138 COMMON SEAL. 



net, and are taken.* The author of the manuscript 

 already quoted states, that " the Seal-fishing in the 

 sea commences in autumn, and is practised by 

 means of nets stretched across narrow sounds be- 

 twixt rocks where the Seals are in use to swim. In 

 these the Seals entangle themselves, and are taken 

 out either by boat, or, in those cases in which the 

 net is left dry, by persons on foot. It is, however, 

 the young ones only that are caught in this way, 

 and that only during a month or two in autumn. 

 In fact, the Seals display considerable ingenuity in 

 evading the net, sometimes creeping out at the bot- 

 tom, or jumping over it at the surface." 



View of Zetland, vol. ii. p. 292 



