stefansson-wrangel-09-32-062v

326 THE ADVENTURE OF [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|WRANGEL ISLAND]] he had scurvy he knew also that the scurvy could be cured with raw meat. He would thus have no reason for leaving the [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|island]] in search of a medicine for that disease. [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]] himself tells us in his diary that he felt the scurvy symptoms in November and dis- cussed them with [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] at the time. Perhaps that may be a slip of memory on [[Knight, Errol Lorne, 1893-1923|Knight]]’s part and that he really felt the illness already in September. When everything in [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Milton Galle]]’s fragmentary notes has been deciphered, interpreted and pondered over, we are left with an intensified feeling of what a pity it is that he did not leave behind on [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel Island]] at least one of his two apparently almost duplicate diaries, and what a pity it is that [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] and [[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Maurer]] left nothing. Still, we may well be glad that this was so. It is only our curiosity that is balked, and we have for recompense the knowledge, made clearer than it could be through a mere inference from an understanding of [[Arctic regions|arctic]] conditions, that none of the party had more fear than ice travelers always do that serious accident or death would meet them between [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|Wrangel Island]] and [[Nome (Alaska)|Nome]]. Had the danger been considered very grave, certainly duplicates would have been left behind. Had the danger been thought extreme, the members would have stored all their most valued records on the [[Wrangel Island (Russia)|island]] both for the safety of the information and to lighten their loads, for in a desperate situation every pound of burden may count. While we are deploring the uncertainty of many things we must remember the consolation there is in that very fact. That [[Crawford, Allan R., 1901-1923|Crawford]] and [[Maurer, Frederick W., 1893-1923|Maurer]] took with them all their records, and that [[Galle, Milton Harvey Robert, 1902-1923|Galle]] took along even duplicate records, shows, as we have said elsewhere, that death must have come with the suddenness of a railway accident or a shipwreck; not anticipated, except as we all anticipate dangers whenever and however we travel by land or sea.