stefansson-wrangel-09-39-003

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a little wood, but after a week he had to bring some wood in the tent to
chop and while chopping it he fainted and was unconscious about five minutes.
He was so weak that I told him he had better stay in bed, that I could chop
the wood and bring in the snow for water. I told him I was used to chopping
wood and doing that kind of work down home, so he finally consented to let me.
I went out to Maurer's trap line. Before he left he had given 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. In killing them I would take a stick and hit them on the
head until I stunned them, then I would bend their heads back until I broke
their neck. Then I ’would take them home and skin them.

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 but I remembered
of reading in a book that the people up north said that they were very good
to eat, so when I 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 shot gun.

One morning about the 10th of May, I think, I woke up
and heard something dripping and I thought it was the water dripping from the
tent, so I got up and I saw that it was Knight's nose bleeding. He had a
one-pound tea tin half full of blood from his nose. He had been bleeding
for some time - it was about ten o'clock in the morning when I found him.
His face was just blue. He turned his face away from the can and he looked
just like he was dead, he was half dead. I called him four or five times
before he answered, then he said he was better. I asked him if he would eat