SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITLSH SEAS. 



37 



been once fired at, then they would tumble one over the other into the sea in 

 the utmost confusion ; and if we did not at the first discharge kill those we 

 fired at, we generally lost them, though mortally wounded. They do not 

 appear to us to be that dangerous animal some authors have described ; not 

 even when attacked. They are rather more so to appearance than in reality. 

 Vast numbers of them would follow and come close up to the boats, but the 



Fig. 8. Vacca marina (reduced from Gesner). 



flash of a musquet in the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, would 

 send them down in an instant. The female will defend the young one to 

 the very last, and at the expense of her own life, whether in the water 

 or upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, though she be dead ; 

 so that if you kill one you are sure of the other. The dam, when in the 



