SPORT OF BUTE. 133 



heard in calm weather more than a mile off, while 

 the white foam caused by their fall in the sea can 

 be distinguished at double that distance. Fre- 

 quently, in my walks or shooting excursions along 

 the shores of the island, I see more than a hun- 

 dred of these creatures rolling, splashing, or 

 springing clear of the sea like fresh-run salmon. 



A solitary grey seal has for some years fre- 

 quented the rocks above Ettrick Bay. The old 

 hermit shows himself when the bag-nets proclaim 

 the annual influx of salmon to the bay, and 

 cruises about the coast so long as the fish remain. 

 Last year " the grey sealch " was seldom out of 

 the shallow water, and my watcher was always 

 reminding me to bring my rifle barrels espe- 

 cially when the weather was warm and calm. 

 One day, when shooting on Glenmore and Ettrick 

 side, he would fain have changed my gun into a 

 rifle, for the seal had been so bold that morning 

 as to prevent his wife from filling her pitcher at 

 the spring. " The beast," quoth she, pathetically, 

 " pat up its awfu' coorse head close to me an' the 

 bairns I was feerd it wad come ashore an' tak' 

 ane o' them awa." 



