stefansson-wrangel-09-32-016v

238 THE ADVENTURE OE WRANGEL ISLAND

starting depends on several things—ice conditions, dog
feed, weather, etc., but we are hoping to get started about
January 15th, 1923. We think that if the weather is
good and going on the ice not too bad, Nome should be
reached in sixty or seventy days, for we have about made
up our minds to go to Nome instead of Anadyr Bay. We
have thought that Stefansson might be wintering on the
mainland south of us, and I think that if he is we will
see him [that he will arrive at Wrangel by January 1st.
If he should not come till later, we will have to take a
chance and go, for very likely if he is wintering on the
mainland we will hear of him and his ship and will go
there. If one can go by hunches, my hunch tells me that
Stefansson did not come north this summer and that we
are doing the right thing in making the trip.”

Unlike the previous year, there was enough snowfall
the autumn of 1922, but it was so windy that much of the
ground, nevertheless, remained bare and unfit for sledg-
ing, so that it was not until early in November that the
business of moving camp from the old site to the new
was completed. So far as housing is concerned, this
seems to have been the only uncomfortable period on the
island. They were still tenting on the old camp site and
did not build an outer house over the tents because they
were each day expecting that they could move tomorrow.

Every other day or so there is mention of a sledge load
of provisions or equipment being hauled from the old
camp to the new, but we are not told the exact quantity.
The only hint is that on November 12th “We have
twenty-six boxes of hard bread left and about three weeks
of dog feed. A large amount of seal oil left.” Apparently
by dog feed is meant the half-decayed meat left from last
summer. By the large amount of seal oil Knight prob-