SEAL -SHOOTING. 87 



uninitiated may have a dozen ranged at no great 

 distance, yet never perceive one. The smallest 

 suspicious object, however, at once arrests the at- 

 tention of an experienced seal-shooter, and he in- 

 stantly fixes the glass to watch for a curve of the 

 tail or a bend of the head. Like wildfowl and 

 deer, when you detect the prey before you are 

 yourself perceived, success is half attained ; but 

 this far sight and keenness of eye can only be 

 arrived at by long use, and is one of the brightest 

 feathers of the hunter's cap. 



A reef of rocks near the head of Loch-na-Gaul, 

 although completely submerged at high tide, begins 

 to show itself at quarter ebb, and at low water 

 they expand into considerable islets. This group 

 is the favourite drying ground of seals in summer, 

 and the nursery where they rear their young. 

 Every calm, hot day, when the islets are left bare 

 and quiet, the large heads of the female seals, each 

 followed by a little head, oftener by a pair no 

 bigger than cricket-balls, float about the tiny bays, 

 while the old males sun themselves luxuriously on 

 the shelving rocks. Whenever this dry sunny 

 weather prevented salmon-fishing in Loch Baa, the 



