260 THE BIRD WATCHER 
drift, thus, mostly bed downwards, but will roll to 
either side or even round on to the back, not lying 
horizontally, however, but aslant, with all except their 
head, or rather face, sunk down in the water, just 
like a sack of something, quite enough asleep to 
seem dead; in fact, as much as possible they make 
the seaa rock. Delicious they look, thus idly swayed 
about with the play of the waves—drawn this way and 
that, sucked down and then back again; mixed up 
with a tangle of seaweed. An amateur watcher of 
seals feels inclined to wonder what they ever do 
except sleep, or try to sleep. Great sleepers they 
certainly seem to be, and this is the daytime. Are 
they, then, nocturnal? The carnivorous land animals 
from whom they are descended probably were so. 
