stefansson-wrangel-09-32-029v

262 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

there were several subsidiary reasons. The party had
felt confined on the island and wanted to be doing some-
thing. Some of them were homesick. Crawford may
have been anxious to get south to continue his university
studies. They were all hungry for news of the outside
world which they had left a year and a half before. They
wanted to give me the benefit of their experience in case
I were outfitting in 1923 the expedition which they and I
had hoped I might have organized in 1922. ⁷

Such were doubtless the original reasons for the plan-
ning of the journey months before it was made. They
were going to make it so soon as the weather became cold
enough and the ice in their opinion safe enough—that is,
in January. But when January came a further reason
for going had developed. The quantity of supplies on
hand was such that if five people and five dogs remained
on the island, they would have to go on short rations until
sufficient game was secured. That might be only a few
days if a bear or two came to camp; but it might be until
April when the spring sealing began if neither bear hunt-
ing nor floe sealing prospered sooner. But if two men and
five dogs were removed from the commissariat, the re-
maining three people would have food enough till sum-
mer. This was the new reason which presented itself
for carrying out the old plans.

We may, therefore, summarize by saying that while the
original start for Nome would doubtless have been made
at the same season, with the same outfit and with similar
chances of success if there had been a hundred tons of
food on hand, still the food shortage which developed in

⁷ A discussion of the surprising fact that Galle’s record shows he did
not at first know where Knight and Crawford were going, or did not believe
what they told him about their plans, is found in the appendix under
“Fragmentary Papers of Milton Galle,” and in the introduction to the
paper on “Plover Land.”