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THE SECOND WINTER AND THE TRAGIC END 277

thought going to Nome was the best thing to do. Evi-
dently Fred also felt sure of getting safely across to
Siberia and Alaska, so that his disinclination to go was
not from fear of accidents on the moving ice but only
from policy.

“I have taken up with the family the question of
publishing the letters Fred left on Wrangel Island to
his mother and to his wife. Mother feels that the letter
was for her only and does not want it published. I have
taken the matter up with Delphine and she feels the
same way about Fred’s letter to her. No doubt Fred
wrote these letters the last moment before leaving the
island. Had he arrived safe the letters would not have
been received by his mother or his wife. I also believe
that he never intended them for publication.

“Sincerely,

“(Signed) John Maurer.”

Having seen what opinions Fred Maurer’s family have
derived from his letters to them, we go on with Lorne
Knight’s record of what happened from day to day and
how he faced a growing illness, the danger of which he
fully understood.

February 6th: “Ada spent some time digging out logs
to-day which she put in the storm shed. I cut a little
wood inside. She is cheerful and seems to be glad to
relieve me of all exertion, which I am sure I appreciate.
If I only had breath when I moved about I would not
be so badly off, but at the least movement, especially
rapid, I am puffing like a freight locomotive. In the
bags of blubber that we have is a little meat attached
to the blubber and I am eating all of this that I can.
There are only two pokes left [probably between 300