WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



easily breaks through the strongest twine if he can find no 

 outlet. From the shore opposite Cromarty I one day saw a 

 large seal swim into the stake-nets and take out a salmon, 

 with which he retired to a small rock above the water, and 

 there devoured it entirely in a very short space of time. 



Sometimes at high-water and when the river is swollen 

 a seal comes in pursuit of salmon into the Findhorn, not- 

 withstanding the smallness of the stream and its rapidity. 

 I was one day, in November, looking for wild ducks near 

 the river, when I was called to by a man who was at work 

 near the water, and who told me that some "muckle beast" 

 wasplayingmost extraordinary tricks intheriver.He could 

 not tell me what beast it was, but only that it was some- 

 thing "no that canny."Afterwaiting a short time, the riddle 

 was solved by the appearance of a good-sized seal, into 

 whose head I instantly sent a cartridge, having no balls 

 with me. The seal immediatelyplunged and splashedabout 

 in the water at a most furious rate, and then began swim- 

 ming round and round in a circle, upon which I gave him 

 the other barrel, also loaded with one of Eley's cartridges, 

 which quite settled the business, and he floated rapidly 

 away down the stream. I sent my retriever after him, but 

 the dog, being very young and not come to his full strength, 

 was baffled by the weight of the animal and the strength 

 of the current, and could not land him; indeed, he was very 

 near getting drowned himself, in consequence of his at- 

 tempts to bring in the seal, who was still struggling. I called 

 the dog away, and the seal immediately sank. The next 

 day I found him dead on the shore of the bay, with (as the 

 man who skinned him expressed himself) "twenty-three 



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