IN THE SHETLANDS 237 
are represented by three or four strong white bristles 
on either side. The nostrils open and close with 
strong expansive and contractive power, and blow the 
water away from them almost like the spouting of 
a miniature whale. When wide open they look as 
round as the aperture of a champagne or beer bottle, 
which they somewhat suggest, and this, perhaps, has 
given their bearer his title of bottle-nosed. Whether 
this is more than a local name amongst the Shetlanders 
I do not know. It is here that I first heard it, and 
that was two years ago when I was describing this 
very selfsame animal, as I now believe, to a young 
man who suggested that ‘‘ perhaps it was a bottle- 
nosed seal.” 
Such was the peculiar creature which I now set 
myself to observe, and which, except for a long 
interval during which it disappeared altogether, con- 
tinued to rise and sink and rise again, till after five, 
when I left, having observed it thoroughly. Several 
times he went down with a fine roll over, sideways, as 
well as forward. This I should not have seen had 
I gone away in an hour or two; but why I stayed so 
long was that I hoped to see this great bottle-nosed 
seal lie upon the seaweed-covered rocks at low water, 
as I had seen him do once before. For some reason 
or other, however—I doubt not there is a good one— 
there has been no such low tide since that day ; the 
seaweed has but just shown for a little, and the great 
creature, who could hardly have lain there, has not 
lain anywhere else—not, at least, in this cove which he 
