94 SEAL -SHOOTING. 



in Garmony wood, we had plenty time to be at the 

 seal again by the turn of the tide. After launch- 

 ing the skiff and placing a shepherd to direct our 

 course from the shore, my son, the grieve, and I 

 endeavoured to find the resting-stone, now con- 

 founded with several others ; but an unfortunate 

 breeze so obscured and hindered the search, that 

 we had gone round and over the white mark three 

 times before my son called out, " I see him." With 

 difficulty backing the boat so as to keep sight of 

 the creature for the few seconds required to cast 

 off my coat and shoes, I plunged into the sea, and 

 at the first dive caught hold of the hind flippers 

 and raised it to the boat-side. Had we been pro- 

 vided with our seal-grappling apparatus (left at 

 Glenforsa), from the roughness of the water and 

 the strength of the wind, the task would have 

 been both more lengthy and precarious. This seal 

 was a female between 7 and 8 stones weight. 



Late in the season, when the colder days had 

 thinned the Loch-na-Gaul rocks of their flounder- 

 ing visitants, my eldest son, who had been absent 

 all the seal season, and was anxious to bag one, 

 had the fishing-coble again transplanted for a day 



