Bears and Men: A Gathering

The expedition was small,10 men who wanted to observe and photograph the polar bears of Hudson Bay. They came to Churchill in November, just before freeze-up, heading for Cape Churchill, 60 kilometers (37 miles) across the tundra. Except for his friend Dan Guravich, the others were strangers to poet-novelist Mills. For nearly two weeks the group would live in very tight quarterstheir mobile camp was a ""tundra-buggy'' that towed a flimsy plywood bunkhouse mounted on the bottom of a track vehicle. They found bears a-plenty, young and old; Arctic foxes, ptarmigan and ringed seals. Mills reflects on the extraordinary camaraderie among the men; he examines photography as art and delusion. He questions the ethics of baiting the bears, a point of contention between two members of the expedition. It was a rugged, exciting adventure, and Mills's spectacular photographs confirm its success. (September 10)