He had told them the island would provide abundant game to supplement those supplies.

He had not been to Wrangel Island himself.

Ada, by multiple accounts, struggled badly at the start.

She had no experience with the demands of Arctic camp life.

She had what was described as a profound fear of polar bears — a not unreasonable thing to fear on an island with one of the world’s highest concentrations of polar bear dens, where 400-pound animals were a constant presence near the camp.

She reportedly suffered from what was sometimes called “Arctic Hysteria” in the early weeks — a term that covered panic responses to the staggering psychological pressure of isolation in an extreme environment.