Davids, Richard C.
Richard C. Davids is a free-lance writer and the author of numerous books including
This is our Land, The Man Who Moved a Mountain, and How to Talk to our Birds.

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How empty the arctic would be without its lordly bears. For me, every encounter with one is brushed with magic; I have the distinct feeling that I have had an audience with royalty. Lords of the Arctic, 1982.

A big female (polar bear) was buffeting my plastic container of water. I couldn't keep from shouting, "Get away from here." She left it and came up close, fixing her black eyes on mine. "Why," she seemed to be saying, "What gives you authority over this land?" Ibid.

Incredibly far as some (polar) bears may roam, none can survive for long away from the ice of the ocean. It is their hunting platform, their home of sweet content. Ibid.

It is appropriate that the world arctic comes from arktos, the Greek name for bear, for this is a land where Ursa Major, the Great Bear or the Big Dipper, shines down from the zenith of the northern sky. Ibid.

The arctic is a beautiful haunting land. The skies are often intensely blue, the snow so white that the horizon is a firm line that separates ice and sky as if a child had drawn it. Ibid.

Admiral Peary on Franz Josef Island shot more than 60 bears in his first year, twenty-five in his second, and only twelve in his third. It would take only a few years, he wrote, ' to kill out the species completely. Ibid.