In January 1920 Pennell and Edmonds were apparently the only HBC men on Wolstenholme Post and times were bleak. Little mention is made of a settled Inuit population at Erik Cove as in Lake Harbour and many of the entries reflect this isolation. Pennell's entries show some concern for his Inuit contacts' welfare, apparently a view not shared by Nichols who took over from Pennell in September 1920.

19-01-20	Edmonds killed a large square flipper this morning near Bear Cove, it is a great relief [sic] to get the meat for the dogs sake as well as our own as our Bear meat has been used up since December.
21-01-20	Dull & Overcast Wind S. slight for the past two weeks the Post has been very quiet. None of the people have been in this month, evidently they are not getting any foxes. Pennell and Edmonds visited traps, got nothing, not a sign anywhere.
23-01-20	Koomuk-Mark & David arrived today with 3 foxes & reports the people hard up, no seals & most of them no meat. We are compelled to let them have some necessities on Debt.

By June things were looking brighter, if for no other reason than the winter was over and contact with the outside world was nearing. Some Inuit employees and workers appeared to be on the Post by this time, but Pennell's review of the Post's trading results summarized a poor year.

01-06-20	Fine clear day ... snow around Post nearly all gone. Much water on top of ice looks as if we will have open water before 15th of this month. Kounarluk & Edmonds at Carpentry work. Pennell at office work. Aoudlak & Women at Porpoise Hide, Boy cleaning up Ashes. Koomuk-Mark & Ooshooktoo arrived from Deer hunting, they did not see a deer track but report Fox tracks numerous far inland which in their opinion will travel toward the coast during the summer? fall? Amongst the peoples the past winter's Fox hunt must be considered a very poor one, out of 660 Foxes over 130 were caught by Post hands. 180 came from Mansel Island, most of which were caught during the preceding year & Koomuk-Mark caught 57 leaving about 300 to be averaged amongst 17 or 18 hunters, 5 or 6 of which got not more than 3 or 4 ea. up to the end of November. Foxes were plentiful but since that time scarcely a track has been seen. As most of the people have been hard up all the winter, especially at Sugluk & the conflicting reports from Wakeham Bay where the people are receiving grub, Cartridges & [...] for nothing. The winter has not been very pleasant & it is with pleasure we look forward to ship-time.
04-06-20	Henry and Oochitoo arrived today with some Porpoise Hide & left after trading quite a few whales have been killed over there lately. They tell us there is very little ice over there.
05-06-20	After dinner took the boat out to the edge of the ice and secured 22 tinkers [tickleace], they are very wild.
06-06-20	Mosquitos thick.
07-06-20	A flock of Geese seen passing north this forenoon flying high. Edmonds & Kounarluk each shot a seal on the ice to-day, later assisting Pennell at salting Porpoise Hide ... Aoudlak at fat. Koucharlie & David's wives arrived to-day with some Porpoise & sq. Flipper [Line]

On 13 June 1920 the Wolstenholme Post journal switches to a typescript. Did Pennell take up typeing? Or was the journal reconstructed after the fact for some reason?
Things ran apace through June and most of July. Seal nets were made ready and deployed, whales, seals and porpoises were taken along with tinkers, trout and other small game by local hunters. Sometime after 17 July, on which day Pennell was "cleaning the Anzac's engine", the vessel left Wolstenholme on a trip but met with trouble.

29-07-20	Ockpalagk and his wife arrived from the Anzac to get more help. It seems that they ran into a heavy sea which carried them ashore and badly smashed the boat. Mark will go over in his boat and try to tow her in.

More trouble is reported at the end of July.

31-07-20

Visited net and got our first Whale. Koomuk-Mark shot the back of his hand while hunting whales this forenoon. It seems that he had wounded a whale and was running after it when he tripped and fell, setting the gun off. The bullet tore away the back of his hand and before he reached the Post he was in a very weak condition, we fixed him up as good as we could but it will be some time before he will be able to do any work with it.

12 August the Nannuk arrived and began the shipping season. On 14 August the Nascopie arrived and ran into some trouble.

14-08-20

Employed landing Wolstenholme supplies and a stormy time we are having at it. Two of the ships boats were driven ashore and badly smashed, and are now good for nothing but firewood. A canoe, belonging to Netchelik Post was blown away and cannot be found. We gave up discharging in afternoon owing to the gale and heavy seas. We have now nine men on the Post and only one bed-room to accomadate the lot. They are, Cantley, Nichols, Learmonth, Pennell, Pardy, Miles, Hayward, Pallisser and Edmunds.

On 26 September the Nascopie left Erik Cove with Parsons, Pardy, Learmonth, and Hayward to establish Harrison Post, leaving Nichols and Edmunds to clear up the Post and operate for the coming year.
Nichols journal entries show a callous regard for his Inuit employees and hunters and reflect his concern with keeping within strict operating budgets. The presence of the Opposition traders meant extra costs would be required to maintain HBC loyalties; including increased prices for furs and a greater demand for trade goods and supplies. After the Nascopie returned from Harrison Post and set off for St. John's on 06 October 1920 Nichols next journal entry begins his worrisome litany. He proffers his own opinions fairly often [an unusual use of personal pronouns in HBC Post journals], and punctuates his remarks with bracketed asides; for example, twice, when reporting the departure of an Inuit party, he concludes with "Thank God" and "good riddance".

11-10-20	All hands employed at new dwelling house, trying to get it covered in before snow comes. Mark, Simon, Mukkeguk, Tiyaga and four Women arrived this forenoon, nothing to trade as usual. It seems to me that the old house will make things too comfortable for the Eskimo this year and that we will have more of them than we did other years.
31-10-20	During the past two weeks Edmunds Wife has been sick and unable to do the cooking, we were compelled to get another woman for a while as we need Edmunds for other work beside cooking in place of his wife, who to my thinking is more lazy than sick [see 15-01-21].
04-11-20	Servants employed setting traps, which is a waste of time nd labour as there is not a track to be seen. ... All the Natives left the Post this forenoon and we are likely to get another bunch to-morrow.
14-12-20	Employed giving out goods to the Sugluk Natives [who arrived 12-12-20 after five "days on the road and both men and dogs are very hungry"], we cannot call it trading as they have nothing to trade. ...Malakay and three boys' left Post this forenoon to go to the Islands for some dog-food as the Sugluk Natives are completely out.
15-12-20	It seems that when the Natives get on the Post they are loath to leave again, especially now that they have a good warm house to live in.
21-12-20	All the Natives arrived at the Post this afternoon to spen Xmas, we have a nice bunch now to look after, about 200 altogether, Men, Women and Children. And it will do away with some food to feed them.
15-01-21	Edmunds employed at house-work. His Wife is sick and gave birth to a Son at 8 a.m., all seems to be going well.
06-02-21	We now have ten full grown Men on the Post to feed, and a 50 lb. bag of Biscuit is only enogh for one day, and once they get here they are in no hurry to get away.