stefansson-wrangel-09-25-004

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or his mittens, and he was in a very pitiable plight. The most cheerful one seemed to be Murray. The Doctor appeared all in. They were doubletripping their stuff and Beuchat remained at the camp to look out for their things. Chafe wanted him to return to Shipwreck Camp but Beuchat would not. He knew we could not do anything for him there. The Doctor's party was never seen or heard of again, nor any trace of them found.

That evening the Captain informed me that on the 12th of the month I would leave with the two engineers, two firemen, Malloch, Chafe and one sailor. We would have two sleds and would go to Wrangell Island. The chief engineer was in command.

The next day we got everything ready. We had a lot of collapsible iron stoves for burning driftwood and I wanted to take two of them along to Wrangell Island so we could use wood for fuel. They weighed only a few pounds. The Captain did not approve of this, however, and gave us orders to burn kerosene instead of driftwood. We started with a light load and we were to replenish our loads as we went along from the depots which had been made at the Captain's orders at various intervals towards land. I should judge we had nine hundred pounds to a sled and five dogs. We had one Mannlicher rifle for each sled and three hundred rounds of ammunition for each rifle. We also had one .22 caliber rifle with five hundred rounds.

About nine o'clock February 12th the chief engineer's party started from Shipwreck Camp towards shore with me in it. We tried to follow the old trail made by the sledges when they were carrying out the supplies which had been cached. in several depots at varying distances from Shipwreck Camp along a line running towards shore. We found the trail broken by ice movement and difficult or impossible to follow. In some

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places we would come to where the trail ended abruptly along a line of ice movement and after long search we might find it two or three miles to one side or the other. Usually it was found to the left, for the farther away from Wrangell Island the ice was the faster it was drifting to the west. Our progress was pretty slow, for in addition to searching for the trail we had to chop a road through pressure ridges frequently with the pickaxes. Our reason for trying to follow the old trail was to see if we could find any of the depots. When we arrived in a locality where we thought one of the depots ought to be, we stopped for several hours or perhaps over-night to make a search. I did not expect to find any of them but we did find one which by good luck was in the middle of an old ice floe that had escaped crushing.

The second morning out I shot a small bear. but the rest of the boys would not eat it as they weren't hungry enough yet, so I fed it to the dogs. This was better for them than the pemmican ration.

The morning when we left camp the wind was freshening from the northeast. It gradually increased to a blizzard and kept up for five or six days. In the morning of the sixth day we arrived at the pressed-up ice where the edge of the landfast floe meets the moving pack. This proved to be about forty miles from Wrangell Island. The ice was crushing and tumbling so that we just had to wait for it to stop. I picked out what I thought was a good cake for camping. I then went to have a better look at the ridge and found the ice in a frightful condition. I got on top of a small pinnacle which was not moving just then and found the ridge extended about three and a half miles through such ice as I had never before seen in my twenty-five years' knowledge of the arctic sea. Nothing could be done till the crushing stopped. I had grave fears for the Doctor's and the

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Mate's parties if they got caught in this.

We camped and waited for the ice to stop crushing. That evening about eight o’clock we were all in our blankets and I was listening to the ice groaning and vibrating when, snap! the ice cracked right across the floor of our house. We tumbled out as quickly as we could, packed the gear on the sled, hitched up the dogs and got everything ready for retreat. I found we were surrounded by lanes of water, but, as we were two or three miles from the ridge, I thought we wouldn’t do anything until daylight unless we had to because it was so dark you could cut it and it was impossible to see where you were going. So we walked around to keep ourselves warm until daylight. When it was light enough we started to climb back. Then the ice began to get its work in, splitting and opening up in all directions. But there was no crushing where we were. About 4 P.M. we managed to get back to the solid pack and picked a place to camp.

Nex t morning I heard more crushing. We again packed up. We moved southeast a few miles and then south and camped about two miles from the ridge. The Chief and I walked down to have a look at it and found it still crushing a bit, so we concluded to wait another day. We knew the Captain's gang would be along shortly. All hands could then pitch in and cut our way through, for we know the ridge was solidly grounded on the sea bottom and oncw inside it we would be safe. It certainly was there to stay till summer. When on our way back from this inspection we saw the Captain coming from the north. I walked ahead to meet him and tell him how things were going.

Next morning all hands pitched in with everything they could work with. After a discussion with me the Captain decided to send me with two sleds back to Shipwreck Camp to rush some grub over the ridge onto the landfast ice and

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we could return from the beach and get it at any time.

We started next morning and arrived at Shipwreck Camp at 6 P.M. I should judge it was forty miles. Next day we loaded the sleds. It took us three days to cover on the return journey what we had made in one day coming out.

On the second day about three P.M. I was behind the team when my dogs stopped, turned in their tracks, and commenced growling, their hair standing up stiff. I looked behind me and there was a bear about six feet from the sled. If the dogs hadn't smelt it I should never have known what hit me. They made a break for him and he backed off a few feet, giving me a chance to get my gun and give it to him in the head. We found him about ten feet from tip to tip, with three inches of fat blubber. We made camp, for it was getting dusk.

While I was tinkering at the camp and the other boys were cooking the dogs commenced a racket. I looked up and there was a big bear alongside the sled between me and it, sitting on his haunches and making passes at the dogs. I ran around the sled and got my rifle, which was about four feet from the bear. We were not needing any bear meat, so I tried to frighten him off, but he was too scared of the dogs to pay any attention to me. I did not want him to kill any of the dogs, and finally had to shoot him. As I shot I heard another growling match and another bear piled over a small ridge that was about ten feet from the seld. He had blood in his eye and went for the dogs as if bent on murder. I had to kill him, which closed a pretty good day so far as bears and dog feed were concerned.

About noon the next day as we were drawing near the ridge, two men came running to meet us. They were the Chief and one of the sailors, who helped us over the ridge to camp.

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The next morning Kurraluk, McKinlay, Mamen and I went back for bear meat while the rest were double-tripping stuff towards the beach. We got ashore in Wrangell March 12th, having had a fairly good road the forty miles from the ridge. There was plenty of driftwood on the beach, which was a godsend to us.

The next morning the Captain sent one of the Eskimos and me out to look for the Mate’s and the Doctor’s parties but no sled tracks or other signs were to be found anywhere on Wrangell Island. Big fires were made with wet driftwood to cause smoke which they could see a long way if they were there to see it. The Captain and one of the natives started March 18th with fifty days’ rations for the men and thirty days’ for the dogs. We learned later they had a fairly easy trip, reaching natives and traders in Siberia thirteen days after they left Wrangell Island.

Shortly after the Captain left, Mamen, Malloch and the steward went to Rodgers Harbor to live through the summer. The native went along to help them. About the end of March the native returned. On the way back he killed a female bear and two cubs. The next week the Eskimo he and I got two more bears and a small cub.

As there did not seem to be much game near the shore, the Eskimo and I went out to the edge of the landfast ice, forty miles from the coast, and made camp. Next morning bright and early we went out to the open water about three miles beyond the ridge and got five seals. For two or three days after that the sealing conditions were bad, so the native decided to go ashore with two seals and bring back a load of driftwood to burn. He took the sled we had come with and two dogs, leaving one with me to give me warning in case of the arrival of a bear. He intended to be back in four days.