Svalbard

Seen around Svalbard:
- one arctic fox (in Longyearbyen town)
- three polar bears (a mother and two nearly-grown cubs)
- several more reindeer (one close enough to see the velvet on its antlers)
- two ptarmigan (which the guides pronounce as p-tarmigan)
- lots of puffins
- two huge glaciers, and several smaller ones
- large waves heading in our direction as the glaciers shed great chunks
- lots of drift ice (which prevented us from getting to the walrus island; so, no walruses)
- king eider ducklings (does that make them prince and princess eiders?)
- bearded seal
- a Russian mining settlement, and an international research settlement (including someone doing research into barnacle geese, and someone else doing research into arctic foxes; this leads to Friction)
- a bright orange cultural artefact
- a book by Rayner Unwin on Barents' third voyage, when he over-wintered on Novaya Zemlya.

Now back on dry land. We're about to go for a walk around town; then fly back to Tromso, and board the Hurtigruten coastal steamer.