vi PREFACE 
writing. Besides birds, I was lucky enough this 
time to have seals to watch, and I watched them hour 
after hour and day after day. I believe I know them 
better now, than I do anybody, or than anybody does 
me; but that is not to say much, for, as the true 
Russian proverb has it, “Another man’s soul is 
darkness.” But I have them in my heart for ever, 
and I would take them out of the Zoological Society’s 
basins, and throw them back into the sea, if I could. 
I have no doubt that these pages contain some 
errors of observation or inference which I am not yet 
aware of—but those who only glance at them may 
sometimes be inclined to correct me, where, later, 
I correct myself. It is best, I think, to let one’s mis- 
takes stand recorded against one, for mistakes have 
their interest, and often emphasize some truth. 
Honesty, too, would suffer in their suppression—and 
besides, if one has got in some idea or reflection that 
pleases one, or a piece of descriptive writing that does 
not seem amiss, how tiresome to have to scratch it out, 
merely because it is founded on a wrong apprehension ! 
—the spire to come tumbling just for the want of a 
base! For these reasons, therefore—especially the 
last, when it applies—I have not suppressed my 
errors, even where I happen to know them. There 
they stand, if only to encourage others who may be 
labouring in the same field as myself—which makes 
one more high-minded motive. 
