THIN ICE 



onds by my watch before the bird ap- 

 peared again. This time he rose almost 

 fully to the surface and sounded a war 

 cry, then dove again and was under for 

 seventy seconds. And so as long as I 

 stood my distance motionless he came 

 and went, never above water for more 

 than a few seconds, varying in length 

 of time that he stayed below from half 

 a minute to a minute and a quarter, and 

 never going below without sounding the 

 eerie heartbreak of his call. 



Then I skated away to get my camera 

 and was gone three-quarters of an hour. 

 Returning I saw him in the distance, for 

 the snow had almost passed. He saw 

 me too and dived. Gliding up I knelt at 

 the very edge of the hole and was fixing 

 the camera when he came up. He sat 

 level on the surface for a second, seem- 

 ingly not noticing me. Then, warned by 

 61 



