CHAPTER XXIII 



RECORDS, RETROSPECTS AND REFLECTIONS 



THE day after moving to the deer-kill we discovered we were on 

 an island about eight miles in its longest diameter and three or 

 four hundred feet high, with the mainland about a mile away 

 from the eastern end and about three miles to the south of our camp. 

 There was only one more caribou on the island. This we killed and 

 with its meat and what remained of the other six we crossed over and 

 made an encampment on a sandspit near a good harbor. Here 

 was considerable driftwood not only for fire but for building an 

 elevated platform, upon which we stored such belongings as might 

 be injured by foxes and other animals. Incidentally, we hoped 

 that this conspicuous landmark might be seen by the Star when she 

 came along and might guide her to where we were. At Norway 

 Island we had erected the day after landing a conspicuous beacon 

 on the highest hill. It contained a brief record of our journey from 

 Alaska, and said that we expected to spend the summer hunting on 

 the mainland to the east, accumulating meat for food and skina 

 for clothing for the coming winter, and that we would be on con- 

 tinual watch for the Star. 



June 28th and the days following Storkerson made a map of 

 Bernard Island and killed on the coast one ugrug, or bearded seal, 

 and some small ordinary seals, while I examined the mainland, 

 especially to the east. We found Bernard Island to be in the mouth 

 of a river larger than one would expect on Banks Island, in spring 

 more than half a mile wide, while even ten or fifteen miles inland 

 and as late as August when the water is far below spring level, 

 one who does not want to swim has to look carefully for a ford. 

 By September, however, there are numerous places where the stream 

 is no more than knee deep, generally where it is wider and more 

 rapid, so that the width of a ford fifteen or twenty miles inland will 

 be thirty or fifty yards. 



In the comparative leisure of these first days ashore I made 

 long retrospective diary entries dealing with the circumstances under 

 which we left Alaska and with the journey to Norway Island. 

 Again I find reflections on how much more we could have accom- 



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