Page 55 - 2003 SVALBARD, NORWAY

his back and wave his legs in the air. He did not indulge in this

youthful game very long and by the time Lois had him in her
binocular sights, he was wobbling across the ice again--away from

the ship and into the fog bank.

Thoughts on the Polar Bear

Apparently, it is believed that polar bears broke off, evolutionarily
speaking, fairly recently from grizzly bears; but the few
connections between the two other than the obvious

“bearishness” suggest they have moved a long way off. Along
about 4 AM, the strangeness of the life of “Ursus Maritimus”

begins to flood into the mind with a clarity that you wonder you
hadn’t felt before.

This huge animal lives in a world of silvers, grays, whites, glacial

blues, constant fog and precipitation, and walking on water. His
world is a frozen sea with lesser or greater degrees of rigidity in
the ice depending on the season. He swims with great strength

and without hesitancy in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean and its
various included “seas” and fjords, and bays. He depends upon

the ocean for his food. Finally, it becomes clear that what makes
one uncomfortable about his way of life is his four legs. It is not

that he breathes air--so do seals, walruses and whales. It is not
even that he must earn his livelihood from the sea creatures--so

do birds and seals and walruses and whales. It is not that he can
swim tirelessly for more than 100 miles easily during a day--so do
the seals and walruses and whales. No, it is those four legs. They

make it seem that he should be walking upon solid earth--not out
in a wilderness of sea water frozen to a thickness that he can tread

upon.