SNOW, AND QUALITY OF WHITENESS 119 



from terror at the sight of an ocean white with 

 the foam of breakers among which the ship was 

 driven. He afterwards declared that it was not 

 the thought of the danger, for to danger he was 

 accustomed, but the whiteness of the sea that 

 overcame him. And to his animistic mind that 

 whiteness was nothing but the sign of ocean's 

 wrath the sight of its tremendous passion and 

 deadly purpose proved too appalling. 



There is no doubt that the conditions of the 

 sailor's life tend to bring out and strengthen the 

 latent animism that is in all of us ; the very ship 

 he navigates is to his mind alive and intelligent, 

 how much more the ocean, which, even to lands- 

 men on each return to it after an interval, seems 

 no mere expanse of water, but a living conscious 

 thing. It was only my strangeness to the sea 

 which prevented the sight of its whiteness from 

 affecting me profoundly : animism in me is strong- 

 est with regard to terrestrial phenomena, with 

 which I am more familiar. 



To return, before concluding this chapter, to 

 the subject of white animals. And first a word or 

 two concerning the great polar bear: is it not 

 probable that the extreme fear it inspires, which 

 is said by those who have encountered this animal 

 to exceed greatly that which is experienced at 

 the sight of other savage beasts that are danger- 

 ous to man, is due to its association with the 

 death-like repellent whiteness and desolation of 

 polar scenery? 



