378 THE BIRD WATCHER 
what I observed "ee? two little bays. He says, 
“The favourite rocks on which they rest are almost 
always observed to have deep water round them, are 
comparatively clear from seaweed, and under water 
at full tide.” Now, the favourite rock on which my 
seals rested rose to, perhaps, a dozen feet above high 
tide before it became unscalable, and, to that height, 
it was regularly ascended by some or other of its 
occupants. In other respects it conformed to the 
requirements stated, for the water round it was fairly 
deep, and above the high-water line—where alone the 
seals lay—it was entirely bare of seaweed. Other 
rocks, however, which were habitually resorted to, 
were by no means so, and many of these were right 
in shore, where the water was anything but deep, 
though sufficiently so for the seals to swim at once, 
when they cast themselves off. The rock where the 
great seal always lay was a mass of seaweed, and | 
have mentioned having seen the common ones both 
play with, and help pull themselves up by, the long 
brown kind. I cannot help thinking, therefore, that 
seals do not exercise much choice in any of these 
respects, but are governed more by circumstances, 
selecting rocks which, on the whole, they find con- 
venient, and which may be now of one kind, and 
now another. As, however, rocks which are never 
submerged are, when accessible at all, always so, these 
ought, one would think, to possess a great advantage, 
supposing the seals to have no prejudices in this 
respect. I do not, myself, believe that they have, 
