(…) If the schooners do not appear till the end of next week I hope that everything on Barter Island will be finished and shall feel fairly well satisfied. It has meant a great deal of hard work – 4 to 5 hours day on the average with shovel and scraper, then for me, in addition, 5 hours or so, packing, writing notes, labeling specimens etc. Then there have been specimens for Dr. Anderson and Johansen. Today I caught six butterflies, and Aiyakuk, from a pool, culled half a dozen fish for Johansen, while Kaiyutaq cleaned a loon skin which I have to dress.
Diamond Jenness
Antropologist
Nest of black brant at Camden Bay, Alaska
Photo: Rudolph Martin Anderson
© Canadian Museum of Civilization 39446
One of the larger challenges while conducting research in the Arctic is time management. As Diamond Jenness relates, it is difficult to find time for everything. The 24 hours of daylight in summer tempts one to keep working day and night. But collecting information, objects, stories or specimens, without spending the appropriate time for recording all of the necessary information about them, is always counter-productive.
It is extremely important to keep a daily journal, to record the general circumstances of the scientific observations, and to record the details of the individual objects, specimens, photographs, or anything else collected.
The value of many of the objects and specimens collected by the CAE depends on the quality and amount of the accompanying information. There are three hundred unlabeled artifacts collected by the Northern Party, many of which are wrongly attributed to Stefansson, which are only interesting instead of being scientifically invaluable.
David
