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stefansson-wrangel-09-11-060-001
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Dear Mr. FitzGerald:
The Minister of the Interior at Ottawa has said that if the British Government falls in line with the policy towards Wrangel Island which the Canadian Cabinet are now inclined to follow, he will be in favor of giving me a lease on Wrangel Island. In that case I would like to sublet the island to a fur company, preferably British, and still more preferably your Company. I look upon the island as capable of supporting about twenty or twenty-five thousand reindeer, which could be landed there from Siberia at a cost of, say, ten dollars per head. It is unexcelled as a station for walrus and for the hair seal. Furthermore, it is probably one of the best fur localities in the world for white fox, blue fox, and polar bear.
I hope to see Mr. Sale and to discuss this matter with him unless you inform me that it is wholly in your province. I should welcome a letter from you on this subject to Mr. Sale as well as one to myself. If you reply immediately, the letter will reach me here in New York. But if time seems pressing, address me as a passenger on the Empress of Britain, sailing from Quebec May 12th.
My expectation is that I shall return to Canada about the middle of June.
Mr. Edward Fitz Gerald, Hudson’s Bay Reindeer Company, Winnipeg, Manitoba.