stefansson-wrangel-09-39-005

 -5-

Three days after Mr. Knight died I got some seal, and
about a week afterwards I got another seal. I shot those with Knight's
rifle. So one day I went out again, it was the 4th of July (I made a
calendar out of typewriting paper cut into small pieces - I had one for
1922 but I had to make my own 1923 calendar which I still have in my
trunk). When I went to get my third seal I was crawling and crawling along
on my stomach to get up close enough to shoot it and I was just ready to
sim when it moved so that a large ice cake extended in front or between me
and the seal. So I was moving around to get a better aim, and I had my
finger on the hammer, and in moving I must have pulled it down and BANG!
went the gun and down went the seal into the water and I didn't get any
meat. I thought, well, I had my 4th of July celebration anyway.

The beach was only a few yards from the back of my
tent. The third seal I got I went out and about two hundred yards out from
the beach on the ice was a seal, so I went out to take a shot at it and I
got this one. It was so far out that I knew that I couldn't get it to the
tent without something to help me. So I went back to the tent and got a
poling line for seal and then started after my seal. I was nearly to it
when I looked up and saw something that looked just like a yellow ball
coming towards me. Finally I realized it was a polar bear and I was four
hundred yards from my tent. I turned and ran just as hard as I could
until I got to my tent. I was just about ready to faint when I got there,
too. I had built a high raft at the back of my tent and I climbed up onto
this and took my field and glasses and watched the bear and her young one
eat my seal, at least I thought she was anyway. It finally got dark and
foggy so I decided I had better not take a chance and go after it that
night so I waited until the next morning. I went out and took a look but
my seal was gone, all that was left was a few blood marks. The old mother
bear and her young later came up to about one hundred and fifty yards from
the tent.

One day just after I had cleaned my second seal I heard
a noise just like a dog outside of my door and I looked out the door and about
fifteen feet from the tent was a big bear and a young one. I was very scared
but I took my rifle and thought I would take a chance. I knew if I just hit
them in the foot or some place where it would only injure them a little
they would come after me, so I fired over their heads and they turned and
ran a little ways and turned and looked as if they would come back, so I
fired five more shots at them and they ran away for good then.

One morning after I had built a fire I opened the door
and I found a large polar bear track right in the door way and I went out
and looked and he had been all around the tent. I had a twenty-five pound
lard tin of oil outside of my tent and about three days after the first bear
had been there another bear came one night and ate all of that tin of oil.
I think it was only one for the tracks all looked the same size.

Not very long after that the boat came. It was one
evening about the 19th of August. I was making my lunch or supper. I heard
a funny noise like a boat whistle but thought it was a duck or something.
It was foggy and I couldn't see so I didn't think any more about it until the
next morning. I took my book after supper, for I couldn't go to sleep until