaissance is under head of July 3rd: “[[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Maurer]] got one seal and killed another which slid into its hole. I took a walk to the west and met [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] coming home. [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Galle]] spent the