Page 74 - 2003 SVALBARD, NORWAY

expected an unwanted guest to arrive; certainly it was not the

gulls and skuas who had her wary. She wandered a few paces
away and sniffed the air and then came back to finish up. It was

hard to believe that there would be anything left for either the
patient or impatient birds.

Before we left this primal scene, the cub had sat down on all fours
on the ice and began to wash his paws. We never saw the mother

begin to clean up and wondered how they would ever get the
bloody remains of their dinner off their white fur. “Out, Out,

damned spot” and a scene so bloody that “it would the
multitudinous seas incarnadine” were quotes that came to mind.

What an unreal drama to have witnessed--what a good
mother/provider this sow was--what an awful end for the hapless

ring seal with its innocent face!

As though in memorial to this sea creature whose life was

sacrificed so that two others might live on, the scene around them
and us suddenly turned to liquid silver and the little peaks and

edges of the ice bergs and pressure ridges shone metallically
bright!

By the time we settled down in the Lounge to talk with some

fellow travelers, we were stunned to see that it was 10:30 PM and
it was as bright as high noon in Jacksonville. However, what a
different quality to that “brightness.” We stayed up until 1:00 AM

because we wanted to see the midnight sun and this was our first
and last chance to do so as we had thick fog on all the other

nights. Of course, there is really no night (darkness) at this time of
year in Svalbard and there really isn’t any lessening of the

intensity of the light except as it is modulated by rain and/or fog.
This midnight sun casts an incisive brilliant light which sharply

points up everything it touches. But it is not a flat glaring light. It is