92 SEAL -SHOOTING. 



The reaching of them when they felt so secure, 

 and the smell of their comrades' blood, made the 

 phoca troop shy of their rocks for some time. 

 Before they again dared risk the pleasure of a 

 bask, copious rain enticed us back to Loch Baa 

 and the salmon, and it was the beginning of 

 August ere I had another opportunity at seals. 



The Garmony farmer had complained of a deer 

 injuring his ripening crops, so to please him we 

 came over to Scalastal for a range of Garmony 

 wood. After an early breakfast the shepherds and 

 dogs were sent forward to the further end of the 

 covert, and I was loading my rifle and about to 

 follow, when one of them ran back to tell us that 

 a seal was resting on a submerged stone in the 

 sound, opposite the farm gate. He had detained 

 the deer hunt until he knew whether the rival 

 claimant for the contents of my rifle would be first 

 honoured. My son and the grieve went to recon- 

 noitre, and reported that the seal was more than 

 200 yards from the gate. The stone was some 3 

 feet under water, and the creature, by resting its 

 hind flippers on this platform, was standing up- 

 right in the sea, the head presenting even less of 



