THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 627 



of Prince of Wales Strait opposite the Princess Royal Islands, 

 under guardianship of Jim Fiji and some Eskimos, and some time 

 after that the Bear steamed south a hundred miles against a head 

 wind much of the way, and anchored in Walker Bay more than 

 a month before the end of the ordinary season of navigation. 

 From a high lookout hill back of his depot after the ship sailed 

 south Jim Fiji watched the straits and reported that in a day or 

 two what little ice there was disappeared and that he never saw 

 any more the rest of the summer — five or six weeks at least. 

 This Knight had on hearsay from Jim, but he knew personally that 

 no ice had been in sight from anywhere near Walker Bay for 

 more than a month after they anchored, and the season was un- 

 usually warm. 



Confirmatory news as to the unusual favorableness of the sea- 

 son came from Crawford's ship. They had been anxious to get 

 in touch with the Bear. About the same time that the Bear went 

 into winter quarters the Challenge had left Bering Straits. She 

 came east along the north coast of Alaska, past Herschel Island 

 and Cape Bathurst and up into Prince of Wales Straits, knowing 

 that the Bear had wintered near Armstrong Point. They steamed 

 about half-way up into the straits and, finding not a single cake 

 of ice, concluded the Bear must long ago have gone to Melville 

 Island. They then returned south and, believing that the Bear was 

 not less than 200 miles north of them, went into winter quarters 

 a few miles away from her. 



In general I am telling this story as it appeared to me at the 

 time, giving each situation as it then seemed and without throwing 

 upon it any light which was not then available. I shall depart from 

 that policy here by saying that Knight's story was later on estab- 

 lished by the sworn testimony of some of the men on the Bear and 

 by the verbal report of the majority of the others. There was dis- 

 agreement on certain points but in the main the story stands about 

 as Knight gave it to us, except for the fact that Knight's presenta- 

 tion led us to think that the Captain had been more or less the 

 tool of some of the crew. A later investigation put more of the 

 blame on him, where it must officially rest, anyway, for the theory 

 is that a captain is supreme commander of a ship and responsible 

 for everything so long as he remains in command irrespective of 

 what pressure or influence may have been brought to bear upon 

 him. 



This unpleasant story belonged in the past and we tried to 

 dismiss it from our minds. But it came up later in such connection 



