We spent the morning in Maxwell Bay, in the southwestern region of Devon Island, and landed at a beautiful and austere place called Fellfoot Point. Our landing was on the edge of a huge delta created by the outwash of a braided network river formed by meltwater from some unseen snowcap in the center of the island. The broad river valley is obviously an old U-shaped glacial valley ground out of the surrounding raised sandstone. The resulting geology is spectacular and provided us with great opportunities for hiking. Some of us went far into the main valley and up onto the slope of a side tributary where we were rewarded with wonderful views of the entire area. See Figure A.
There was not much life to be seen on shore here. The rocky substrate contained very little plant life, indicating it had only recently (geologically speaking, that is) become uncovered by the melting of the glacier that once moved through here. Studies have demonstrated that it can take literally thousands of years to develop a plant-friendly soil in this part of the world. So, it is going to be a long time before this area becomes a green meadow. In spite of that, we saw several snow geese, a flock of brant geese, a pair of white arctic hares, and evidence of ptarmigans and musk oxen.
For the rest of the day, we slowly made our way across Parry Channel and down into Prince Regent Inlet. Along the way, we searched the ice for interesting animal life. We observed plenty of seals (harp seals, mostly) and two very friendly and cooperative polar bears that seemed quite interested in our ship. If anyone didn’t get a good photo of either of these bears…well, it’s his or her own fault, because these bears seemed to consciously pose for us. See Figure B.
In the evening, we met up with the Canadian icebreaker Pierre Radission, and had fun sailing together through more pack ice. Many more bears were sighted, including the observation of a male bear chasing after a female bear with two cubs in tow. The reason we had linked up with the icebreaker was to make plans to pass through the infamous Bellot Strait together sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned for more on that venture.
