IN THE SHETLANDS 377 
too rough for seals may be too rough for a boat, and 
that therefore they are not often seen by sportsmen on 
the rocks, except during fair weather. 
Were the sea always rough seals would hardly ever 
be interfered with, and so for their sakes I wish it 
were. They are absolutely harmless creatures— 
though some, perhaps, would grudge them their 
dinner—most interesting and lovable, incapable of 
defence or retaliation, and of little value when 
slaughtered. The chase of babies, since it would 
involve the excitement of breaking into houses, and 
stealing cautiously upstairs, ought to be as interesting 
to sportsmen, and no doubt it would be were public 
Opinion in that respect to undergo a change. How- 
ever, though the carcase is, as I have said—for I have 
been told so here—of little value, I suppose it is of 
some, so that a poor fisherman has, at least, an under- 
standable motive in putting them to death, nor can he 
be expected to feel an interest in anything that really 
is of interest concerning them. But that an educated 
man should ever wish to kill seals, being not moved 
to it by gain, but as a pleasure merely, and from 
a love of glory, seems to me now like a madness, 
though as it is a madness which I have myself felt,’ 
I ought to be able to understand it. Yet I doubt if 
I can now—so curiously has something gone out of 
me and something else come into me. 
One other remark of Dr. Edmondstone in relation 
to the rock-seeking habits of seals is at variance with 
1 Praised be the Lord, however, I have fired but one shot, and that missed. 
2B2 
