IN THE SHETLANDS 235 
the surface, held horizontally. Another moment, and 
his back makes a bent bow in the water, as with a 
rolling motion, something like that of a porpoise, he 
dives and vanishes. He always makes for a great 
mass of brown seaweed clothing the rocks, now 
covered, where I had first seen him lying, and extend- 
ing down into the depths. In this I lose him, but 
whether he stays there or merely coasts along it I 
cannot tell ; but he always rises in about the same spot, 
and this suggests that he comes each time from the 
same place. Seals may, perhaps, lie upon the bottom, 
under the overarching edges of the rocks they bask 
on at low water, and wound amongst the seaweed that 
grows on them ; but their sleep, if they slept, would 
be broken. 
I took out my watch and measured the time this 
great seal stayed under water, finding it to be, on an 
average, from ten to twelve minutes, his longest sub- 
mersion being fourteen minutes and a half. I then 
thought I would descend the cliffs and get along the 
shore to just opposite where he usually came up, which 
would be very near him. This I easily managed, con- 
cealing myself once, when I knew that he would rise, 
and going on again as soon as he was down. When 
he next came up I had the satisfaction of beholding 
him from some dozen or twenty yards. He was con- 
siderably larger than the common seal, his skin per- 
fectly naked and of a bluish colour, which, with the 
breadth of his back, gave him something the appear- 
ance of a hippopotamus in the water. This was when 
