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| Ice Age Short Faced Bear |
The Terror by Dan Simmons tells the story of Sir John Franklin's expedition to the Canadian Arctic to find the Northwest Passage. These guys sailed away and were never heard from again. It's only recently that the wrecks of the ships have been uncovered. Since there were no survivors, we can conclude that the expedition was a disaster. Just how things fell apart is open to speculation, and that's what Dan does in his book. He makes up a horrifying tale of what happened. Horrifying to my sensitive, coddled, modern self, but pretty much run-of-mill stuff for explorers on sailing ships in the 19th Century.
Anyway, one of the horrors bedeviling this expedition is a giant bear-like creature, a monster. Was there such a creature? Imagine my surprise when this fellow (the short faced bear above) appears. Wikipedia says they died out 11,000 years ago, but did they? The far north was largely unexplored until a couple hundred years ago. There could have been a zillion of them up there, hiding behind ice bergs.
1 comment:
Could be, not long ago they discovered the mammoths which were thought to have died out 10,000 years ago survived on Wrangle Island, Alaska until 3700 years ago. Monster short faced bears being more mobile and harder to find, may still be lurking.
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