White Bear: Encounters with the Master of the Arctic Ice

Feazel, a geologist who has been on many Arctic expeditions, here presents a vivid portrait of one of the region's most fascinating and dangerous animals. The polar bear, the largest predator on earth, has long been a symbol of the Far North--admired, feared, worshiped and utilized by the Eskimos, Inuit and Greenlanders for millennia. The author describes with awe and admiration this magnificent animal and tells of its interactions with humans from earliest times. Polar bears deliberately kill and eat humans; accordingly, he charges his text with hair-raising accounts of man's encounters with the huge animals. More to be esteemed than dreaded, however, the polar bear, we're shown, is now threatened by man-made dangers, including global warming that would destroy the polar ice cap it inhabits. The book reveals as much about the Arctic and the advent of modern civilization as it does about the white bear. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)